We are the loyalest football supporters? Not in the Europa League apparently

Posted on March 6th, 2013 | 15 Comments |

St James' Park empty.
St James’ Park: A Europa League ghost town?
“♫ For we’re the loyalest football supporters, the world has ever had… ♫”

So goes the terrace chant much favoured by we Newcastle United fans. However as you can see below, the attendance figures for this season’s Europa League could be calling that proud boast into question.

As you can see below, Newcastle United’s home attendance figures for Europa League games have hardly been impressive, with an average of only 24,154 Geordies attending St James’ Park for the games. This makes us the least supported of any of the English clubs competing in this years competition, and only the sixth most supported of the teams in the last sixteen.

In the table below I have only included the attendances of the remaining 16 teams, as there would be 80 teams if I’d included all who have competed in the competition! This means that Liverpool aren’t in there as they were knocked out by Zenit St Petersburg in the last round, but they were one of the most well supported teams with an average of 40,929 shifty looking scallies showing up at Anfield for their five games, with the crafty Cockney’s of Chelsea and Tottenham also beating Newcastle in the teraace table with an average of 38,642 and 36,240 respectively. It should be added that Chelsea have only competed in one game in the more recent stages which might affect things somewhat, though this isnt the case with ‘Spurs and Liverpool.

So as you can see, Newcastle are only upper mid table mediocrities in the last 16 terrace table, with the mighty Steaua Bucharest topping it. They got with an average of no less than 45,086 Romanian ian bums on seats for their Europa League games.

Over the whole competition however, it was the Ajax who drew the biggest crowd of all, with 51,493 crazschy cloggies turning up at the Amsterdam Arena (the venue for the final) for their solitary home game after falling out of the Champions League. It was a 2-0 victory over the similarly well supported Bucharest, though Steaua had their revenge, adminstering a 6-2 beating to the Dutchmen in the return leg to go through handsomely.

Europa League Attendances (Last 16), 2012-13.
No. Club Games Stadium St Cap Av Att % Cap
1. Steaua Bucharest 4 National Arena 52,347 45,086 86.1%
2. Benfica 1 Estádio da Luz 65,647 40,000 60.9%
3. Chelsea 1 Stamford Bridge 41,837 38,642 92.4 %
4. Fenerbahçe 4 Şükrü Saraçoğlu 50,509 29,821 59.0%
5. Tottenham Hotspur 4 White Hart Lane 36,240 29,109 80.3%
6. Newcastle United 5 St James’ Park 52,404 24,154 46.1%
7. Internazionale 5 Giuseppe Meazza / San Siro 80,018 21,873 27.3%
8. Zenit St Petersburg 1 Petrovsky Stadium 21,570 21,000 97.4%
9. Vfb Stuttgart 5 Mercedes-Benz Arena 54,812 16,661 30.4%
10. Lazio 5 Stadio Olimpico di Roma 70,634 16,141 22.9%
11. Girondins de Bordeaux 5 Stade Jacques-Chaban-Delmas 34,462 16,136 46.8%
12. Levante 5 Ciutat de Valencia 25,534 15,080 59.1%
13. Basel 1893 4 St.Jakob-Park 38,512 12,662 32.9 %
14. Viktoria Plzeň 5 Doosan Arena 11,700 11,214 95.8%
15. Rubin Kazan 4 Zentralstadion Kazan 28,500 9,735 34.2%
16. *Anzhi Makhachkala 5 N/A N/A 8917 N/A
*Anzhi Makhachkala are not allowed to play games at their own stadium in Dagestan due to security concerns. This means they have had to play their games over a thousand miles away at three stadiums in the Moscow area.

A fuller table including nearly all of the 80 competing teams. Newcastle United are 20th in that one.

Poll

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

15 Responses

  1. Maybes we should have taken the competition more seriously,then the fans might have too.Should be going all out to win,full first team,if not don’t talk about wanting to “get into Europe”
    It’s not a burden as a lot of managers say,it’s a rare (for us) opportunity to win a European title.
    Still not too late tho if we can nick it tomorrow \o/ HWTL.

  2. I would have thought any observant fan would have acknowledged the fact that, that same myth is a constant at all clubs.
    Reinforced by their players attempting to make points.
    The reality is St. James Park, for some reason or other is a much quieter venue than in the day.
    Of course the dumb present day chants (toon-toon) dont help, but it’s actually a fairly quiet stadium.
    With the home fans often out-chanted by the visitors.
    Actually it may have something to do with the actual stadium layout, but there was a study done on decible volume in various stadiums of the PL.
    The results showed Sunderland as one of the loudest in the study.
    I know this will not go down well and i will hear about it, but i’m only the messenger, even though the news is not good.
    Erm ! can you guys attending, possibly raise the level of verbal support, i’m sure the side will appreciate it.

