MILAN – After 23 rounds of Serie A games, the average attendance figure for all 20 top-flight clubs is 23,523, up by 1.3% on last year's 23,214. It is the first time in five years that Serie A crowd figures have stopped falling. There was a 0.8% decrease from 2008/09 to 2009/10, a 2.6% drop between 2009/10 and 2010/11 and a further 6.7% decline from 2010/11 to 2011/12. Despite this season's upturn, the overall figures show that attendances have plummeted by 8.7% when comparing 2008/09 figures with numbers from the current campaign.
The two Milan clubs continue to lead the way for average home attendances: AC Milan recorded the highest average attendance last season (49,020), ahead of Inter (44,806) and Napoli (39,808). Inter (44,201) are in the ascendency this term, followed by AC Milan (40,876) and Roma (39,506). The Giallorossi have boosted home attendance figures by 9% on last season (36,219 in 2011/12; 39,506 this year). But Fiorentina's home crowds have swelled the most of all Serie A clubs: average attendance is 12.7% higher than last season.
Numbers have dropped at Sicilian stadiums (-10% at Palermo's Stadio Barbera, -11.9% at Catania's Stadio Massimino) but also at Udinese (-10.4%), Genoa (-9.7%) and Siena (-7.1%). Attendance figures are largely unchanged at Atalanta, Bologna, Parma and Napoli.The statistics were revealed in the Osservatorio Calcio Italiano's Report n.2/2013 , based on Stadiopostcards' online database.
