UPDATE (16/6/2008): BallinEurope checked the attendance figures of the different European leagues and has compiled some stats based on the averages. We didn’t see any big surprises, as Spanish ACB still tops the list.
The ACB is by far the league that has the best averages in 2007/2008. Second prize goes to Italy, while France takes the bronze medal. The total ranking is incomplete because we could not get figures from several European leagues, including those for Israel, Belgium or Poland. And the figures we took into account are only those for the regular season.
UPDATE (16/6/2008): Figures for the Russian Superleague and the Adriatic League have been added.
So here is the ranking of the leagues according to information available to the public or received by BallinEurope.com from qualified sources:
- ACB (Spain): 6387.00 in attendance per game
- Lega (Italy): 3740.81
- ProA (France): 3503.56
- Bundesliga (Germany): 3469.75
- LEB Gold (Spain): 2944.44
- Superleague (Russia): 2276.76
- Baltic Elite Division: 2238.97
- ProB (France): 1720.00
- Beko League (Turkey): 1363.31
- A1 (Greece): 1228.29
- Adriatic League: 1179.62
- ProA (Germany): 1039.12
- Finland: 865.67
- LNBA (Switzerland): 678.93
- ProB (Germany): 636.11
- Baltic Challenge: 420.73
When it comes to the attendance for individual European teams, we see a common name at the top of the list: CAI Zaragoza, which is averaging an incredible 10,200 fans per game in Spain’s 2nd division, LEB Gold. Other top spots are also dominated by Spanish teams starting with MMT Estudiantes Madrid and Unicaja Malaga at numbers 2 and 3. The first non-Spanish team is Virtus Bologna, in 7th place.
UPDATE (16/6/2008): The figures for the ACB have been corrected with official figures from the ACB League. We have also added figures from the Russian Superleague and Adriatic League (excepting KK Zadar, KK Split and Geoplin Slovon, none of which published attendance figures within boxscores).
For this ranking, we had no figures for the French teams, only general attendance figures for the league were provided without details per team.
- Basket CAI Zaragoza (LEB Gold): 10,200.0 in attendance per game
- MMT Estudiantes (ACB): 9641.0
- Unicaja Málaga (ACB): 9152.0
- Real Madrid (ACB): 8917.0
- Tau Ceramica (ACB): 8629.0
- DKV Joventut (ACB): 7744.0
- CB Granada (ACB): 7498.0
- La Fortezza Virtus Bologna (Lega): 6989.2
- ALBA Berlin (Bundesliga): 6907.9
- Brose Baskets Bamberg (Bundesliga): 6864.7
- Pamesa Valencia (ACB): 6864.0
- Scavolini Spar Pesaro (Lega): 6447.2
- Bruesa GBC (LEB Gold): 6300.0
- Capitol Valladolid (ACB): 6182.0
- Iurbentia Bilbao (ACB): 5747.0
- Cajasol (ACB): 5353.0
- ViveMenorca (ACB): 5310.0
- Grupo Begar León (ACB): 5285.0
- Barons/LMT (Baltic League): 5235.6
- Alta Gestión Fuenlabrada (ACB): 5099.0
Some big names in European basketball place a bit lower in the rankings, such as like Montepaschi Siena (4987.5 per game), FC Barcelona (4629.0), Panathinaikos (4360.4), Benetton Treviso (2698.6), Zalgiris Kaunas (2384.1) and Efes Pilsen Istanbul (1098.0).
NB: Please note that all figures are official figures published or communicated by the leagues or transmitted by league officials to BallinEurope.com.
UPDATE (16/6/2008): The numbers from the Russian Superleague and the AdriaticLeague have been calculated by the BallinEurope.com team. The numbers from LEB Gold were provided by the “Spanish Calculator” and represent those from the first part of the season only.
some of the leagues you mentioned do post figures but it still require gathering them and analysing. a raw estimation (by me) would say israel has about 1,500 fans per game. maccabi has about 3500 regularly which can rise when facing top oppnents. champions from Hulon and hapoel jerusalem has about 1,500 per game (which is about full-house).
anyway – nice job done. those numbers are interesting. there are many fans in rather unnoticed locations (Latvia for example BiH teams used to have big numbers in the adriatic), i’d guess that Kazan has the highest attendence in russia and that’s part of the reason why the national team was playing there.
interesting post.
@ziv
which leagues do you mean?
If anyone has official figures of other leagues, please email them to us
Adriatic and Russian leagues do publish the nubmers along with the box-scores . it does require checking all the games.
[...] June 14, 2008 · No Comments (Source: BallinEurope.com) [...]
http://www.acb.com/redaccion.php?id=49393
ACB official numbers
Christophe, the Russian league attendance numbers were published on every single game this season and on previous seasons on the league official web site. The only problem is doing all that math..
[...] ACB remains leader in attendance : Ball in Europe – Basketball Blog 06/14 11:22, 2008 引述 :『The ACB is by far the league that has the best averages in 2007/2008. Second prize goes to Italy, while France takes the bronze medal. The total ranking is incomplete because we could not get figures from several European leagues, including those for Russia, Israel, Poland and the Adriatic League. And the figures we took into account are only those for the regular season.』 [...]
The average for the swedish league would be around 1000. In top is Plannja who averages around 1900..
well i am from spain and that´s true my team is estudiantes i´ve got a carnet and i always go to see this fantastic team. is true taht this team never won anything but the best thing is in every game the fans are over there even if is the worst game to see. i love this team, and i give you an advice. if you have the chance to visit madrid go to see a game for estudiantes
thank you.
akasvayu girona(acb) has 3900 per game..
El CAI a la ACB, el año que viene repetiremos.
Ese Cai!! The first!!
Zaragoza the best city of europe in basketboll
[...] της Ευρώπης. Ολόκληρο το άρθρο παρατίθεται εδώ . Η Ισπανία όπως διαπιστώνεται από το άρθρο [...]
[...] complicitat de les institucions i ingressos atípics, un equip que no ha tingut ni 5000 espectadors per partit i que encara no té patrocinador per l’any vinent pot fer un forat així de gran i [...]
[...] we have talked already about the attendances of the different leagues, we take a closer look at the three main European competitions and their [...]
Baltic Elite Division: 2238.97: Is it completely correct ?
Anyways your blog is seriously much informative
this is the average as it has been given by the Baltic league
We re the best league in Europe,thought the attendence here a Leb gold club can win Real.
The leader is Cai,a new acb team.
Too many distances till between other sports
Viva el Cai,viva darren-Philip
[...] televisives paupèrrimes i tenir la meitat dels equips amb impagaments i l’aigua al coll. Fa poc un estudi situava l’ACB al capdavant de les lligues en assitència als pavellons. El CAI, de LEB fins ara, era l’equip líder de la classificació, on entre els 20 primers no [...]
Maybe you forgot to put Legadue (Italy) in the list. Last season that league averaged 2390 in attendance per game.
the list is wrong , there aren’t the maccabi tel aviv and lietuvos rytas vilnius ??? !!!
[...] The first major European League, the German Bundesliga, started this weekend. You can still join our Fantasy League Division and if you want to get the real feeling, watch the impressive pre-season trailer from Telekom Baskets Bonn. By the way, the league will start with three new arenas and is about to reach 2nd place in our European attendance ranking. [...]
[...] German Bundesliga sees ALBA Berlin at the top. Not a real surprise for the new favorite for the best attendance in Europe (more than 13.000 fans on average after the first 3 games). The surprise of the season is [...]
in Finland the average is nowadays closer to 1000.