The fans of the Championships 18th Best supported club will be distraught.

After yet another virtually full house at St Mary's with just about the only empty seats being in the away section or corporate areas, Saints finish the year with an average attendance that is just about double that of our near neighbours at Fratton Park.

The average at St mary's so far is 25,744, only bettered by West Ham with 29,430, in third place is Derby County with 23,961 closely followed by Leicester City on 23.476, fifth is Leeds United who have 23,409 on average, after that only Nottingham Forest, Cardiff and Brighton (just) have avaerage gates over the 20k mark.

The self proclaimed "Best fans in the World" are sitting in 18th place in the championship, with 12,881, as near as dammit to half the number who attend St Mary's, this is well behind Bristol City, Burnley and even rock bottom Coventry City, the Sky Blues showing that adversity is no excuse for abandoning your team.

Indeed if we take all 92 League Clubs, Pompey lie 42nd in the attendance stakes, whilst Saints lie 14th , with eight Premiership clubs with a smaller average than ourselves. a tremedous achievement.

This is all great news for Saints and hopefully the figures will only get better, certainly after the win against Palace the team deserve another full house for the visit of Bristol City even though its on a Friday evening.    

Photo: Action Images

cynicalsaint added 11:55 - Dec 27 err, bristol city isnt on the tv, is it?
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SaintNick added 12:08 - Dec 27 I was assuming it was, why else has it been changed to a Friday night otherwise
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mgprobert added 12:09 - Dec 27 how time flies, feels like we're only finishing 2011
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SaintNick added 12:14 - Dec 27 Im still on a high after yesterdays win is my excuse, that and an excess of Xmas spirit(s)
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saintspodcast added 12:15 - Dec 27 I assumed the game was on TV but I had a look and it appears not to be. No excuses for there not being a sell-out I reckon.
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legod7 added 17:46 - Dec 27 The Bristol City fixture has not been changed.It has always been a Friday evening fixture. It has been so since the fixture list was published.
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1962saint added 17:59 - Dec 27 The difference is 12,863 X £18 (an average ticket price?) = £231,534 X 23 home games = £5,325,282. Add to that less income from programme sales, food and drink purchases, merchandise from the shop. Poor old Pompey!
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simmo400 added 08:17 - Dec 28 Nick this not a true comparison is it. Of course we will have double the gate as we have double the capacity. A true reflection is the percentage of capacity. We stand at around 83% where Pompey are at 73%.
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Horndeansaint added 10:03 - Dec 28 Simmo400 I disagree with your comment. That may be a fair comparison if both stadiums (I use the term lightly for the tin shack) were being filled each week so that their attendances were being limited by fans being unable to go even if they wanted to. Fact of the matter is that our neighbours have only nearly filled theirs once this season, and we all know who the visitors were then, but we have filled ours 3 times already so it could be said that our average and, by definition, highest, attendances could be even greater than they are.

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TimSaint added 11:07 - Dec 28 Nick - please note that their average has been boosted by the "virtual" sell out against us the other week - so expect that this average figure for them will start to dwindle over the rest of the season. On the other hand, we will be boosted by near sell outs for the rest of our games as we reach the business end of the season. Also many fans have taken up the 10 game season tickets, which will again show positive signs on our attendances. Simmo400 - not sure what you are getting at. Our capacity is 32,251 and our average means we are 83% full. Pompey's capacity is 20,688 and their average means it is 62% full. Do the maths on that one !! To think that they wanted to move to a new 35,000 stadium not so long ago and I even remember seeing Mandric laying the first brick for their new stadium on South Today, years ago - so not sure what's happened there. Oh well. Re the Bristol City game, it has always been a Friday night game and I cannot see it on any of the TV listings - but maybe some places are showing it via one of these foreign channels ? Better time and atmosphere at the ground guys, so get yourselves down and cheer the boys on for another final home win in 2011 !! Happy New Year to Saints Fans Everywhere

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Whatsforpud added 11:45 - Dec 28 Saintpodcast says that there should be no excuse for there not to be a sell-out. However, I would be very surprised if it was near a sell-out. We have just had the expected Boxing day one, with the 2 or 3 times-a-year fans. We should be back to normal now. Apart from the West Ham game, it always seems that support for evening games is lower than Saturday afternoon ones. Having said, matches on a Friday evening haven't been tested much. and fewer than usual will be involved with working, and there might be more juniors there than the usual Tuesday evening. The rain forecast might put some off. So, 25k?

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LostBoys added 12:09 - Dec 28 I have only one thing to add - HO HO HO its good to be a Saints fan at the moment
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simmo400 added 19:56 - Dec 28 Thought Pompey held 18000 about, so the reason for the wrong percentage.The 3 sell outs this year for us were WH, Brighton and Palace. Have Pompey played WH at home yet ? Not sure about thr Brighton game being a sell out. Boxing day game at home is nearly a sell out most years. Im not sticking up for them i just cant see an accuracy in stats at halfway in the season thats all. COYR.

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