Have our home crowds been disappointing?

[The Lone Gunman]

During a discussion about City’s attendances before Christmas, a few people suggested the crowds for our League One games at the CCS would be likely to increase significantly in the new year provided the team stayed at the top of the table, but that hasn’t happened so far.

The official attendances for our five home games in 2026 have been as follows:

18,174 v Wigan
19,684 v Stockport
17,841 v Barnsley
19,524 v Luton
18,028 v Wimbledon

While those crowds are not terrible by any means, I think they’ve been disappointing considering the quality of the football the team has been producing and the fact that we’re top of the table on a long unbeaten run, not to mention the popularity of the manager and the local youngsters. Despite all the positivity surrounding the club this season, we’ve only had four league attendances that have topped the 20,000 mark (Plymouth, Bradford, Reading and Exeter), which I’ve found surprising.

I’m also surprised that City are still only ranked third in the League One attendance averages behind Bolton and Bradford, and that situation has shown no sign of changing.

For instance, on Tuesday evening, the official attendance for the Wimbledon game at the CCS was 18,028, which included 889 away fans. Meanwhile, the crowd at Valley Parade for the Bradford v Stockport match was 22,488, including 2,094 away supporters. So, 17,139 City fans turned up (or at least bought tickets) for our game, while 20,394 Bradford supporters showed up (or at least bought tickets) for theirs - a total of 3,255 more.

The top three average attendances for League One during each of the last five seasons were and are as follows (the clubs’ eventual or current positions are in brackets):

2021/22

30,847 - Sunderland (5th)
22,470 - Sheffield Wednesday (4th)
21,779 - Ipswich Town (11th)

2022/23

27,579 - Derby County (7th)
26,184 - Ipswich Town (2nd)
25,378 - Sheffield Wednesday (3rd)

2023/24

27,278 - Derby County (2nd)
21,022 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
18,953 - Portsmouth (1st)

2024/25

26,717 - Birmingham City (1st)
21,235 - Bolton Wanderers (8th)
18,815 - Huddersfield Town (10th)

2025/26

21,574 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
20,719 - Bradford City (4th)
19,070 - Cardiff City (1st)

We have six home matches left - Lincoln, Wycombe, Blackpool, Port Vale, Bolton and Northampton. The Lincoln and Bolton games should hopefully attract decent crowds, but given the evidence so far, I’ll be surprised if our average moves ahead of either Bolton or Bradford’s before the end of the season. And whatever happens, we’re definitely not going to come anywhere near some of the previous top League One averages listed above.

(As regards the Lincoln game, I was reading a few minutes ago that they have sold around 1,500 tickets after two days of restricted sales, and their remaining tickets go on sale today.)

[blue matt]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I booked seats in the front of the grandstand for Tuesdays night game, our normal seats were taken, so thought, oh look, 2 seats together in the grandstand, that'll do
the whole row was sold ( I guess ST's ) and we were the only 2 sat in that row all game

it was cold, miserably and wet, cant blame people for thinking " nah, night in tonight " but they had paid for the seats, why not pass them on ? ?

[TheBirchgrovePub]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I don't think we'll feel the benefits of the things you mentioned ie youngsters, good football etc until we are knocking on the door in the Championship, which tends to get fans interested. I'd imagine most that hadn't been down much pre Christmas won't have gone out their way for Stockport, Luton, Barnsley, Luton and Wimbledon really, rightly or wrongly. I can see a crowd that tops 20k for Lincoln and Bolton, then for the final game if we are lifting the trophy it will probably be 25k+.

I feel walk up crowds are probably feeling the cost of living a little bit - £32 a game at times is a lot in the moment when you add in food, travel, couple of beers or other elements if taking kids. I couldn't afford that, especially if I was taking my children. I seem to remember us doing flexi tickets of 6 tickets for £100 odd - a great idea for those who can't commit to a season ticket for financial reasons or otherwise but that seems to have gone. The club should be doing more as the season ticket prices are great but the match to match prices are poor and not great for walk up crowds.

[olderblue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Bolton have been very consistent with attendances, I’m sure Bradford have offered cheap ST’s however it’s still impressive
There’s probably a number of factors involved why we haven’t seen better attendances including in no particular order
No real local derby
Championship teams have traditionally larger away following
General dissatisfaction with the way the club has performed over the past few years
Streaming
Casual fans will always pick and choose, but as the Chelsea game showed, will turn up to watch if the match is attractive
12.30KO times has an impact with parents taking kids to play Saturday morning, although if it was Liverpool at home I don’t think it would be such a problem?


