Saints' crowded house (From Daily Echo)

Southampton's attendances among the best

12:28pm Friday 4th May 2012 in Saints News

SAINTS should comfortably be a mid-table Premier League team next season – at least in terms of their support.

The bumper crowds at the back end of the latest promotion winning campaign saw Saints finish in second place behind West Ham in the highest average attendances chart of the Championship season.

And their average of 26,419 per game would see them 12th in the current Premier League averages.

Crowds have shot up 17 per cent at St Mary’s this season, following on from last term’s 22,160 average in League 1.

The last four attendances at the ground this season were all above the 30,000 mark.

Even established teams such as Fulham, West Brom, Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan trail in the wake of Saints’ loyal fan base.

Promoted sides QPR and Swansea are also well down on the St Mary’s averages.

Saints are sure to see their attendances boosted even further on their return to the top flight after a seven-year absence.

Whilst it is unlikely they can regularly repeat the St Mary’s record 32,363 crowd they had for the final game of the campaign against Coventry, due to the added segregation of having an often full ten per cent allocation going to the away team, they should sell out for the majority of games.

Previously in their Premier League campaigns it was generally only the midweek matches, when people struggle to get there from work, that attendances dropped from capacity.

Assuming Saints were averaging anywhere between 28,000-32,000 next season, that would be enough to see them in 11th place in the Premier League stats based on this campaign.

It again underlines how well Saints have been supported during this season and the kind of crowds they can expect next term.

Championship

West Ham	30,923
Saints	26,419
Derby	26,020
Leeds	23,379
Leicester	23,036
Cardiff	22,100
Nottm Forest	21,969
Brighton	20,029
Reading	19,219
Birmingham	19,126
Hull	18,790
Ipswich	18,266
Middlesbrough	17,557
Crystal Palace	15,219
Coventry	15,118
Portsmouth	15,044
Burnley	14,048
Bristol City	13,907
Blackpool	12,764
Watford	12,710
Millwall	11,484
Barnsley	10,331
Doncaster	9,341
Peterborough	9,110

Premier League

Man United	75,381
Arsenal	59,995
Newcastle United	50,039
Man City	46,991
Liverpool	44,449
Chelsea	41,519
Sunderland	38,686
Tottenham	36,013
Aston Villa	33,851
Everton	33,068
Stoke City	27,194
Norwich City	26,539
Wolves	25,564
Fulham	25,271
West Brom	24,823
Bolton	23,559
Blackburn	22,351
Swansea	19,909
Wigan	18,449
QPR	17,294