Following the completion of the particularly demanding fixtures of the 2015/2016 Super League play-offs, the total number of tickets sold for the 2015/2016 season exceeded 1 million: in particular, 1,042,228 tickets were sold, a rise by 11.2% in comparison to the previous 2014/2015 season during which a total of 936,713 fans attended the matches, both during the regular season as well as during the play-offs.
The total number of tickets during the regular season of the 2015/2016 Super League Championship is higher when compared to the previous season, despite the fact that there was a significant decrease in the matches played due to the decrease in the number of clubs participating in the Super League Championship from 18 clubs in the 2014/2015 season to 16 clubs in the 2015/2016 season.
During the regular season of the 2015/2016 Super League Championship, the total number of tickets sold was 969,286, a rise by 10.6% in comparison to the 876,402 tickets sold during the 2014/2015 season.
The rise in tickets sold is obvious in the average attendance per match recording a significant rise of 1,026 tickets per match, when compared to previous season, which, possibly, is due to reasons such as less expensive tickets, the greater interest of the fans, the return of two historic clubs with very strong fan clubs, namely FC AEK and FC Iraklis, in the Super League, etc.
It should be noted that from an average 3,384 tickets in the 2014/2015 season, the number went up to 4,410 tickets per match in the 2015/2016 Super League Championship season, namely a rise by 30.3%.
For the Super League play-offs, there was a significant rise by 21% in the total number of tickets (from 60,311 in the 2014/15 season to 72,942 tickets in the 2015/16 season), a spectacular rise of 44% in average tickets sold (from 5,026 in the 2014/15 season to 7,294 tickets in the 2015/16 season).
Finally, it should be noted that 10 matches (8 during the regular season of the Super League Championship and 2 during the play-offs) were played behind closed doors, following the relevant decision of the competent disciplinary bodies.
Average ticket price
The Super League clubs of course took into consideration the financial crisis in the Greek society and reduced ticket prices resulting in an average ticket price of 7.91 Euro, namely one of the lowest percentages since the establishment of the organising authority of the top club competition in Greece.
Looking back at historical data, one can see that the average ticket price has been reduced in total by 38% in the last years from 12.78 € (average ticket price) during the 2007/08 season to 7.91 € during the 2015/16 season.
Tickets
The club with most tickets is Olympiacos with 272,903 tickets (average of 20,946 tickets), whereas it should also be noted that the first 5 clubs in terms of tickets sold (OLYMPIACOS, AEK, PAOK, PANATHINAIKOS, IRAKLIS) hold 76% of the total tickets.
In the first 5 places are 3 clubs (OLYMPIACOS, PAOK, PANATHINAIKOS) who played in the league in the previous season too with the addition of two clubs (AEK, IRAKLIS) that were promoted from Football League.
Additionally, the total tickets (208,642) following the return of AEK and IRAKLIS to the top flight were 2.5 times more than the total tickets (84.948) of the clubs that were relegated in the previous season (ERGOTELIS, AOK, NIKI VOLOS, OFI).
Moreover, there was a rise in tickets, in absolute numbers, for FC PAOK, PAS GIANNINA, PLATANIAS and PANIONIOS whereas there was a rise in the average of tickets sold for 6 clubs (OLYMPIACOS, PANATHINAIKOS, PANIONIOS, PAOK, PAS GIANNINA and PLATANIAS).
FC PLATANIAS AND FC PANIONIOS had the greatest rise in average tickets sold by 37% and 31% respectively.
The matchday with the greatest attendance was the 1st matchday with 58,842 tickets and the matchday with the less attendance was the 29th matchday with 10,163 tickets.
The 1st matchday was played on August 22-24 and AEK, ATROMITOS, VERIA, AEL KALLONIS, OLYMPIACOS, PANETOLIKOS, PANTHRAKIKOS played at their homes.
The 29th matchday was played on April 10 and AEK (match played behind closed doors), ASTERAS TRIPOLIS, VERIA, AEL KALLONIS, PANETOLIKOS, PANTHRAKIKOS, PAOK (match played behind closed doors) and PAS GIANNINA played at their homes.
The match with most tickets in this year's championship was the fixture between AEK and OLYMPIACOS (22nd matchday) with 31,121 tickets, whereas the match with the lowest number of tickets was the match between LEVADIAKOS and AEP IRAKLIS (18th matchday) with 197 tickets.
Average tickets per match day
Another interesting fact following the data analysis is that fans prefer Sunday matches since there was an average of 4,760 tickets per match in 122 matches.
Saturday matches were on the rise compared to the 2014/15 season with 3,857 tickets in 76 matches against 2,800 tickets.
On the other hand, there was an average of 2,291 tickets in 23 matches as regards Monday matches.
It should also be noted that the tickets sold for midweek matchdays were more this year since the average number of tickets sold in 11 matches played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for various reasons, was 3,889 tickets.
*The full data per matchday and the total data per club are available in the official website of Super League at www.superleaguegreece.net