I’d like to think if we were playing successfully in the Championship next season we would see a marked improvement

I’m not sure I’ve covered it all, but in all my years of following the City, this has to be the most exciting and impressive performance from the team that I can genuinely remember, the fact that the squad has so many local lads in as well should really make a difference
and as surprised as you that we haven’t topped 20K more this season

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I’m not sure I’ve covered it all, but in all my years of following the City, this has to be the most exciting and impressive performance from the team that I can genuinely remember, the fact that the squad has so many local lads in as well should really make a difference and as surprised as you that we haven’t topped 20K more this season

The four League One games that have seen 20,000+ attendances have been as follows:

21,823 v Plymouth (18,791 home, 3,032 away)
22,132 v Bradford (20,045 home, 2,087 away)
20,363 v Reading (18,065 home, 2,298 away)
22,291 v Exeter (20,722 home, 1,569 away)

So, in fact, we’ve only seen 20,000+ tickets sold to City fans for two League One games this season, and one of those was on Boxing Day. When you consider that 20,394 tickets were sold to Bradford fans for Tuesday night's game against Stockport, our ticket sales have been a bit disappointing, or at least I think so.

Despite a 12:30 kick-off time, I’m hopeful that we’ll sell 20,000+ tickets to City fans for the upcoming Lincoln game. The Bradford match in September was a clash between the top two sides in the division and we sold just over 20,000 home tickets for that one, so we should do the same for Lincoln.

[Former Labour leader]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I'd been thinking exactly the same about our attendances. I certainly expected them to pick up post Xmas, but they haven't have yet.
I think it's likely to be a general disillusionment of our performances over last few years and the quality of the opposition that we have been facing. With due respect Stevenage, Doncaster and Wimbledon are hardly likely to get the juices flowing.
Having said that, our position in the league and the quality of our football deserve far better support and it is disappointing this has not been forthcoming.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

During a discussion about City’s attendances before Christmas, a few people suggested the crowds for our League One games at the CCS would be likely to increase significantly in the new year provided the team stayed at the top of the table, but that hasn’t happened so far.

The official attendances for our five home games in 2026 have been as follows:

18,174 v Wigan
19,684 v Stockport
17,841 v Barnsley
19,524 v Luton
18,028 v Wimbledon

While those crowds are not terrible by any means, I think they’ve been disappointing considering the quality of the football the team has been producing and the fact that we’re top of the table on a long unbeaten run, not to mention the popularity of the manager and the local youngsters. Despite all the positivity surrounding the club this season, we’ve only had four league attendances that have topped the 20,000 mark (Plymouth, Bradford, Reading and Exeter), which I’ve found surprising.

I’m also surprised that City are still only ranked third in the League One attendance averages behind Bolton and Bradford, and that situation has shown no sign of changing.

For instance, on Tuesday evening, the official attendance for the Wimbledon game at the CCS was 18,028, which included 889 away fans. Meanwhile, the crowd at Valley Parade for the Bradford v Stockport match was 22,488, including 2,094 away supporters. So, 17,139 City fans turned up (or at least bought tickets) for our game, while 20,394 Bradford supporters showed up (or at least bought tickets) for theirs - a total of 3,255 more.

The top three average attendances for League One during each of the last five seasons were and are as follows (the clubs’ eventual or current positions are in brackets):

2021/22

30,847 - Sunderland (5th)
22,470 - Sheffield Wednesday (4th)
21,779 - Ipswich Town (11th)

2022/23

27,579 - Derby County (7th)
26,184 - Ipswich Town (2nd)
25,378 - Sheffield Wednesday (3rd)

2023/24

27,278 - Derby County (2nd)
21,022 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
18,953 - Portsmouth (1st)

2024/25

26,717 - Birmingham City (1st)
21,235 - Bolton Wanderers (8th)
18,815 - Huddersfield Town (10th)

2025/26

21,574 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
20,719 - Bradford City (4th)
19,070 - Cardiff City (1st)

We have six home matches left - Lincoln, Wycombe, Blackpool, Port Vale, Bolton and Northampton. The Lincoln and Bolton games should hopefully attract decent crowds, but given the evidence so far, I’ll be surprised if our average moves ahead of either Bolton or Bradford’s before the end of the season. And whatever happens, we’re definitely not going to come anywhere near some of the previous top League One averages listed above.

