December 10 – Premier League attendances climbed back to familiar territory in match week 15, with stadiums operating at 97.55% capacity – almost exactly in line with the league’s season-long average of 97.57%. The rebound marks a sharp improvement on last week’s dip to 95.87%, but the underlying patterns remain unchanged: a competition split between consistently sold-out venues and a small cluster of clubs whose numbers continue to drag the leaguewide figure down.
While clubs such as Aston Villa (99.93%), Newcastle United (99.58%) and Everton (99.49%) again operated at near-perfect levels, others saw thousands of seats remain unclaimed, and not for the first time this season.
Fulham were the most prominent stragglers, with 2,306 empty seats at Craven Cottage, bringing their utilisation to 92.21%. With a reputation of having the most expensive season ticket in the league – that decision may be coming back to bite the owners as the stands continue their reputation as the lowest % capacity in the league.
Strugglers Wolves (94.66%) and Tottenham Hotspur (96.67%) also posted numbers below the week’s benchmark, continuing a pattern that has held since early autumn: where form has dipped, attendances have followed.
At the other end of the scale, Bournemouth filled 99.41% of the 11,307 seats at the Vitality Stadium. Manchester City posted 98.19%, with 964 vacant seats at the Etihad, keeping them broadly in line with their season trend.
Across the campaign so far, the league has offered a cumulative 6.36 million seats, with 6.22 million filled. The result is a season-to-date occupancy rate of 97.58%, underlining the Premier League’s entrenched ticket demand even amid scheduling congestion, winter conditions and varied on-pitch fortunes.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]