Just How Full Are Premier League Stadiums?

By: Daryl | March 27th, 2008

Toon Army, 3rd best attenders

Over at EPL Talk, they’ve been calculating attendances in the 2007/8 Premier League so far, and published this list ranking each club’s average attendance 1 to 20. Unsurprisingly, Manchester United had the highest average attendance (75,638) because they have the biggest stadium. Arsenal had the second highest (60,062) as they have the second biggest stadium. It’s a long way from rocket science.

So EPL Talk went back and calculated what those average attendances are as a percentage of each team’s stadium capacity. Still not rocket science maybe, but makes for excellent reading and a nice little insight into just how full each stadium is each week. The stats are below:

Team names and average attendances are in bold, followed by the stadium’s capacity (in brackets) and exactly how full each stadium is as a percentage.

1. Arsenal , Emirates Stadium, 60,062 (60,432) 99.39%
2. Man United , Old Trafford, 75,638 (76,212) 99.25%
3. Tottenham , White Hart Lane, 35,931 (36,247) 99.13%
4. West Ham , Boleyn Ground, 34,616 (35,089) 98.65%
5. Chelsea, Stamford Bridge, 41,499 (42,449) 97.76%
6. Newcastle, St. James’s Park, 51,122 (52,387) 97.59%
7. Reading, Madejski Stadium, 23,469 (24,200) 96.98%
8. Portsmouth, Fratton Park, 19,999 (20,600) 96.67%
9. Derby, Pride Park, 32,270 (33,597) 96.05%
10. Liverpool, Anfield, 43,529 (45,362) 95.95%
11. Aston Villa, Villa Park, 39,848 (42,719) 93.28%
12. Fulham, Craven Cottage, 23,503 (25,600) 91.81%
13. Everton, Goodison Park, 36,766 (40,170) 91.53%
14. Manchester City, Eastlands, 42,069 (47,300) 88.94%
15. Birmingham City, St. Andrews, 26,176 (30,009) 87.23%
16. Sunderland, Stadium of Light, 42,546 (49,000) 86.83%
17. Middlesbrough, Riverside, 26,401 (35,049) 75.33%
18. Wigan, JJB Stadium, 18,740 (25,023) 74.89%
19. Blackburn Rovers, Ewood Park, 23,369 (31,367) 74.50%
20. Bolton, Reebok Stadium, 20,412 (27,879) 73.22%

Arsenal replace Man Utd at the top but we’re talking about a difference of 0.14%, so nothing for Gunners fans to get too excited about. What’s impressive is that the top 10 teams all fill 95% of their stadiums on a regular basis.

With Premiership tickets costing a small fortune, that’s pretty impressive. But also a little scary. It’s probably this sort of data that leads to someone in the boardroom saying “let’s raise ticket prices again, they’ll still keep coming.”

Looking at the numbers you could also argue that several of those teams could handle a nice stadium expansion. Especially a team like Portsmouth, with Fratton Park only holding about 20,000. On the other hand Middlesbrough, Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton are less than 80% full. They could literally lose 20% of their ground and not notice the difference.

Newcastle’s figures (they have the third highest actual attendance behind Man Utd and Arsenal) prove that even some horrible horrible football and a dreadful run of results can’t keep the Toon Army away. And respect to Derby fans for making the most of this season in the Premiership, even if the team aren’t doing the same.