Off the wire
• Xi urges senior leaders to set examples  • 1st LD: Toll of India's building blast rises to 82  • Interview: South African director presents in movie criminal gangs violence  • 1st LD: Egyptian cabinet resigns, former petroleum minister to form new gov't  • Rahul Gandhi slams Indian PM over farmers' plight  • Toll in central Indian blast rises to 82  • Philippine Trade chief resigns  • Dengue fever takes toll on Taiwan city tourism  • Chinese navy fleets leave for China-Malaysia military drill  • 1st LD: British tourists killed as train derails in N. India  
You are here: 　 Home

Number of season ticket holders in Spain rises for 2015/6 season

Xinhua, September 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of season ticket holders paying to watch Spanish professional football has increased by 3.4 percent according to figures published in the sports newspaper 'Diario AS' on Saturday.

AS reports that the number of fans with tickets to watch their sides in the BBVA Primera Liga has risen by 43,785 (7.9 percent) to 597,372.

This is partly due to the fact that Betis, Las Palmas and Sporting Gijon were promoted to the top flight at the end of last season and with Betis having 43,000 season ticket holders, Las Palmas 19,000 and Sporting 22,180; that is considerably more than relegated sides Almeria (11,000), Elche (11,000 and Cordoba 15,200.

That also explains that while the number of season ticket holders in the top-flight has increased there has been a fall in the number of supporters paying to watch the Liga Adelante (Second Division), although it should also be pointed out that the promotion of Bilbao Athletic (Athletic Club Bilbao's B-team to the division makes it harder to calculate fan numbers given that Athletic's 44,117 season ticket holders can watch their B-team for free.

A total of 172,023 people now have season tickets to watch Liga Adelante sides, which is down 18,582 on the previous campaign (due mainly to the promotion of Betis, Sporting and Las Palmas and the fact that people watching Bilbao Athletic (around 9,000) are not counted in the survey.

With 85,000 season ticket holders, FC Barcelona have the biggest support in the Primera Liga, followed by 67,000 at Real Madrid and 47,890 at Atletico Madrid, while Eibar with just 4,000 fans have the lowest number of fans, although the side with the lowest budget in La Liga more than cover their operating costs with money from their TV deal. Endite