March 17 – The cancellation of England ‘s four professional league last weekend was a gift for the country’s non-league teams who in the eight tier on average saw a 90% increase in attendance figures as fans switched to watching local teams.
The Vanarama National League was the highest level of football played in the UK at the weekend. Research by OLBG’s Fans of the EPL found that in the six matches played, attendances were up by 15.5% from each side’s previous home attendances.
“Maidenhead experienced the biggest spike in numbers, with 1,662 coming to watch their home game against Stockport despite the Coronavirus outbreak – a 28.2% increase on their previous crowd of 1,296 four days previously,” say the researchers.
The BetVictor Northern Premier saw even bigger rises in attendances, increasing by 89.7%. The eighth tier of English football saw 4,653 people attend the four matches that took place – up from 2,452 from previous figures.
It was the visit of a Manchester side that saw the largest league attendance, South Shields v FC United of Manchester saw a huge crowd of 3,274 attend, a 117% increase from their previous figure of 1,508.
Lancaster City also saw a spike in their match against Witton Albion – an increase of 84.2% with 216 fans going up to 398.
For more information go to https://www.olbg.com/insights/fans-of-the-epl.
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