A South East 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 South East Division 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- three hundred and eighty four. For the South East Division, the number is down on the previous figure of 119,284, perhaps due to a mixture of the departure of Chatham Town and Whitehawk and the number of postponements caused by the dreadful weather.

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 South East club individually, their highest attendances of the league season look like this:

2,563 Ramsgate vs Cray Valley PM Sat 13-04-24
1,575 Sheppey United vs Erith & Belvedere Sat 20-04-24
1,039 Herne Bay vs Ramsgate Mon 28-08-23
689 Merstham vs Sevenoaks Town Sat 06-04-24
676 Burgess Hill Town vs Three Bridges Mon 01-04-24
651 Sittingbourne vs Sheppey United Mon 28-08-23
578 Lancing vs Chichester City Sat 30-03-24
556 Chichester City vs Ramsgate Sat 20-04-24
517 Hythe Town vs Ramsgate Sat 03-02-24
478 Ashford United vs Sheppey United Sat 18-11-23
435 Beckenham Town vs Sittingbourne Sat 23-03-24
412 Littlehampton Town vs Ramsgate Fri 29-03-24
361 Erith & Belvedere vs Ashford United Sun 13-08-23
314 Cray Valley PM vs Herne Bay Sat 20-04-24
305 Broadbridge Heath vs Hythe Town Sat 20-04-24
271 Horndean vs Cray Valley PM Sat 27-04-24
257 Sevenoaks Town vs Ramsgate Sat 12-08-23
234 East Grinstead Town vs Burgess Hill Town Sat 23-03-24
232 Three Bridges vs Burgess Hill Town Mon 01-01-24
206 Phoenix Sports vs Ramsgate Sat 06-04-24

The top ten attendances of the Pitching In Isthmian South East season were dominated by Ramsgate, with an honourable mention for the Ites!

2,563 Ramsgate vs Cray Valley PM Sat 13-04-24
1,625 Ramsgate vs Herne Bay Tue 26-12-23
1,575 Sheppey United vs Erith & Belvedere Sat 20-04-24
1,464 Ramsgate vs Three Bridges Sat 27-04-24
1,433 Ramsgate vs Sittingbourne Mon 01-04-24
1,337 Ramsgate vs Broadbridge Heath Sat 17-02-24
1,127 Ramsgate vs Sheppey United Sat 27-01-24
1,109 Ramsgate vs Lancing Sat 23-03-24
1,068 Ramsgate vs Ashford United Sat 02-03-24
1,042 Ramsgate vs Sevenoaks Town Sat 30-12-23

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 or Cup matches. From an FA Cup perspective, it’s worth noting the three thousand who watched Ramsgate v Woking, the one thousand, five hundred and fifty who watched Cray Valley PM v Charlton Athletic, and the seven hundred and thirty who watched Hythe Town take on Chorley in the FA Trophy.

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

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