Bundesliga experiences astonishing first – Could this happen in the Premier League?

The Bundesliga has made headlines this weekend.

A massive shock, the first time ever this has happened.

I am not talking about Bayern Munich’s shock 3-2 defeat to Bochum, nor the fact that this result made it three defeats in a row for Harry Kane and his teammates.

I am talking about the Bundesliga overall.

Journalist Matt Forde reporting with this astonishing statistic.

For the first time ever, this weekend saw the total attendances the German second tier, Bundesliga 2 (284,643) exceed those in the Bundesliga (261,099)!

Matt Forde pointing out some of the key Bundesliga 2 attendances that were key to that happening.

Schalke 1-0 Wiesbaden (60,542)

Hertha 3-2 Magdeburg (52,652)

Nürnberg 1-1 Kaiserslautern (35,462)

Hannover 2-1 Fürth (31,500)

Obviously the fact that certain clubs were home / away in both the top two tiers helped make this happen, however, it is quite extraordinary.

So could this ever happen in the Premier League and Championship?

Here are the 2023/24 season so far stats from World Football site, showing average attendances in the top two divisions in both Germany and England.

Bundesliga

Bundesliga 2

As you can see, the top seven clubs by average home attendances this season in Bundesliga 2 are all higher than the nine worst supported clubs in the Bundesliga (In Germany the two top divisions only having 18 teams in each).

So it then becomes quickly apparent how this extraordinary weekend happened, with Bundesliga 2 matches seeing more than the top tier in Germany.

What about England though…?

Premier League

Championship

Well, looking at the average crowds in the top two divisions in England, it is certainly more than possible, indeed, almost guaranteed if the fixtures fell the right way in terms of who was playing at home on a particular weekend.

You don’t even need all of the top half Championship clubs by attendance, just take the highest ten and then compare to the 10 lowest in the Premier League.

The bottom 10 clubs in the Premier League have a collective average per match of 233,077.

Whilst the best 10 supported clubs in the Championship have a collective average of 293,785.

Maybe this has then has already happened, possibly quite a few times, where the top ten attendances on a particular weekend in the Championship have exceeded the ten collective attendances in the Premier League.

Interesting to see in the comments below whether any of you can put me right.