The Covid still lingering around, on this occasion, it didn’t deter fans from attending matches over the weekend, with crowds up overall in each division compared to the average for the 2019/20 season.
Data gathered by the PA news agency shows that there is a modest increases in the third and fourth tiers of English football, though there was a drop at Championship level.
On the first weekend of the season, an there was an average attendance in League One which was up by almost 1,000 overall compared to the average among the weekend’s home clubs in 2019/20 – 11,200 compared to 10,319.
The total number of fans in the grounds in League Two was up by more than 500, which was 4,595 compared to 4,026. That figure excluded Harrogate and Hartlepool, who were in the National League in 2019/20.
The figures will be a boost to lower league clubs, who generally depend more heavily on matchday revenue than those in the Premier League and the Championship and were therefore hit hardest by being forced to play the entire season behind closed doors in some cases last term.
The average second-tier attendance in the first round of Championship games was 16,294, 1,437 lower than the combined average for the clubs playing at home in the 2019/20 season.
We continue our look at every attendance of the weekend. This was the top attendance for League One…
1) Sheffield Wednesday v Doncaster Rovers – 24,738
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The rest of the weekend’s League One attendances…
2) Portsmouth v Crewe Alexandra – 11,470
3) Plymouth Argyle v Gillingham – 10,864
4) Wigan Athletic v Rotherham United – 10,217
5) Milton Keynes Dons v Sunderland – 9,830
6) Oxford United v Charlton Athletic – 8,440
7) Lincoln City v Fleetwood Town – 8,241
8) Cheltenham Town v Wycombe Wanderers – 3,860
9) Morecambe v Shrewsbury Town – 3,772
10) Burton Albion v Ipswich Town – 3,766
11) Accrington Stanley v Cambridge United – 2,077
-) AFC Wimbledon v Bolton Wanderers – TBC
Clarke says the FSA membership has a broad range of opinions on whether vaccine passports is something that should get the green light, but adds the most important thing is a clear, rational approach.
“Speaking to the leagues, I get the impression they are a little bit frustrated that there hasn’t been central guidance on this on what measures are appropriate,” he said.
“The result of that is that local safety advisory groups, advised by their local directors of public health, seem to be taking some different views in different areas. Where that’s justified by higher infection rates, that’s fully understandable and you might expect the measures taken are a bit more stringent. But where it’s not, it feels a bit arbitrary.
“If fans feel that a decision to do a particular procedure at a ground that isn’t being done at a different ground can’t be explained by infection rates then they’re likely to get a bit annoyed and frustrated by it.
“The key message from us is for all the Cs – clear communication and consultation about how it works in practice. If clubs do that I think fans will understand. It’s a problem for all of us, and we’re all on the same page.”
Take a look at the League Two attendances on the next page…
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