LaLiga smashes all-time attendance record for second straight season

With the six Liga Adelante promotion playoff games still to be played, the 2015/16 LaLiga season has already set a new attendance record. In a campaign already made momentous by the roll-out of Royal Decree 5/2015 on audiovisual rights which will allow Spain's clubs and SADs (public limited sports companies) to break new ground in terms of revenues, turnout for games has also risen to levels never seen before, with total crowds numbering 13,966,441 people between the Liga BBVA and Liga Adelante. This means that LaLiga has outstripped the tally of 13,546,935 fans who flocked to stadiums in the 2014/15 season and has broken the all-time attendance record for the second year running.

These figures once again vindicate the decision taken by LaLiga president Javier Tebas with regard to kick-off times. As well as boosting the value of television rights, the current system has seen the overall Liga BBVA attendance break the 10-million barrier for the first time, with 10,497,867 attendees across the 38 matchdays of the league season. This ensured that the 2015/16 campaign was a record-breaker in terms of the numbers attending LaLiga fixtures.

Incidentally, the peak in attendance figures across the Liga BBVA grounds came on Matchday 31, which was when FC Barcelona and Real Madrid met in El Clasico at the Camp Nou. In this, the first weekend in April, a total of 318,812 spectators descended on stadiums to watch live games.

The increase in those attending games is not just limited to the bigger stadiums within the Liga BBVA or those found in the most populated cities; it also owes to an upturn in numbers at those grounds with smaller capacities. These dual factors have seen new all-time bests recorded, with occupancy rates surpassing the 69.81% mark registered in the 2014/15 season to hit 70.92% this time round.

The stadiums which recorded the highest average occupancy during the season are Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu (82.65%), SD Eibar's Ipurua (82.50%), Sevilla FC's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan (79.43%) and R. Sporting's El Molinon (79.37%). This just goes to show that the passion for LaLiga goes beyond sporting objectives, population density or the capacity of the stadiums.