Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
Lots of comments have been made on here about the effect midday kickoffs have had on attendances this season, so I thought I'd have a look at the data. A quick note about the data used - I've used figures on worldfootball.net for average attendance figures from 2023/24 and 2024/25, so hopefully that is free of errors. I have only included the 18 clubs that took part in both last and this season's Championship, so there are no discrepancies due to relegation or promotion.
Of the 18 teams in this season's Championship that were also there last season:
Average crowds are down by a total of exactly 9,000, or an average of 500 per team. This equates to a 2.9% drop in attendances.
7 of those 18 sides have seen crowds rise. Coventry City have had the greatest increase, up almost 1.5k from last season. Second comes Watford, with a more modest increase of 642. In fact, excluding Coventry's increase in attendance, the average increase of the other 6 clubs is a mere 338. All 3 sides promoted from League 1 have seen crowds increaseby around 2k on average, but are not included in this analysis.
That leaves 11 out of 18 sides that have seen crowds fall. Stoke have had the smallest drop, with crowds falling by an average of 11, while QPR represent the other end of the scale, losing around 3.5k.
Cardiff, Stoke and Coventry have had the most home games on a Saturday lunchtime or Friday evening so far this season with 4. Our crowd has dropped by 2k while Coventry's has gone up by 1.5k
Here's a list of the number of matches moved to a Saturday lunchtime or Friday evening and average crowd of those sides:
4 times - average crowd drop of -181 (-1.2%)
3 times - average crowd drop of -885 (-5%)
2 times - average crowd drop of -423 (-2.2%)
1 time - average crowd rise of 620 (+2.6%)
0 times - average crowd drop of -1264 (-7.6%)
The word anomaly was one of the buzz words on here yesterday and I suppose trying to figure out what is anomaly and what isn't is key here.
3 sides have had 4 fixtures moved; us, Stoke and Coventry. Our average crowd has gone down by 2000, Coventry's has gone up by nearly 1,500.
5 sides have had 3 fixtures moved; Leeds crowd has gone up slightly, 3 have seen theirs go down slightly while QPR's huge crowd drop is arguably the main reason for the large drop figure here.
Only one side hasn't had a home fixture moved to a Saturday lunchtime or Friday evening - Swansea. Their crowd has gone down by a sizeable percentage, that's with having played us in their cup final as well. It's worth noting that they had 20,174 when we grabbed a point there - they're averaging 14,499 for their other 6 league matches and none of them have been moved to the alleged worst times.
Lastly, I've had a look at attendances and any relation with league positions, current and last season.
The three teams that finished in the top 6 last season have all seen crowds rise. 3 of the other 4 sides that have seen crowds rise have sides currently in a higher position in the league than they were last season. This season, sides in the bottom 6 have seen an average drop in crowds of 9%. There is more data available for anyone interested enough.
While I wouldn't say that more lunchtime kickoffs haven't had an impact on crowds, the data suggests that league position has a far greater impact.