Featured image credit: Photo by Bananna Wintour on Unsplash
Ligue 1, France’s highest men’s football division, has celebrated a new record for average attendances at the season’s halfway point with 26,742 per match.
At the midpoint of the season, the competition’s 18 stadiums have welcomed 4,091,572 fans to beat last year’s average of 23,773 by 12%.
Since the start of the 2023-24 campaign, 13 of the 16 clubs still present in the league from the year before saw their average attendance increase or remain at a similar level in comparison.
Stade Brestois 29, OGC Nice and AS Monaco were the biggest movers. Stade Brestois 29 posted an increase of 26%, while Nice and Monaco posted rises of 18%.
The league-wide stadium occupancy rate stands at a record level of 84% which represents a 3.5% increase on this point last year.
Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, RC Lens, Stade Rennais FC, RC Strasbourg Alsace, FC Lorient, Stade Brestois 29, and Clermont Foot 63 have all enjoyed an occupancy rate of more than 90% so far this season.
Marseille boasts the highest average capacity with 61,282 people visiting the Stade Vélodrome (pictured) per home match on average.
PSG’s Parc des Princes and the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon make up the rest of the top three with respective figures of 47,094 and 41,746.
Despite seeing an increase, AS Monaco is the only club with an occupancy rate of less than 66% as it stands at 49% with an average of 8,078 people coming to the Stade Louis II.
This season is the first since 2001-02 that 18 clubs have contested Ligue 1 instead of 20 after the Professional Football League voted to revert to the old format at its 2021 General Assembly.
Ligue 2 is experiencing a similar upturn in popularity, albeit on a more modest scale, as its crowds have increased by 2% compared to this point last year.
It is averaging 8,222 spectators per match so far.
Earlier this season, in November, Ligue 1 set a new record attendance for a single match week as an average of 31,484 fans attended fixtures on the first weekend of the month.
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