Attendance in La Liga has been a "point of concern" for the Spanish Football League (LFP) over the past several years, as the economic crisis "continues to tighten" its "stranglehold on the pocketbooks of Spanish football fans," according to Tom Conn of INSIDE SPANISH FOOTBALL. Despite promises from LFP President Javier Tebas prior to the start of the season that "attendance for the first round would see a 3%-4% rise in attendance, in reality, it was only 1.1%," according to Sphera Sports' attendance data. The report found that the "average attendance of Primera Division stadia registered an attendance of 70.8% capacity, just 1.1% more than last season," with only eight matches at full capacity, including five at Athletic Bilbao’s New San Mames stadium (INSIDE SPANISH FOOTBALL, 1/16).
Top 10 Average Crowds From First Half Of '13-14 La Liga Season
|
| CLUB |
CAPACITY
|
AVERAGE
ATTENDANCE
|
|
PERCENTAGE OF
CAPACITY |
| Athletic Bilbao |
36,651 |
36,245
|
|
98.9 |
Real Madrid
|
80,000 |
72,834 |
|
91 |
| Atlético Madrid |
54,581 |
45,360 |
|
83.1 |
Real Sociedad
|
32,000 |
25,685 |
|
80.3 |
Barcelona
|
98,772 |
73,969 |
|
74.9 |
| Málaga |
29,500 |
21,829 |
|
74 |
| Osasuna |
19,800 |
13,616 |
|
68.8 |
| Valencia |
52,000 |
35,800 |
|
68.8 |
| Villarreal |
24,500 |
16,746 |
|
68.3 |
Sevilla
|
45,500 |
31,025 |
|
68.2 |
To see each La Liga team's attendance figures,
click here.
LFP IMPROVES ON '12-13: In Madrid, Abraham Romero reported the LFP, which also includes the Spanish second division, attracted a total of 6.4 million fans over the first half of the season, representing a 3.66% increase from the previous season's figures (AS, 1/16).
