Autumn at the RCDE Stadium

With an average of 17,745 spectators in the 16 games played at the RCDE Stadium, Espanyol faces the last three days with the desire to avoid the worst statistics since the stadium’s inauguration in the 2009-10 campaign. A datum with asterisks, since the first two days of the championship were still marked by restrictions: against Villarreal only 12,000 (30%) could attend and against Atlético 16,000 (40%). Also compensated, as in other campaigns such as relegation, by promotions to members so that the stands of the stadium will present a better image.

With 20,348 subscribers and 29,501 members, Espanyol has been losing affluence once the novelty of Cornellà-El Prat faded. The first years with Mauricio Pochettino on the bench, the influx was declining but remained, in the 2012-13 academic year, at 21,103. The fall from the first campaign was notorious (27,861). The promised jump in quality of the team with Dani Sánchez Llibre and Ramon Condal (“we must go to Europe at least two or three times every five years”) did not happen and the fans grew disenchanted, especially at a time when coaches and players were constantly changing.

The arrival of Chen Yansheng revived the influx to the stadium after the hiring of Quique Sánchez Flores and the investment in signings. In the 2016-17 academic year, the 20,000 barrier was broken again after two years of being below it, but the spark was short-lived. The following year, according to Transfermarkt data, the worst figure was recorded: 17,847, subsequently compensating for the year of Joan Francesc Ferrer, Rubi (19,388), and for the year of decline, where promotions increased and the pandemic prevented will play the final stretch of the championship with the public (23,513).

In this season, the fans have been constant, without large peaks in viewers or numbers below 14,500 when there were no longer any restrictions. The few capacity before Real Madrid (23,377) or Barcelona (25,049)while the schedules of the season have not favored either, such as four games played at 2:00 p.m. and another four days during the week.

The improvement of the team away from home and its attempt to approach the European zone in these days that remain could be an incentive to correct the data in a campaign in which Vicente Moreno’s men have straightened the course. Rayo Vallecano, Osasuna and Valencia They are the teams that will visit the blue and white stadium, all of them in that nobody’s zone in which Espanyol navigates one more campaign, its standard.