Average attendances of Saudi Arabian football clubs, can anyone help me? I think Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad are the most popular clubs?
I'd be suprised if any club managed to get more than 300 average attendance. I don't think clubs even keep a record of attendances.
Are you serious? Pretty strange, I heard soccer is the nr. 1 sport in Saudi Arabia. How come there are low attendances in Saudi Arabia, while in Iran for example, big clubs like Pirouzi and Esteghlal draw average attendances of around 30,000?
The overall population of iran is something like 80,000,000 people, while saudi's a merely 30,000,000. i think this is the main reason
Well there ya go. Football is the number 1 sport in Saudi Arabia not soccer. I think several factors play into this equation: 1)Stadiums in Saudi Arabia are placed in akward locations. King Fahad International Stadium for example is placed in the extreme east of the city. 2)Transportation sucks in Saudi Arabia so most people don't want to go through the stress of getting to a faraway stadium 3)Parking is horrible. 4)I'm not allowed to bring things like flares or flags with flagpoles in them therefore diluting the atmosphere. 5)Stadium food is crappy. 6)Most stadiums are almost completely terraces and not seated. 7)Further diluting the atmosphere, all Stadiums have an olympic size track and a fence seperating them from the pitch, which translates into low visibility and atmosphere. Notice how far the people are sitting from the pitch. 8) This is kinda not a real reason but when I ask people like my parents and uncles why they don't go to footy matches anymore when they used to a lot during the early 90s etc and they replied the stadiums are taken over by young teenage hooligans. The only times Saudis go to Stadiums are big Finals matches and Derbies like this Hilal/Nasr final match in the Prince Faisal cup: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV_no_4g5-I"]YouTube - ????? ???????[/ame] But regular league matches? No.
at least 4 months back i read in a magazine that saudi has 1 of the highest average attendce in gcc region and ranks fourth among asia
UAE has shittier attendance than us even. And besides, that's not something to be proud of, we have a higher population than all the other GCC countries combined.
We are no1 in gcc ....the magazine said we are fourt in asia....the worst average attendance was for gcc countries only..only kuwait was among top 10 along with saudi
hmm.. Japan,korea,china would take the 1 to 3 respectivly. I guess that means the average attendance of the league is better than the A-league and the iraninan league.
While attendance does suck, let's not exaggerate. The average for the premier league is in the low thousands. The big 4 clubs should have an average of 10k or so. Don't forget we have a small league. When you have only 11 home games, 3-4 'big' games pulls up the average considerably
Guys u saw the attendance in todays match between ahli and fath...the attendance was considerbaly more than 1000
I agree with you about the Saudi league, but European leagues do have very high attendances. Last season Milan had an average home attendance of 57,040: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance?league=ita.1&&cc=3888
Yes and no. You cite the best attended team in Serie A. The average for the league as a whole is closer to 20k, mainly driven by the two Milan teams, plus Roma and Napoli. But you are talking about Serie A, which despite the negative publicity and falling attendance and viewing figures is one of the top leagues in the world. It's not a fair comparison. But I'm not saying that attendance in Saudi is good. It's abysmal. We don't have the "football culture" like they do in Europe. We don't have the routine of going "religiously" to every home game, mingle with the fans in the pub/cafe before and after to discuss/celebrate, go together on the coach to away games. It's not there. We have fickle fans. You should hear their excuses! "Why should I spend 20 riyals to sit on concrete bleachers when for less I can watch it in a cafe with tea and shisha". * 20 riyals isn't expensive, but I'll wager that even if you drop the ticket prices to 2 riyals it won't affect attendance. * And regarding how uncomfortable the stadiums are, they're basic but fine. Not as bad as some stadiums I've come across in England (which get filled out regardless). Oh and nobody complain about them being far away. The stadiums in Jeddah, Dammam, and Malazz are all in the centre of the city. As for the King Fahad stadium, yes it's in the eastern edge of Riyadh, but it is very close to all the mid-income subdivisions on the eastern ring road, has good access from Khurais highway. And besides, the longest drive from one end of Riyadh to another is half an hour. Not taxing by any means.
When tickets are dropped to free it usually does increase attendance. Not as much as it should but still it does have an effect. Have you tried ever driving in Riyadh. Or in Saudi Arabia? Stressful. Ever tried driving to the stadium for a big match? Once I tried leaving the stadium after a Hilal-Nasr match. I live nearby so it shouldn't have taken more than 5 minutes. I arrived home 2 hours later.
u should noe that all matches are not played in king fahad international stadium.and driving for some main matches played there is not a problem for any hearted fan ...
talking about average attendance...proud to see todays match ..the stadium was filled with fath and shabab fans........this shows the average attendance is much higher then 300
Shabab fans??? They exist? I've never met a Shabab fan in real life. Even the "Shababi fan" on this forum was a Hilali like 6 months ago lol.
LOL @ Riyadh... I even met their striker Fahad al Hamdan if any of you guys remember him sometime in the late 90s, yet never bumped into a Riyadh fan ever. I wonder how they're doing now in the bottom divisions On topic, a city with a surprising good attendance is Madinah, the Uhud-Ansar derbies usually drew large crowds.