Home crowds are 13th best
HULL City recorded the 13th-best home attendance in the Championship this season after a rollercoaster campaign came to an end on Monday with the Tigers drawing away at Luton Town.
City averaged 17,973 across their 23 Championship home outings, their highest average attendance in the second tier since the 2011-12 campaign, when just under 19,000 were regular visitors to the West Park arena.
The Tigers’ highest crowd came on April 1 when 23,432 watched Liam Rosenior’s men draw 0-0 with Rotherham, in the biggest league attendance since the final day of their Premier League campaign against Tottenham in 2017 - one of four successive 20,000-plus gates in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Sunderland attracted the biggest home crowds of the season, with 39,035 turning out at the Stadium of Light, followed by Sheffield United (28,746) with Norwich City third (26,069).
Owing to having the smallest ground in the Championship, play-off semifinalists Luton had the lowest (9,854) with Rotherham (10,515) and Wigan (12,210) completing the bottom three.
City also slotted into 13th when it came to their away followings, averaging 1,319 on the road across their 23 outings, despite not seeing their side win in the final 10 away games.
The Tigers’ highest away following came at Sheffield United in January, when the sold-out contingent of 2,700 made the journey for a narrow 1-0 reverse, while the lowest following saw 150 supporters make the journey to South Wales in September for the game against Swansea City.
That game kicked off at 12pm and was broadcast live on Sky Sports, with many Tigers fans expressing their frustration at the change in kick-off time for such a long distance.
Sunderland topped the away charts with an average of 2,650 followed by Burnley with 2,213 and Boro third with 2,073. Reading (894), Millwall 1,058) and Blackpool 1,066) had the smallest average travelling contingent.
City’s away numbers in the second half of the campaign received a welcome boost courtesy of Acun Ilicali’s free travel offer for the ten remaining games - Stoke City, Norwich, City, Bristol City, Coventry City, Reading, Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, Millwall, Middlesbrough and Luton Town.
Ilicali’s generous offer came on the back of the Tigers owner providing free travel to QPR in late August, plus the back-to-back wins at Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic over Christmas.