SPFL Premiership Attendance Boost

The inaugural SPFL Premiership came to a close over the Weekend and its been quite pleasing to note that 8 of the 12 clubs have boasted an increase in Attendances and of the 4 clubs that have had a decrease, there's explainable reasoning to see why they've had a drop off.


Aberdeen had the biggest improvement, they recorded an average attendance boost of 3,501 per game compared to last Season
Partick Thistle had the second biggest boost of almost 1,400 added to their average gate although that's mainly down to being Promoted to the Premiership this Season


The four Clubs who posted drops in their average attendance are as Follows...Ross County lost an average of 637 per game, Inverness C.T posted a drop of 436 per game, Kilmarnock dropped 396 fans per game and Motherwell saw an average drop of 187 per game.




So what exactly is the Reasoning behind these drops then?


Lets start with Ross County, in 2012-13 it was County's first year ever in the top tier of Scottish Football, that in itself was always going to create a boost in attendances, both for fans of Home clubs and fans of long time top tier clubs who hadn't had the pleasure of experiencing an away day in Dingwall, however there is something slightly more obvious as well to explain the drop, Ross County's two biggest fixtures are Highland Rivals Inverness Caley Thistle and Champions Celtic, in 2012-13 they had 2 Home League games against ICT and 3 Home fixtures against Celtic, in 2013-14 while the club still had 2 Home games against ICT, it only had the one Home fixture against Celtic which lost them around 6,000 fans.


Inverness faced a similar situation, in 2012-13 they had 2 Home games against Ross County (their first Highland Derbies in years) and 2 Home games against Celtic, this Season however they only had the opportunity to face each club once at Home which probably cost them around 4,500 fans...Interestingly enough their "Non Ross County/Celtic" Attendance rose from 3,462 in 2012-13 to 3,864 in 2013-14


Kilmarnock posted a drop of 396 fans per game, a drop is never good news but its quite impressive when you consider that a large section of their fans have been boycotting throughout the Season as a way of opposing chairman Michael Johnston, it's not too hard to imagine that if the fans and club can find some unity then the fans will go back to Rugby Park


Motherwell don't show much change, if anything they've probably grown as a support although admittedly only slightly, they've posted a drop in average of 187 per game, again though this has more to do with the amount of Celtic games they've had at Fir Park, in 2012-13 they had 3 Home fixtures against the Champions of Scotland while in 2013-14 they had the more traditional two home games... their average "Non Celtic Attendance" rose from 4,702 in 12-13 to 4,807 in 13-14




Other Notable Attendance Stats:


Dundee Utd as expected posted an attendance boost from the Previous Season although on first viewing it might appear modest, an average increase of only 53 per game, however it should be noted that this increase was in spite of the loss of Dundee Utd's biggest fixture, the Dundee Derby, more telling on how they've improved is the increase in the "Non Dundee/Celtic Attendance"...... in 2012-13 their Non Dundee/Celtic gate rose from 6,659  while in 2013-14 the non Celtic gate was 7,222 which on average is an increase of 663 per game.


Hibernian posted an increase on their average Attendance from last Season which is quite remarkable when you consider they've been the worst team in the Division almost all Season, overall their Average is up but their non Hearts/Celtic attendance is down which is probably more telling. An average of 538 fans per game went to Easter Road over the course of the Season, the non Hearts/Celtic attendance dropped by 377 per game.