LaLiga confirms record attendance figures

LaLiga, the operator of the top two divisions of Spanish football, has revealed that its cumulative attendance increased to a record 15,766,311 during the 2022-23 season.

This represents an increase of 6.4% compared to the 2018-19 season, which was the last campaign unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The figure was also a 31.3% increase on the 2021-22 season, when stadiums did not open at full capacity until October.

In the top-tier LaLiga, the number of fans who attended games during the 2022-23 season was 11,179,866. In the second-tier Segunda División, the figure reached 4,596,445, which includes the end-of-season promotion playoffs.

LaLiga noted that several stadiums were impacted by construction projects during the 2022-23 season, most notably Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu. Despite this, Real Madrid still maintained a high occupancy rate of 78% over the course of the season.

Villarreal was also forced to play almost half of its season at Levante’s stadium due to renovation work at the Estadi de la Ceràmica. RCD Mallorca and Celta Vigo have also been undertaking work at their respective stadiums.

According to LaLiga, the average occupancy rate of stadiums in relation to the available capacity was 80.2% – 11.4% more than in 2018-19.

LaLiga has released its official attendance figures after it was reported earlier this month that over 11 million fans had attended games in the top division. 2Playbook, citing data collected by its market intelligence platform, reported that the average attendance was 29,538 per match.

Last week, the English Premier League announced that its average attendance during the 2022-23 season rose to a record 40,267. Grounds were also fuller than ever before, with the average utilisation of stadiums at 98.7% of capacity, up from 97.7% in 2021-22.

The English Football League has also reported that its competitions drew their highest cumulative attendance in nearly seven decades. France’s Ligue 1 also set its own attendance record in 2022-23, while Italy’s Serie A posted its best figures since the turn of the century.