Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea feature in six memorably low attendances in the Premier League era

Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea feature in six memorably low attendances in the Premier League era

Wimbledon sill the kingpins of low attendances nearly 25 years on from the lowest ever recorded in the Premier League

THE sight of a heaving Anfield last Sunday as Liverpool finally ended Manchester City’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season is nothing new. Big teams, playing in big games, in a big league.

In an exciting coincidence, Uefa’s Club Licensing Benchmarking Report was released earlier this week, showing that more people watched Premier League football in 2016-17 than any other division in Europe (precision fans may like to note that the Bundesliga had higher average attendances, thanks to their season tickets which cost one Euro).

But the story of the Premier League is not an endless stream of supporters filing into their seats. There have been plenty of under-attended matches, and sometimes the true essence of football can only be glimpsed at a sparsely populated game. The raw shouts of players and coaching staff evaporating into a damp winter sky; the ball disappearing into an empty bank of seats with a panicked ball boy misjudging which row it has ended up in; a solo howl of abuse directed at a referee. Let’s, then, celebrate some of the smaller games in Premier League history.

3,039 – Wimbledon 1-3 Everton, Jan 26 1993

Next Friday is the 25^th anniversary of the smallest ever crowd seen at a Premier League game, when a fraction over 3,000 people made the journey to Crystal Palace’s home to see tenants Wimbledon play Everton, with the visiting team providing almost 50% of the crowd. Coming in the same month that Audrey Hepburn died, this was less Paris When It Sizzles, more Selhurst When It Drizzles. Unsurprisingly, Wimbledon account for the lowest 40 attendances in Premier League history, and you cannot see their scant record from 1993 being beaten for a long time yet.

8,923 – Chelsea 1-2 Coventry, May 4 1994

Wimbledon may be the ancient kings of absence but that club doesn’t exist anymore, so who are the side with the next lowest Premier League attendance? Well, that would be five times Premier League champions Chelsea who in the latter stages of the 1993-94 season could only attract 8,923 people to Stamford Bridge for a game with Coventry. The Blues, under the demonstrative tutelage of Glenn Hoddle, were marooned in mid-table and preparing for the FA Cup final later in the month, but they remain the only team to have won the Premier League who have also recorded a home attendance of less than 10,000 people at some point. There was probably a car parked behind one of the goals, though, so that should count for something.

24,561 – Liverpool 3-2 QPR, Dec 8 1993

Liverpool’s all-time Premier League low attendance is 22,519 against vacuum icons Wimbledon in October 1994 but this was a) against Wimbledon and b) in a period when the Kop was being turned into an all-seater stand. If we look only at matches when all parts of the ground were open then the Reds’ 3-2 win against QPR in December 1993 is the true nadir. A midweek game at the height of the Graeme Souness’ green sweatshirt dour era, this game was never likely to attract many neutrals, and QPR even lowered the theoretical capacity on the pitch by having two men sent off.

29,736 – Manchester United 1-0 Crystal Palace, Sep 2 1992

Manchester United began the Premier League era with their ground in a stage of flux, the wonderful Stretford End terrace having been demolished and a new structure slowly taking its place. Even so, United only recorded one attendance of lower than 30,000 in this era, against Crystal Palace as they picked up speed after taking one point from their first three games. Their subsequent 490 home league games have all seen at least 30,000 fans attend, with the last 222 seeing 70,000 or more. Still doesn’t make it a theatre, though.

10,422 – Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Wimbledon, Mar 11 1995

Modern Premier League attendances are fairly stable, as even non-season ticket seats are snapped up weeks in advance of the game. Clubs know that they’ll get a similar number of supporters attending, whoever they’re playing. That was not the case in the mid 1990s, where discerning/depressed supporters were still able to pick and choose their games, especially fans of clubs who might have big stadiums, but not the players to match. And so, the biggest fall in attendance in successive home games belongs to Sheffield Wednesday who attracted almost 39,000 against Liverpool in February 1995, only to see barely 10,000 turn up a week or so later against, who else, Wimbledon. The precise drop was 28,484, most of whom returned for the next home fixture against Nottingham Forest, only to see the Owls lose 7-1.

11,606 – Oldham Athletic 6-2 Wimbledon, Apr 3 1993

Everyone likes some value for money, and where better to see it in a top-flight football ground using the in-no-way-authenticated method of dividing total number of goals by official attendance. Ignoring Wimbledon home games because let’s have some variety at least, we end up with Oldham’s home game against…oh look it’s a Wimbledon away game. 11,606 people were at Boundary Park on a brisk April afternoon and enjoyed a bumper crop of eight goals (a goal for every 1,451 fans) along with a red card by the Dons’ Gerald Dobbs, who remains the only man called Gerald to be sent off in Premier League history.

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