Aston Villa Attendance Figures of the Last Five Years
One of the obvious fallouts of the brand of negative so-called ‘anti-football’ employed by Alex McLeish, that brought a history low four wins at Villa Park was an unsurprising drop in attendances. Last season saw the attendances drop 9% from the previous season, and 15% from the peak average of 40,029 that Martin O’Neill’s Villa enjoyed in the 2007/08 season, the first of his three 6th place finishes.
But even during O’Neil’s 6-6-6 years there was a gradual decrease, due to a mixture of economic recession and perhaps his one-dimensional football at Villa Park, with his speedy counter-attacking tactics being more suited to away matches.
Last Five Years of Aston Villa Attendance Figures Averages
2007/08 – 40,029 (8th highest average in EPL) League Position 6th
2008/09 – 39,811 (8th) League Position 6th
2009/10 – 38,573 (7th) League Position 6th
2010/11 – 37,193 (8th) League Position 9th
2011/12 – 33,873 (9th) League Position 16th
Potential growth is there to be seen for all. Take Arsenal. In the 90’s, it was still pretty easy to get a ticket for Highbury on match day. If the Villa end was full, a place on the North Bank was always a back-up option. I remember getting a ticket for the 1996 League Cup semi-final in the North Bank on the night of the game. Now, you have to wait in line to get a membership to get a ticket at the Emirates Stadium that boasts a 20,000 odd more seats.
When Lerner took over Villa, he’d have seen the huge potential of growth at Villa Park. Birmingham, after all, was England’s second city and Villa Park boasted a huge catchment area, with their local rivals seeming to spend most of their time in the Championship. The long-needed redevelopment of the North Stand would bring Villa Park closer to 50,000, as would the recent announcement of the mooted plan of having some trial terrace areas to the Holte End.
But Villa fans have long had the label of fickle, and thus expansion is a potentially risky business. Even when Villa were last chasing for the title under Ron Atkinson and before him Graham Taylor, with Villa finishing both seasons in the runners-up spot, regular full houses were far from regular.
Villa boasts over a million facebook followers…isn’t it about time some of them paid Villa Park a long overdue visit?
I think they’ll be an instant recovery. It’ll be an interesting preseason for sure, in terms of Lambert’s rebuiding plans.
15% drop off from the season the RL and MON feelgood factor really kicked is a telling stat. Will we recover? I expect we will begin to with the new bloke in place, the potential for growth is there BUT so many fans don’t turn up. The eternal problem of getting bums on seats remains.
The Lambert era is coming at an all time low at VP, he really can’t fail, surely? Certainly, in terms of bums on seats, style of football, results and league position…….
Great, I best renew my ticket then!
I think if we’d have won the League – the first Premiership – under Big Ron, instead of Man Utd, life might have been a bit different. I’m sure it would have had a positive knock-on effect for the seasons that followed and instilled a bit of belief in the Villa faithful.
Really good article. Hopefully the next appointment will be the right one for the club and will bring the supporters back with some exciting football
Why?
Because it’s too late imo.
The top 4, 5 or 6 has been established and we ain’t in it 🙁
I don’t think that now days you can ever rule a club out of competing with the big boys. Where were all Citeh’s fans 5 years ago? And to me, it seems like there are an awful lot more Spud fans about these days. Of course these supporters are fairly transient, but still, if we are talking about filling Villa Park . . . .
Interesting that you compare us to Arsenal.
You must be a similar age, as I’ve always made the comparison between the two clubs.
We were very, very similar in the 80’s and 90’s and Doug’s failure to push on was what caused the gulf between the two to open up, imo.
Oh, what could have been 🙁
Whatever, we need more than upper mid-table to bring the fans in.
Get us in the top 4 and I think we could easily compete with Arsenal re; crowds.
I don’t see it happening though.