Nearly two million people have
passed through the turnstiles since Emirates Stadium opened its
doors last July.
From the first person in at Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial to the
final latecomer at Sunday's Premiership clash with Chelsea, a total
of 1,838,152 have attended matches at Arsenal's new home. That's a
76 per cent increase on the total attendance during the final
season at Highbury, when 1,044,266 took their seats over the course
of the campaign.
Emirates Stadium has played host to 27 competitive Arsenal
first-team fixtures this term and a further five matches: two FA
Youth Cup ties, Bergkamp's testimonial and Brazil's international
friendlies against Argentina and Portugal.
The average attendance for first-team fixtures is 59,837 with the
overall average slightly lower at 57,442, essentially due to the
smaller (albeit still impressive) crowds at Arsenal's FA Youth Cup
ties against Cardiff City and Manchester United. The average
attendance for Premiership matches alone is a healthy 60,045.
So which team attracted a record attendance to Emirates Stadium?
United? Tottenham? Chelsea? In fact, the answer is Reading. A total
of 60,132 fans made it to that match with just four fewer at the
last-gasp 2-1 win against United, a game which highlighted the risk
of leaving early.
The lowest attendance for a competitive first-team fixture at the
Emirates is 56,761 for the FA Cup Fifth-Round tie with Blackburn.
However, tickets for that game were only on sale for a couple of
days because of its proximity to Arsenal's Fourth-Round replay
victory at Bolton Wanderers.
