Football League World
·16 October 2024
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·16 October 2024
FLW's Swansea City fan pundit wants to see his side's fanbase attend home matches in greater numbers
Swansea City supporters have been urged to increase their attendance at home fixtures in the Championship.
It has been a reasonably successful start to the 2024/25 Championship campaign for Swansea, who find themselves in 11th position after nine matches of the new term with three victories, three draws and three losses apiece.
Their form represents a struggle for consistency, although Luke Williams' side have lost just once in their last five affairs, with Josh Tymon's preventable own goal handing second-placed Sheffield United a narrow 1-0 win at Bramall Lane at the start of October.
They remain unbeaten at home, too, although the school of thought among supporters is that the Swansea.com Stadium is certainly no fortress. Attendances have dwindled year-on-year ever since relegation from the Premier League all the way back in 2018, and the fact that the Swans are some way off plotting a return to the promised land has seemingly left certain fans disenchanted.
Swansea have played five league matches at home this season, welcoming Preston North End, Cardiff City, Norwich, Bristol City and Stoke to the other side of the South Wales divide.
But despite hosting the South Wales Derby and a typically-heated clash with the Robins back in September, the Jack Army have failed to post a strong average home attendance so far.
According to Transfermarkt figures, Swansea have recorded an average home attendance of 15,818, a figure which ranks as the sixth-lowest in the Championship, ahead of only Oxford United, Luton Town, Millwall, QPR and Blackburn Rovers.
With a total capacity of 21,088, Swansea do have one of the smaller stadiums in the second-tier, but the fact that they are struggling to come close to filling it is a concern for the supporters who attend week-in, week-out.
Indeed, fierce rivals Cardiff, who admittedly have a considerably larger stadium with a total capacity of more than 33,000, have seen more supporters coming in through the turnstiles, despite often being ridiculed for their home attendances and enduring miserable early-season form.
We caught up with our resident Jack Army fan pundit, James Fleming, to find out what he thinks of his side's home attendances at the Swansea.com Stadium this season, and he believes that supporters need to raise their game and start packing the ground out on a more regular basis.
"I think attendances this season, as everyone knows, have been poor," James explained to Football League World.
"We've been averaging around 14,500-15,000 in a 21,000-seater stadium. Obviously, I don't expect us to be selling out every week, but I don't really see why the attendances have dropped off from last season when we're better than we were.
"The pricing isn't fantastic but it's not much different to what it's been every year, I think people are just not turning up now because we've been in the Championship for so long, and they've given up with the team, which is sad to see really.
"For the real fans who want to still go every week and support this club through whatever happens, it's frustrating because the players need us to be there at home in order to succeed and have the home advantage.
"That's the whole point, you have fans behind you at home, so I think they've been poor this season and there definitely needs to be improvement there."