by Matīss Babris
In the 2024 Estonian Premium Liiga season, attendance figures showcased a modest yet dedicated fan base across the league. FC Flora led with an average home attendance of 713 spectators per match, closely followed by FCI Levadia with 694. The league-wide average stood at 406 attendees per game, reflecting the growing interest in Estonian top-flight football. The game with the highest attendance was between before mentioned teams – FC Flora vs FCI Levadia game on May 5th gathered a crowd of 3014 at A. Le Coq Arena.
Previously we had a look at the attendance numbers in Latvian Virslīga. The series continue with Estonian Premium Liiga. As the author is only looking at attendance numbers, without deeper knowledge of Estonian fan culture, we’ll try to avoid any assumptions about attendance numbers meaning.
Attendances in Premium Liiga
With 10 teams playing 36 matchdays, the league saw a total of 180 games. Over the 2024 season, 73,033 spectators attended matches, averaging 406 fans per game. However, the median attendance was lower at 306, indicating that a handful of high-attendance games skewed the average.
Average Attendance
By looking at the average attendance for each team, we see that FC Flora and FCI Levadia are two teams with the highest average attendance – 713 and 694 respectively. Pärnu Vaprus sits in the 3rd place on its own with 569 spectators per game – slacking behind top 2 by 144 and 125 spectators and being in front by more than 173 spectators to rest of the league.
Kalju FC, Kalev Tallinn, Jalgpallikool Tammeka and Paide Linnameeskond have average attendances above 300, FC Nomme United and JK Trans Narva have the average attendances over 200 and FC Kuressaare has the lowest average attendance of 168 spectators per game.
Median Attendance
As we all know, spectators are usually more interested in derbies or games against stronger opponents. For that reason the average attendances are usually skewed in to positive direction and that’s why it is important to have a look also on median attendances of teams – the middle value of attendance numbers arranged in order. In doing so, we identify a typical attendance figure, avoiding the influence of very high or very low values.
If compared to average attendances, we see that the bottom 4 teams stay in the same positions, without any positional changes. But looking on numbers, we see that median attendances are lower than average attendances, which means that there are more games with less attendance than the average attendance for each of these teams.
We see that by the median attendance now there is a top 3 with quite similar numbers – Pärnu JK Vaprus median attendance is closer to the median attendances of FC Flora and FCI Levadia.
Jalgpallikool Tammeka, Kalev Tallinn and Nomme Kalju FC make up the middle part of the league in median attendance as well and numbers-wise is really close to each other. Interestingly, Jalgpallikool Tammeka is the only team where the median attendance is higher than the average attendance.
Games with 1000+ spectators
A notable milestone in smaller leagues is to get the attendance of 1000+ spectators. In Estonian Premium Liiga it occurred 7 times in 2024:
- GW9: FC Flora vs FCI Levadia (A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn) – 3014
- GW18: FCI Levadia vs FC Flora (A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn) – 2719
- GW26: FC Flora vs FCI Levadia (A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn) – 2360
- GW17: Pärnu JK Vaprus vs Kalev Tallinn (Pärnu Rannastaadion) – 2120
- GW25: FCI Levadia vs Nomme Kalju FC (A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn) – 1402
- GW4: FCI Levadia vs Paide Linnameeskond (Sportland Arena, Tallinn) – 1154
- GW1: FC Flora vs FC Nomme United (Sportland Arena, Tallinn) – 1033
Of those 7 games, with 1000+ spectators, 3 where Tallinn derbies between FC Flora and FCI Levadia and only one game was without involvement of these 2 teams – Pärnu JK Vaprus vs Kalev Tallinn.
Attendances by Team
Each teams attendance in more detail is showcased below.
FC Flora
FC Flora claims the top spot by the average attendance per game, reaching 713 spectators. Median attendance was set at 434. FC Flora can boast about the highest attended game (against FCI Levadia) in the season and with three home games with 1000+ spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW9 vs FCI Levadia at the A. Le Coq Arena – gathering 3014 spectators for the derby. This game was played on May 5th and resulted in a 1:0 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW5 vs JK Trans Narva at the Sportland Arena with only 202 people in the stands. This game was played on April 6th and resulted in a 4:3 win.
FCI Levadia
FCI Levadia takes the 2nd spot in the ranking by average attendance, on average there were 694 spectators per game. But FCI Levadia takes the top spot by median attendance – 439 spectators. FCI Levadia have 3 games with 1000+ spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW18 vs FC Flora at the A. Le Coq Arena – gathering 2719 spectators for the derby. This game was played on July 4th and resulted in a 1:0 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW7 vs Pärnu JK Vaprus at the Sportland Arena with only 203 people in the stands. This game was played on April 20th and resulted in a 1:1 draw.
