The Premier league season opened with London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea "packing their stadiums with barely a seat in the stadium free," according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. But the league as a whole was on average "down on opening day last season." With an average attendance of 94.14% across the Premier League, "opening day figures were down compared to the average" of 97.36% for round one of the '15-16 season. Across the 10 home games at the start of the '15-16 season just 6,878 seats "were left unfilled." This compared to 16,116 unfilled seats this weekend. The "three Premier League new boys brought up the bottom of the table with a combined 10,105 unfilled seats between them." Hull City, which has "struggled with the preparation for the season with no permanent manager and endless talk over the sale of the club, had a worrying 4,563 empty seats." Arsenal and Chelsea "topped the attendance table with over 99% of their stadia capacity filled." Neither team kicked off at the 3pm Saturday time, and "both clubs had their matches televised live." Eight teams "filled over 90% of their capacity, with six of them over 95%" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 8/16).
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| Source: Inside World Football |
