Football fans use all sorts to determine the ‘size’ of their club in comparison to opposition rivals in the modern game and one good way has always been average attendances, because it also by default looks at the size of the home stadium.
Now clearly the Championship has a winner on that front and that’s us, Aston Villa.
As we find ourselves in the March international break, we are back in the Play-Off spots after a turn in form and four successive victories and whilst the battle is far from over and nothing is guaranteed, (with Derby County and Bristol City below us but having a game and then two in hand respectively) we go into the lull more than back in the mix and we’d all have taken that given our poor form since the turn of the year.
According to the number crunching by the Birmingham Mail, with 38 games played we sit top of the average attendance table, with Villa Park hosting 35,051 each game.
With a few slips of late, Leeds United remain in the hunt for automatic promotion under Marcelo Bielsa and they come in second spot, boasting an impressive 33,676 themselves.
We are the only two sides this year to break the 30,000 mark which speaks volumes and also explains why it feels like both sides are permanently on the television during our spell in the Championship.
1 Aston Villa 35,051
2 Leeds United 33,676
3 Nottingham Forest 28,201
4 Derby County 26,626
5 Norwich City 25,855
6 Sheffield United 25,620
7 Stoke City 25,094
8 Sheffield Wednesday 24,124
9 West Bromwich Albion 24,078
10 Middlesbrough 23,436
11 Birmingham City 22,263
12 Bristol City 20,761
Some big clubs historically in that list, and then, well those not so.
We also pip Leeds to the biggest single attendance across the season so far with 41,411 which was actually their visit to Villa Park, compared to their 37,004 at Elland Road. Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United are the other six clubs to break the 30,000 mark.
Means nothing in the grand scheme of things, as I’m sure a few Leeds fans might point out in the article comments given league placings, but with proper news thin on the ground, given it hasn’t exactly been a great season given everything that happened over the summer, the fans continue to do us proud.