Pärnu JK Vaprus
Pärnu JK Vaprus closes up the top 3 by average attendance with 569 spectators per game. Median attendance was 425 which is basically on the same level as the top 2 teams (FC Flora and FCI Levadia). Pärnu JK Vaprus experienced 1 game with 1000+ spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW17 vs Kalev Tallinn at the Pärnu Rannastaadion with attendance of 2120. This game was played on June 28th and resulted in a 0:1 loss.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW6 vs FC Flora at the Pärnu kunstmurustaadion with only 212 spectators in the stands. This game was played on April 14th and resulted in a 1:3 loss.
Nomme Kalju FC
Nomme Kalju FC didn’t have huge spikes in attendances like the top 3 teams had (FC Flora, FCI Levadia, Pärnu JK Vaprus) and averaged 396 spectators per game. Median attendance was 348 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was last game of the season – GW36 vs Pärnu JK Vaprus at Hiiu Staadion with 742 people in the stands. This game was played on November 9th and resulted in a 2:1 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW6 vs Paide Linnameeskond at Sportland Arena with only 181 spectators. This game was played on April 14th and resulted in a 2:1 win.
Kalev Tallinn
Kalev Tallin had a very stable attendance in the first half of the season with some spikes in the second part of the season. The average attendance throughout the season was 392 spectators per game. Median attendance was 362 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW31 vs Jalgpallikool Tammeka at Kadrioru Staadion with 921 spectators. This game was played on October 5th and resulted in a 1:2 loss.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW10 vs JK Trans Narva at Kadrioru Staadion with 226 people in the stands. This game was played on May 12th and resulted in a 1:0 win.
Tartu Tammeka
Jalgpallikool Tammeka has a stable attendance throughout the whole season with 2 spikes in GW13 and GW20. The average attendance was 361 spectators per game. Median attendance was 364.
Game with the highest attendance was GW20 vs FC Flora at Tamme Staadion with attendance of 569 spectators. This game was played on July 19th and resulted in a 2:0 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW2 vs Pärnu JK Vaprus at Tartu Sepa staadion with attendance of 249 spectators. This game was played on March 9th and resulted in a 1:0 win.
Paide Linnameeskond
Paide Linnameeskond attendance during the season was on a slight downwards trend with the spike in the last gameweek. The average attendance was 309 spectators per game. Median attendance was 296 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW36 vs FCI Levadia at Paide Linnastaadion with attendance of 682 spectators. This game was played on November 9th and resulted in a 3:0 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW34 vs Jalgpallikool Tammeka at Paide kunstmuruväljak with attendance of 170 spectators. This game was played on October 26th and resulted in a 2:0 win.
FC Nomme United
FC Nomme United had a spike of attendance in the middle of the season and a drop in the end of the season. Average attendance was 254 spectators per game. Median attendance was 237 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW20 vs Nomme Kalju FC at Männiku staadion with attendance of 502 spectators. This game was played on July 19th and resulted in a 0:4 loss.
Game with the lowest attendances was GW35 vs Paide Linnameeskond at Sportland Arena with only 78 spectators.
JK Narva Trans
JK Narva Trans had some ups and downs in attendance during the season. The average attendance was 200 spectators per game. Median attendance was 188 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW21 vs FC Nomme United at Kreenholmi Staadion with attendance of 411 spectators. This game was played on July 26th and resulted in a 2:1 win.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW16 vs FC Kuressaare at Kreenholmi Staadion with only 79 people in the stands. This game was played on June 19th and resulted in a 0:1 loss.
FC Kuressaare
FC Kuressaare was the least attended team in the league. It averaged only 168 spectators per game. Median attendance was 160 spectators.
Game with the highest attendance was GW10 vs Jalgpallikool Tammeka at Kuressaare Linnastaadion with attendance of 363 spectators. This game was played on May 11th and resulted in a 0:0 draw.
Game with the lowest attendance was GW27 vs FC Flora at Kuressaare Linnastaadion with only 68 people attending. This game was played on September 14th and resulted in a 3:4 loss.
Conclusion
There is an obvious room for improvement for all of the teams, as we can see some noticeable spikes in attendances in specific games. For now, the goal for each team could be to get closer to those high spikes also in other games, not only once or twice per season; in that way, the overall attendance would be much greater.