Crowds down in the Premier League as Newcastle and City fans stay away
Published: 25/08/2008
Crowds like for like down on last season as City and Newcastle fans stat away
Only four of the 17 sides who were in the Premier League last season saw their opening attendance of the new season exceed that of their opening fixture last season.
Middlesbrough saw the biggest increase with their crowd of 32,623 well up of their opening crowd of 25,058 from the previous season.
The next biggest increase was Fulham who got 25,276 for the visit of Arsenal - an increase of 4,174 from last season and just ahead of Wigan who increased 4,139, with a crowd of 18,139 versus Chelsea on Sunday lunchtime
The only other side to show an increase was Tottenham who showed a small increase of 384.
On the down side the biggest drops were Manchester City and Newcastle who both had really poor crowds. Newcastle got their lowest ever crowd at St James’s Park since the capacity was increased with only 47,711 turning out for the Bolton match last Saturday nearly 2,500 down on last season’s opening fixture and this on the back of an excellent away point at Old Trafford last Sunday.
But the biggest drop was at Eastlands when only 36,635 turned up to see Mark Hughes’s first home match in charge. It was the third lowest crowd ever for a PL match at the ground, and some 7,000 down on last seasons opener
The 10 other sides to have played ahead of Portsmouth’s opening home fixture tonight have also saw crowds down on last term.
In total for the 16 sides to have played at home this season the attendance figures have dropped 5,000 on last season.
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