A Premier Attendance Review, 23-24

It’s been a fabulous season, and despite the fact we’ve spent much of it ploughing through mud or wearing so much warm clothing that we resemble the Michelin Man our attendances have been on an upward trajectory. We'll focus on the Premier in a moment, but across the League, over the course of the season, six hundred and sixteen thousand and twenty eight people (yes, some of those were the same people fifty or more times!) passed through an Isthmian turnstile, which is rather incredible- and breaks down like this:

Premier 324,928 52.75 %
North 87,544 1 4.21%
South Central 90,650 14.72%
South East 112,906 18.32%

TOTAL 616,028- which is an increase of eighty four thousand, three hundred and seventy three on the 22/23 campaign. That gives us the highest average attendance in thirty five years across the league- three hundred and eighty four.

The thirty top attendances across the league look like this- and, as you can see, are somewhat dominated by Dulwich Hamlet, with a handful of exceptions.

1=) 3,334 Dulwich Hamlet v Margate (11 Nov)/ Hashtag United (6 Jan)/ Haringey Borough (27 Jan) /Enfield Town (6 April) /Cray Wanderers (27 April) - all 3,334
2) 3,191 Dulwich Hamlet vs Kingstonian Sat 14-10-23 3,191
3) 3,069 Dulwich Hamlet vs Folkestone Invicta Sat 18-11-23 P
4) 2,973 Dulwich Hamlet vs Lewes Sat 16-03-24 P
5) 2,875 Dulwich Hamlet vs Hornchurch Sat 10-02-24 P
6) 2,796 Dulwich Hamlet vs Horsham Sat 30-12-23 P
7)2,787 Dulwich Hamlet vs Billericay Town Sat 30-03-24 P
8) 2,784 Dulwich Hamlet vs Cheshunt Sat 24-02-24 P
9) 2,737 Dulwich Hamlet vs Carshalton Athletic Tue 26-12-23 P
10) 2,712 Hastings United vs Lewes Sat 10-02-24 P
11) 2,644 Dulwich Hamlet vs Whitehawk Sat 09-03-24 P
12=) 2,588 Dulwich Hamlet vs Concord Rangers Sat 23-09-23
and
Chatham Town vs Dulwich Hamlet Mon 01-01-24
13) 2,563 Ramsgate vs Cray Valley PM Sat 13-04-24 SE
14) 2,547 Hastings United vs Hashtag United Sat 27-01-24 P
15) 2,282 Dulwich Hamlet vs Chatham Town Mon 28-08-23 P
16) 2,224 Hastings United vs Chatham Town Sat 16-03-24 P
17) 2,107 Hastings United vs Dulwich Hamlet Sat 13-01-24 P
18) 2,084 Chatham Town vs Billericay Town Sat 24-02-24 P
19) 2,069 Dulwich Hamlet vs Bognor Regis Town Sat 02-12-23 P
20) 2,067 Chatham Town vs Horsham Sat 20-04-24 P
21) 2,038 Chatham Town vs Kingstonian Mon 01-04-24 P
22) 2,019 Hastings United vs Enfield Town Sat 20-04-24 P
23) 2,018 Chatham Town vs Hashtag United Tue 30-01-24 P
24) 1,975 Lewes vs Whitehawk Mon 01-04-24 P
25) 1,939 Dulwich Hamlet vs Hastings United Sat 19-08-23 P
26) 1,897 Chatham Town vs Margate Sat 10-02-24 P
27) 1,807 Chatham Town vs Folkestone Invicta Sat 13-04-24 P
28) 1,758 Chatham Town vs Carshalton Athletic Sat 14-10-23 P
29) 1,748 Hastings United vs Whitehawk Sat 13-04-24 P
30 =) 1,719 Hastings United vs Folkestone Invicta Mon 01-04-24
Horsham vs Concord Rangers Sat 27-04-24

Out statistician, Neil Pilcher, adds the following note:

It is worth noting that last season there were forty-one attendances within the Isthmian League’s four Divisions over 1,000. This season that has more than doubled to one hundred and three. This included seven attendances over 3,000 (all at Dulwich Hamlet), and twenty-one over 2,000 with the end-of-season clash at the top of the South East Division between Ramsgate and Cray Valley PM being the only one outside the Premier Division.

If we look at each Premier club individually, their highest attendances of the league season look like this:

3,334 Dulwich Hamlet v Margate (11 Nov)/ Hashtag United (6 Jan)/ Haringey Borough (27 Jan)/Enfield Town (6 April)/Cray Wanderers (27 April)
2,712 Hastings United vs Lewes Sat 10-02-24
2,588 Chatham Town vs Dulwich Hamlet Mon 01-01-24
1,975 Lewes vs Whitehawk Mon 01-04-24
1,719 Horsham vs Concord Rangers Sat 27-04-24
1,404 Billericay Town vs Margate Sat 27-04-24
1,318 Hornchurch vs Chatham Town Sat 06-04-24
1,271 Enfield Town vs Cheshunt Mon 01-04-24
1,215 Bognor Regis Town vs Horsham Tue 26-12-23
1,149 Cheshunt vs Enfield Town Tue 26-12-23
1,146 Whitehawk vs Lewes Tue 26-12-23
1,138 Folkestone Invicta vs Hashtag United Sat 30-12-23
1,082 Carshalton Athletic vs Dulwich Hamlet Mon 01-04-24
946 Haringey Borough vs Enfield Town Mon 28-08-23
921 Margate vs Potters Bar Town Sat 09-09-23
905 Concord Rangers vs Canvey Island Mon 28-08-23
853 Canvey Island vs Billericay Town Sat 10-02-24
600 Hashtag United vs Hornchurch Mon 01-01-24
467 Potters Bar Town vs Kingstonian Sat 23-03-24
441 Kingstonian vs Carshalton Athletic Mon 28-08-23
404 Cray Wanderers vs Dulwich Hamlet Sat 25-11-23
373 Wingate & Finchley vs Carshalton Athletic Sat 27-04-24

Finally, the image above lets us look at their average attendances- and how they compare with the previous campaign. It makes interesting reading, and where there is red instead of green there seems often to be a correlation with postponed and rescheduled matches, unsurprisingly.

Just before we end, it’s worth reminding you that these figures relate only to attendances in the League- and they don’t include the Play Offs. That means, particularly, we should remember the three thousand people that watched Horsham take on Barnsley in an FA Cup First Round Replay, and the capacity crowds who watched our Play Off Semi-Finals and Final.

Thanks again to Neil Pilcher for all of the facts and figures!

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