Lille-Lyon Will Shatter Ligue 1 Attendence Records

By: Inara | February 28th, 2008

This Saturday, the Stade de France will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary, as well as France’s 1998 World Cup victory. In conjunction with the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), they have decided to mark the occasion by scheduling a French league game at France’s national stadium.

Of the ten league games scheduled to take place this weekend, Lille-Lyon was chosen for this honor, partly because Lyon is always likely to draw neutral fans in Paris, and partly because the other games this weekend aren’t as interesting. (also, when this fête was scheduled, no one would have thought that Lille would be 20 points behind Lyon…).

So far, over 75,000 tickets have been sold. This has shattered the previously held record for an L1 match, which was 57,609 spectators for Marseille-Lyon back in August 2005. Assuming that more tickets will be purchased as we get closer to the match, this game could also break the absolute attendance record of 76,184 for Lille-Manchester United back in 2004.

The fact that a simple league game is capable of drawing these sort of numbers is reassuring for all parties involved. Lille and Lyon are currently in the process of building higher capacity stadiums, so this gives them hope that they will be able to fill most of the seats. It’s also good news for the LFP because many of the spectators are neutral fans who don’t necessarily support L1 teams but are interested in the “spectacle.” In this day and age of French football labeled boring, the LFP’s campaign might just be what is needed to revive interest in the French league.

If all goes well, the LFP may decide to make games like this an annual or even a biannual event.

Category: Ligue 1, Supporters, Team News and Rumors

Tags: Attendence, LFP, Ligue 1, Lille, Lyon, Records, Supporters, Team News and Rumors

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• lefutur |  February 28th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

  
  
  

  this along with the 8 point goal-fest in the last round of the Coupe de la Ligue could start to change a few people’s minds about the league.

  Posted from United States

  

• japple |  February 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

  
  
  

  not to mention a convincing lyon win would be great.

  Posted from United States

  

• Ray |  February 28th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

  
  
  

  Cris says he’s going to miss the CL match but is trying to make this one…?

  Posted from United States

  

• japple |  February 28th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

  
  
  

  i think perrin said somewhere that for Cris to play the 2nd leg, he would have to at least play against lille on saturday in preparation.

  however i think its rather unlikely we would see cris start at old trafford, and boumsong has actually looked pretty solid recently so…

  Posted from United States

  

• Ronald |  February 28th, 2008 at 9:20 pm

  
  
  

  hopefully cris can make it for both matches, but all we could do is wish at the moment.

  Posted from United States

  

• pean8ts |  February 29th, 2008 at 4:51 am

  
  
  

  Boumsong: injured! Will certainly be out for Lille…

  And guess where it hurts? The knee of course!!!

  http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurosport.fr%2Ffootball%2Fligue-1%2F2007-2008%2Fsport_sto1494509.shtml&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

  Posted from Luxembourg

  

• guignol |  February 29th, 2008 at 5:23 am

  
  
  

  le stade de france… the world shiniest shithole.

  Posted from France

  

• Ronald |  February 29th, 2008 at 6:48 am

  
  
  

  thats alittle harsh dont you think guignol ?

  Posted from United States

  

• Ronald |  February 29th, 2008 at 6:51 am

  
  
  

  lille is a tough opponent for any side, but realistically - i dont see benzema and kallstrom starting this game. They both need some rest and this could be a good game in which to pair up fred and delgado with govou. and cris SHOULD play, but he probably wont, which is a shame.

  Posted from United States

  

• Corey |  February 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am

  
  
  

  Its bad scheduling, because lyon should logically be resting players and taking it a little easy for this match. Which means it may open up for Lille, but i do not forsee a great match. But the idea of a match at the Stade France is great, I would support one Ligue 1 match a week be there; 75,000 spectators for one game a month is huge gate sales for two Ligue 1 teams and can only mean more money. Its like Monday Night Football for the NFL, make a game at the Stade France be the highlight of the match programme and see it take off, nuetral fans need a way to watch Ligue 1.

  Posted from United States

  

• Salieri |  February 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

  
  
  

  I don’t care about how many people will attend this game, I hope Toulalan and Benzema will be on the bench.
  And let’s hope Clerc will not get injured.

  Posted from United States

  

• Inara |  February 29th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

  
  
  

  Shit, if we lose Boumsong, it’s either forced participation of Cris or Bodmer back as CB.

  Posted from United States

  

Comments are closed