The return of bumper crowds
RECORD ATTENDANCES
The click of the turnstiles. The wafting scents of a burger van. The hubbub of a crowd. Oh, how we’ve missed you so.
Back in March 2020, perhaps we all took that experience for granted. Not since the Second World War had the matchday ritual been interrupted, and few foresaw a reason why it ever would be again. Then the world changed, and football grounds closed.
Last season set attendance records that may never be broken... but for all the wrong reasons. The Premier League’s average turnout was just 461 – a figure that would have been even lower, had crowds of up to 10,000 not been allowed in for the final two matchdays in May. Liverpool, situated in one of the regions permitted to briefly welcome 2,000 fans in December, topped the charts with a season average of 837.
In the EFL, the surprise attendance leaders were League Two Carlisle, who had four home fixtures during that December amnesty, plus a 1,000- capacity test event in September. Their average crowd for the campaign was
IN SCOTLAND’S TOP FLIGHT, THE AVERAGE CROWD WAS JUST THREE
391, dwarfing the League Two figure of 78 – itself still higher than the Championship average of 56, and 47 for League One.
In the Scottish Premiership, the average crowd, incredibly, was three – Aberdeen and Ross County each hosted 300 fans during test events, while 50 ghostly souls were registered for St Mirren vs Livingston.
Fans across the UK were able to watch their teams play on television or ifollow, but it just wasn’t the same. No community, no atmosphere. Fake crowd noise might just haunt us all for a little while longer yet.
For 33 EFL clubs, however, August will mark their first home game with fans for 17 months. In Brentford and AFC Wimbledon’s cases, fans may be able to fill – or even visit – their new stadiums for the first time.
After so many supporters were deprived of the matchday experience for so long, this time attendances could break records for all the right reasons. Euro 2020 showed what sort of atmosphere crowds like that might produce, such is the enthusiasm about this grand return to grounds.
Football is nothing without fans – a phrase that’s been uttered so often in recent times. But it’s just true. Finally, they’re back baby.