What were the stadiums with the most fans in 2023

Stadiums are a central theme in modern football, an essential facility for fans and clubs alike, transformed over the years from a stage for the game to a place to live all week before the match. In some cities, shops, museums and green spaces have been integrated so that they become even more part of the urban fabric and build a close relationship with the fans. The most striking cases are in Germany, where the 50+1 rule was introduced, and in England, where stadiums are an important asset for clubs that own them.

It is therefore no coincidence that the stadiums with the highest annual average number of spectators are in the Bundesliga, with Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena in second place with 75,000 average spectators and Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park in first place with more than 81,000 fans. In third place is Manchester's Old Trafford with 73,503 spectators on average for the Red Devils, despite not having the best moment in their recent history. Fourth and fifth place both belong to the San Siro, with the Nerazzurri averaging 73,163 spectators, just ahead of the Rossoneri with 72,362. Close behind are the Santiago Bernabeu, which holds slightly fewer than 70,000 Merengues spectators on average due to ongoing renovation work, and the Orange Velodrome in Marseille with 63,621. In eighth place is Italy's second-largest stadium, the Giallorossi's Olimpico in Rome, which holds an average of 62,439 fans. Rounding off the top ten are West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur, two of the many London clubs on the transfer market list.

Although the Premier League only has three clubs in the top ten, it has ten in the top fifty, including the Suderland Stadium, which currently belongs to the Championship. As evidence of how much English stadiums have favoured filling and optimising every available seat over the years, one must then read the statistics on the percentage of seats filled, where Tottenham Stadium and Emirates Stadium reach 100%. This is a strategy that aims to utilise the entire facility during the game and create the atmospheric ambience of English football. German football is also focussing on the stadium experience for fans, with Bayern Munich and Borussia only having sell-out home games this season. In Serie A, other stadiums have struggled to match the San Siro's record of averaging more than 95 per cent capacity, with sectors sometimes closed and seats unusable.