Freedom of Information requests made by Claret and Hugh to Newham council have revealed that over 306,000 fans who purchased tickets between August 2023 and January 2025 never turned up to the London Stadium.
The spreadsheet below which lists game by game with the official attendance (tickets sold) against the real attendance (data from the turnstiles shared with Newham council Safety Advisory Board) shows the extent of those who bought a ticket but choose not to turn up.
It reveals for the first time the attendance of the Betway cup last August against Celta De Vigo in which 16,078 attended with many staying away after protesting against a change of concessions policy by the club.
A home against Wolves in December 2023 saw over 17,000 missing despite buying a ticket and this year’s game against Fulham in January was also missing over 17,000 supporters.
A home game against Brentford in February 2024 last year was missing over 21,500 ticket holders.
The best attended Premier League game against Manchester City in September 2023 still saw nearly 4,500 missing from the London Stadium with ticket holders’ seats left empty.
Hi Sean,
Some games are missing from your table:
2023/24 Sunday 03/12/2023 Crystal Palace, Premier League, 62,459
2023/24 Sunday 11/02/2024 Arsenal, Premier League, 62,474
2023/24 Sunday 10/03/2024 Burnley, Premier League, 62,441
2023/24 Sunday 17/03/2024 Aston Villa, Premier League, 62,461
2024/25 Saturday 09/11/2024 Everton, Premier League, 62,483
also, some dates are incorrect:
Chelsea is 20/08/23 not 10/08/23
Olympiacos is 09/11/23 not 12/11/23
Forest is 12/11/23 not 03/12/23
Man Utd is 27/10/24 not 09/11/24
Do you have the information for the missing games?
Can you supply the link to the FOI response?
Cheers
Lee
A typo in my reply ref Chelea match date 19/08/23 not 10/08/23
Appalling but no more than what i thought or expected as the Stadium is awful and the performances over the time have been the same.
I blame much of this on the Chairman and the Board who are not REALLY interested in the Club and more interested in how much money they can get/make in the long run.
This has been the problem since we left Upton Park, again a money making exercise with unfulfilled promises, which we should never have done.
The obvious question here is why don’t West Ham United publish the real attendance figures instead of tickets sold. Arsenal do the same and there is no reason to do so.
Such a fountain of positivity to warm us all up on a cold March morning.
I currently live out in the north Essex / Suffolk area which if there are no trains or rail replacement service it is a nightmare to get there. I am a ST holder and have missed many games over the last couple of seasons. But the travel isn’t the main reason it is the awful brand of football we have been served up, the toxic atmosphere in the ground. It’s getting slightly more palatable and the new manager seems much better so may keep my ST for one more year in the hope we see some real entertainment. When I was a kid I would really look forward to going to a game but now it just seems like a chore.
I stand behind the goal in the Bobby morre stand one of my mates is about 9 seats away and he is directly behind the goal which is an even worse view than mine so when the 2 fellas who stood next to me last season said they were giving up their ST, before this years tickets were allocated at the end of last season we tried to move his seat 9 spaces to the right and were given a ridiculous list of reasons why this couldn’t be done. All complete boll***s. So when I miss games I tend not to use ticket exchange so the club can then get double the original price from a tourist. When a club treats the fans so poorly it is no wonder the place is so shit and the atmosphere so poorly and attendance so poor.
Bit surprised the list has official attendance 62000 for the last two seasons as you previous said season tickets sales 2023/24…55000
and 2024/25…48500. If those 6500 are now match day tickets apart from Arsenal fans buying them, not many games can have 62000 tickets sold this season. Last season they didn’t want OAPs and kids, greed f### them, no concession. They are freezing tickets as they don’t want ST numbers going down. How could they increase prices after this season.
Yes, I’d like to see which games were midweek nights, and which were TV.
I don’t suppose Sean has this detail, but I’d also like to see which games were severely effected by travel restrictions too.
Another one is how quickly we were allowed to resell our tickets too, if it was only a matter of days you don’t have much chance.
I’m not sure I’d agree that the quality of the opposition was the key point, I’ve missed the last two Gooners games (away for the Carabao/missus ill on the 2nd) and the Liverpool game over the New Year.
Of all the points, and only the ticket office will know this, is WHO hasn’t turned up. Unless someone has a genuine reason (illness etc) not to use their ticket on a many many occasions, I think they should have to go back on the waiting list, and let someone who wants to turn up for a high % of the games have that ticket.
I don’t think it’s just the opponent that makes people not want to go to that particular game but also if it’s a midweek game at an eight o’clock kick off.
I went to the game on Thursday as i hate missing games but i’d love to know what the official attendance was?
A helpful tab to add to the table would have been the day and time of the games. The fact that extensive TV involvement not only moves games to midweek… and late times on weekends – is surely impacting on attendance. Reselling tickets does not generate attendance for these matches as many remain unsold. It is a critical factor in the way that TV now controls the game…. and I am sure there are few clubs who would report a different analysis on missing numbers.
Would agree on your comment about TV involvement Jonathon.
It’s lovely having all the TV money rolling in and making the premier league the best in the world but the caveat is that Sky and Tnt just decide to move a Saturday game to a midweek evening kick off and the clubs have to agree.
I think there’s something wrong with both sets of figures, I mean I was at the Wolves game where apparently there were over 19,000 missing. Yeah there were quite a few missing but 19,000! That’s practically a third of the ground, no way! That would be like if all the Billy Bonds plus even more hadn’t turned up.
I am not sure what point you are trying to make or what the problem is. There are numerous reasons why s/t holders miss some games. Providing they put on them on ticket exchange
I like the way you mention the concessions in the post, but miss the link to the fact we sell so many reduced price tickets being part of the problem; if people were made to pay more for a ticket, they might feel more compelled to use it.
It’s not just a West Ham issue; looking down the list, there’s clearly a correlation between both the attractiveness of the opponent and whether games are televised.
I suspect if we’re winning, people are far more likely to turn up, but reflecting on the last year of Moyes’ losing streak and Lopetegui’s disaster wasn’t inspiring enough to get me to games.
I like the way you mention the concessions in the post, but miss the link to the fact we sell so many reduced price tickets being part of the problem; if people were made to pay more for a ticket, they might feel more compelled to use it.
It’s not just a West Ham issue; looking down the list, there’s clearly a correlation between both the attractiveness of the opponent and whether games are televised.
I suspect if we’re winning, people are far more likely to turn up, but reflecting on the last year of Moyes’ losing streak and Lopetegui’s disaster wasn’t inspiring enough to get me to games.
It would be interesting to know if it is similar at other premier league clubs.
Season tickets too cheap?
Have you seen the prices . Yes there’s some cheap season tickets but the vast majority are at least in line with most other clubs and way dearer in most cases . Mine costs £1700 .