  3. Worky – Don’t forget in terms of occupancy we’ve not had any of the higher levels of the ground open for any home EL fixtures which effectively reduces the capacity of the ground but however many thousands. About 12k if I recall correctly.

    Also other teams have tickets thrown in with their season tickets.

    But yeah I agree that attendances have been poor despite tickets being cheap.

  4. Aye Toonsy, but that isn’t uncommon at any club when the demand isn’t there. Do you seriously think that Ashley and Llambias would turn away money and keep the upper sections closed if there was the demand?

    “Also other teams have tickets thrown in with their season tickets.”

    Now that is a point which could affect things if it was true of any of the teams in the table above, well thunk. I’ll ask one of my Spurs or Chelsea mates down here about that one. Thanks for the observation.

  5. Not sure about those two but I know Liverpool either had theirs thrown in or they were something daft like £5 with a season ticket.

  6. SJP is a quite ground? are u outta ur fkin mind?..am there rain,hail or shiground.granted some europa nights were not very loud,but if all u armchair fans put ya hands in ur deep pockets n attended games you’d find out just how noisey SJP can get.also it would change ur views on certain players n make u think twice about slatting them.
    on ur other piece about Swansea n Barca regaurding the size ov the squads Worky..u gotta think how many ov the 16 that played for Barca got nominated for the ballon d’or,or still do …Messi,Xavi,Ineasta…hell man even Pique..most years all them are in the world XI team…so the time to judge Swansea & Laudrup will be this time next year,not now..thats if they even manage to qualify for the comp properly.

  7. Jack
    Sometimes your comments are difficult to understand.
    I take it you dont believe the present crowds at home games are fairly quiet.
    Must be they are dozing off in those comfortable seats.
    Whats slatting them ?
    Swansea and Laudrup, qualify for the comp properly ?
    Now thats over my head ?

  8. toonsy says:
    March 6, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    “Not sure about those two but I know Liverpool either had theirs thrown in or they were something daft like £5 with a season ticket.”

    Toonsy, I spoke to a Spurs fan. It depends on what kind of season ticket you have and as usual, it’s complicated. They’re not “thrown in” though, it depends on whether you’re a “silver,” “gold” or “platinum” season ticket holder and whichever game you go to, you end up paying through the nose for it one way or the other as like us they’re a well supported club, but they still only have a stadium like our old one with 36,000 seats in it.

  9. chuck & jack72, i dont think either of you are wrong, and have valid points.
    st james’ park is a lot quieter that it used to be, i think that is due to the lopsided nature of the stadium, and a lot of the atmosphere being lost, as a consequence.
    if the whole thing was built the same height, all the way around, it would be one of the loudest in the world, imo.

  10. they should let the cnuts in for a couple of quid apiece, and it would be chocka-block!

  12. the crowds have also changed over the years..far 2many women get in the ground aswell now & its not often u see them singing n chanting.

  13. You’ve gotta say that a 24000 odd attendance is rather poor, especially when you look up north and see a Scottish 3rd division team averaging an attendance of 45000 every week…I know this is about the Europa League and that SJP is filled to the rafters in league games but still you’d think more people would want to watch a match against Bordeaux than say East Fife!

  14. Craig says:
    March 8, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    “I know this is about the Europa League and that SJP is filled to the rafters in league games”

    Nearly but not quite Craig.

    We used to get Premiership averages of around 52,000 before Ashley took over, then it went down to the high forties, then mid forties when we were relegated. When we got promoted again it went up to an average gate of 47,717 and when the season we came 5th it climbed to 49,935. This season so far it’s 50,015, which is good but still a couple of thousand down on what it used to be.

    The emphasis has changed towards families and the more affluent corporate “prawn stottie brigade.” The most fanatical fans, the ones who turn up every other week and often travel away too have been marginalised, had their areas broken up to expand family areas, harrassed by Ashley’s new outsourced steward Gestapo for standing and so on, with Llambias making it plain on several occaisions whom he prefers to have at SJP.

  15. You do realize that this sniping at your own team is being used by fans of rival clubs to attack Newcastle supporters don’t you ? Ive twice had to argue with ’em (refusing to name what club they support, but NOT makems) and they quote THIS piece.