The Swan Dive: why Swansea’s attendances have taken a plunge?

[Caiden James]

The Swan Dive: why Swansea’s attendances have taken a plunge?

The Liberty stadium was once the heartbeat of the city of Swansea, a fortress, conquered only by the very best. Hymns and Arias would ring out across the Tawe each Saturday, striking fear into all who dared to visit.

jackarmy.net

 

[Professor]

Well written but let's be frank-The average attendance in our Championship years prior to promotion were all in the 15,000s even in the promotion year. That's what our realistic championship baseline is. A better season and some excitement after five years of dour football may add a couple of thousand. I can't see us getting more than 18,000 (with some exceptions) at this level. Swansea is a small city and relatively poor.

 

[Pacemaker]

Maybe this report should look at the climb of Swansea and the increase in supporter numbers from the dying throes of the Vetch to the current numbers, when we first began to play in the White Rock/Morfa/Liberty/Swansea.com stadium in League 1 attendance’s were on average 17-18k much higher that we had at The Vetch.

The last season at The Vetch which in a successful season in 2004/5 had the highest average attendance in the league at about 12K, however much of the average attendance at the vetch from the 1990’s on was around 5k. The jump in attendance at The Liberty much of this built on promotion to league 1 and a new stadium bump.

The Liberty numbers slowly started to settle around 15-17k for a few years and only jumped once we were in the PL, most of those additional 4-5k only came to the stadium for PL fixtures once we had been relegated most drifted away again. Our hardcore is 15-17k the question should be how do the club encourage that missing 4k fan base to actually attend games regularly now.

Playing successful entertaining football, people will start drifting back but even under Martinez the crowds were only about 15k despite playing great football and streaming not available.

Get promoted they will all return then!

 

[Ringwood]

Well written but let's be frank-The average attendance in our Championship years prior to promotion were all in the 15,000s even in the promotion year. That's what our realistic championship baseline is. A better season and some excitement after five years of dour football may add a couple of thousand. I can't see us getting more than 18,000 (with some exceptions) at this level. Swansea is a small city and relatively poor.

Our catchment area is bigger than Swansea if we commercially market the club correctly and provide entertainment on the pitch.

 

[Gors Buster]

Years of playing the ball backwards and our lone strikers having the same amount of touches as the corner flags have taken its toll.
I am confident that this is the season where we’ll remedy this issue and the ground will fill back up.

 

[J_B]

So many games available on Sky at home or in pubs doesn’t help and wasn’t the case historically.
Not to mention streams.

 

[Professor]

Our catchment area is bigger than Swansea if we commercially market the club correctly and provide entertainment on the pitch.

That's a bit of a myth. Swansea Urban Area (including Neath and Port Talbot) is 300,000. Even adding in Carmarthenshire and parts of Powys it's really around 500,000. Yes, I know there are fans in the Glamorgan Valleys and Bridgend but it's not that big a population. Oxfordshire's population is close to 750,000. The Bristol Clubs have a catchment area of over 1.7million (city, Somerset and South Gloucestershire). Whilst I agree we could market better (and there are some signs of that) then I would suggest 18K is our realistic target in the EFL. Many PL games did not sell out after the initial excitement. We really are not going to draw more than 25k in the PL (except perhaps MUFC and LFC and the local plastic mancs and scousers).

 

[BendJack]

That's a bit of a myth. Swansea Urban Area (including Neath and Port Talbot) is 300,000. Even adding in Carmarthenshire and parts of Powys it's really around 500,000. Yes, I know there are fans in the Glamorgan Valleys and Bridgend but it's not that big a population. Oxfordshire's population is close to 750,000. The Bristol Clubs have a catchment area of over 1.7million (city, Somerset and South Gloucestershire). Whilst I agree we could market better (and there are some signs of that) then I would suggest 18K is our realistic target in the EFL. Many PL games did not sell out after the initial excitement. We really are not going to draw more than 25k in the PL (except perhaps MUFC and LFC and the local plastic mancs and scousers).

During our stint in the Premier League there was plenty of talk about having a second layer built in to the stadium. Back then it works have been significantly easier to add a further 10k seats and fill them. However, the club was sold out and demotion followed soon after.

For a Championship club we do rely heavily on locality and regional population. It's no secret that more densely populated areas, such as London, have richer clubs and much larger attendances.

Swansea will be considered 'underdogs' for a long time to come - and expect the attendance to improve if we are to be promoted again. For where the club is, regionally, the attendance isn't too bad-- it's certainly not holding the club back too much. Investment, success and progression is more important for now - the attendance will fall into place afterwards.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

I reckon Professor has it about right.

In League One we used to get 12-13k, first stint in Championship anywhere between 15-17k (only Cardiff ever sold out iirc).

Apart from the first 3-4 Premier League years then 16k, give or take, is where we've always been at really.

Imagine if we'd expanded during the PL era to 25k, let's say. The last couple of years the poor atmosphere would have been even worse, with a stadium only just over half full.

20k is about right for us, always has been.

 

[Dr. Winston]

I reckon Professor has it about right.

In League One we used to get 12-13k, first stint in Championship anywhere between 15-17k (only Cardiff ever sold out iirc).

Sounds about right. And we were a club on the up at the time having not spent four or five years playing football tedious enough to drive away supporters.

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

I reckon Professor has it about right.

In League One we used to get 12-13k, first stint in Championship anywhere between 15-17k (only Cardiff ever sold out iirc).

Apart from the first 3-4 Premier League years then 16k, give or take, is where we've always been at really.

Imagine if we'd expanded during the PL era to 25k, let's say. The last couple of years the poor atmosphere would have been even worse, with a stadium only just over half full.

20k is about right for us, always has been.

Agree with this.

The only reason it may have been worth expanding to 25-28k is so that we could get more kids in the ground whilst in the PL in the hope they’d get the bug and be there long term.

Based on the South Stand attendance over the last few years it may well have ended up being like the Cardiff upper tier and empty for most games though!