As we near the turn of 2016 into 2017 and we bring the curtain down on the first half of the 2016/17 Championship campaign, here are the sides that boast the best to worst ‘fill percentages’ for the opening half of the campaign.
Obviously everyone will take a slightly different view of this, Stadium’s have wildly differing capacities from Newcastle United’s 52,405 down to Burton Albion’s 6,350 so the mean average capacity of 26,360 is pretty irrelevant to be honest.
And of course each club has their own fanbase split between season ticket holders and match day goers – so direct comparisons can’t be drawn between sides – but for fans of the club in isolation it can be a guide to how supporters are reacting to the season the team is having so far this year.
The Express have done the legwork on the numbers so errors are theirs, but with the second half of the season still to play out and the Championship already proving to be its usual competitive self and even table highflyers at the moment, Newcastle United and Brighton, have had their own blips with results, so come the end of the season when final positions are nailed down hopefully I can run this again and we can see how the more floating fan changed depending on whether results picked up or dropped off.
Rank
|
Club
|
Stadium % Fill
|
Capacity
|
1
|
Newcastle United
|
97.16%
|
52,405
|
2
|
Norwich City
|
96.25%
|
26,034
|
3
|
Birmingham City
|
94.18%
|
30,009
|
4
|
Bristol City
|
90.53%
|
21,497
|
5
|
Brighton
|
87.96%
|
30,750
|
6
|
Derby County
|
86.97%
|
33,597
|
7
|
Brentford
|
82.40%
|
12,763
|
8
|
Huddersfield Town
|
80.59%
|
24,500
|
9
|
Queens Park Rangers
|
80.42%
|
18,200
|
10
|
Rotherham United
|
80.27%
|
12,021
|
11
|
Aston Villa
|
73.84%
|
42,640
|
12
|
Fulham
|
71.30%
|
25,678
|
13
|
Burton Albion
|
70.85%
|
6,350
|
14
|
Reading
|
70.07%
|
24,161
|
15
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers
|
68.18%
|
28,525
|
16
|
Leeds United
|
67.18%
|
39,401
|
17
|
Sheffield Wednesday
|
66.68%
|
39,814
|
18
|
Nottingham Forest
|
64.11%
|
30,602
|
19
|
Barnsley
|
59.25%
|
23,009
|
20
|
Cardiff City
|
57.55%
|
26,828
|
21
|
Ipswich Town
|
55.39%
|
30,311
|
22
|
Preston North End
|
53.72%
|
23,408
|
23
|
Wigan Athletic
|
43.76%
|
25,135
|
24
|
Blackburn Rovers
|
35.20%
|
31,367
|