Gradually, fans are returning to Super League stadiums, with average attendances rising in comparison to previous campaigns. AGONAsport investigates.

Overall, with 14 rounds of the 2018/2019 Super League campaign in the books, a grand total of 635,205 tickets have been sold, with Olympiacos leading the way with 167,264 fans filling the Karaiskakis Stadium in domestic matches. Unsurprisingly, PAOK (121,459), Aris (71,728), Panathinaikos (70,792), AEK (57,011) and OFI (26,202) make up the top five, but at the other end, high flying Atromitos are bottom with a dismal record of just 7,317 supporting turning up at the Peristeri Stadium throughout the entire first half of the season!

The best attended matchday of the Super League so far was the third round (58,505). Interestingly, there were no derby games, but the match-ups of Aris - Levadiakos, AEK - Panionios, OFI - PAOK and Olympiacos - Asteras Tripolis attracted the fans to the stadiums. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the least attended matchday of the season was the 11th round of fixtures, when only a combined 31,087 fans were at the eight games. In Nea Smyrni, a mere 806 people watched Panionios take on PAS Lamia 1968 in person.

In a pleasing statistic, the derbies have been popular: 23,763 (PAOK - AEK), 30,532 (Olympiacos - PAOK), 27,419 (AEK - Olympiacos), 16,434 (Aris - PAOK), 20,389 (PAOK - Panathinakos), 24,732 (Panathinaikos - AEK) and 31,250 (Olympiacos - Panathinaikos).

Taking into account that AEK are the reigning Super League champions, their average attendance of 11,402 isn’t exactly great, but the Kitrinomavri were forced into hosting Aris and Atromitos behind closed doors. The indifferent results have certainly played their part too, and moving into 2019, the Athenians require positive performances to draw the fans back to the large Olympic Stadium.

On a more positive note, well supported Aris and OFI have contributed to the rise of average Super League attendances with their return to the top flight, Olympiacos’ atmospheric Karaiskakis Stadium is often packed with a current attendance average of 20,908, and PAOK fans are enjoying their team’s fantastic form (average attendance 17,351). Panathinaikos average of 10,113 is impressive when you remember that the Greens were in a huge financial mess when the season began.

credits: www.agonasport.com