(As regards the Lincoln game, I was reading a few minutes ago that they have sold around 1,500 tickets after two days of restricted sales, and their remaining tickets go on sale today.)

No, you'd have to be a sad buzzard to be disappointed because you won four-one, but the crowd wasn't massive

How was the game, love? Terrible, there weren't as many fans there as there were in 1927

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I booked seats in the front of the grandstand for Tuesdays night game, our normal seats were taken, so thought, oh look, 2 seats together in the grandstand, that'll do
the whole row was sold ( I guess ST's ) and we were the only 2 sat in that row all game

it was cold, miserably and wet, cant blame people for thinking " nah, night in tonight " but they had paid for the seats, why not pass them on ? ?

Streaming is the biggest killer; a lot of them would have been watching it at home.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I'd been thinking exactly the same about our attendances. I certainly expected them to pick up post Xmas, but they haven't have yet.
I think it's likely to be a general disillusionment of our performances over last few years and the quality of the opposition that we have been facing. With due respect Stevenage, Doncaster and Wimbledon are hardly likely to get the juices flowing.
Having said that, our position in the league and the quality of our football deserve far better support and it is disappointing this has not been forthcoming.

It will pick up when the weather improves, a lot of fans will come back to join in the joy of promotion and at the start of next season in the Championship.

The fairweather fans will be back, but who cares as long as we are all enjoying it?

[Hot Shot Hamish.]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think the fact that most of our games can be watched live on Sky is detrimental to increased crowds. The Tuesday night games generally in crap weather are easy to decide to watch at home, together with 12.30 kick off times on a Saturday are turning off the floating supporters.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Bolton have been very consistent with attendances, I’m sure Bradford have offered cheap ST’s however it’s still impressive
There’s probably a number of factors involved why we haven’t seen better attendances including in no particular order
No real local derby
Championship teams have traditionally larger away following
General dissatisfaction with the way the club has performed over the past few years
Streaming
Casual fans will always pick and choose, but as the Chelsea game showed, will turn up to watch if the match is attractive
12.30KO times has an impact with parents taking kids to play Saturday morning, although if it was Liverpool at home I don’t think it would be such a problem?


I’d like to think if we were playing successfully in the Championship next season we would see a marked improvement

I’m not sure I’ve covered it all, but in all my years of following the City, this has to be the most exciting and impressive performance from the team that I can genuinely remember, the fact that the squad has so many local lads in as well should really make a difference
and as surprised as you that we haven’t topped 20K more this season

How about the red shirt ones that said they would never come back again if Tan was here?

[fred keenor]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

£20 for a family of 4 in the family stand , don't think anyone can argue with those prices, shame the club don't advertise it more

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Bradford City aside who are we benchmarking our attendances against ? I reckon 95% of our support base has only seen two separate seasons of top flight football in their lives - in fact, even if you were to go back to my 1st season of following City, 1962/3, that would be just 2 seasons out of 63. All those teams mentioned - except Bradford, and Huddersfield with a lower average, have had between 24 and 40 years in the top flight during that period, and have grown their core fanbase. Our core base is around the 19000 to 21,000 but I'd expect that a 7 or 8 season spell in the top flight it would probably be around 24,000. Probably just 3k more but a significant jump if you apply those extra fans to this season's attendances.

[NYCBlue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Yes. I thought after Christmas there'd be a significant jump. And I thought that come March and April we'd be up to 25k.

The club should try a price drop for the run-in. The Lincoln game would have been be a great day to charge a tenner, I suppose that's too late now.

[goats]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think a lot of fans have been disillusioned with the last 5 years or so, mainly the 10,000 floaters. Yes we seem to have a great manager and exciting young squad etc but as of yet I just don’t think people are going to rock up mid winter to watch the likes of Wimbledon or Mansfield…..
In saying all that, if we stay where we are in the table and keep playing as we are I reckon a few 1000 of those floaters will come back for the last lot of home games if they aren’t on TV. Moreover, I think our core support for next season hopefully in the championship will be decent, much better than the last 5 years when many ST holders never showed up.