In defence of Otto

he has long championed the quality of german supporters, last night 48,000 at 1860 v St Pauli in Bundesliga 2 thats more than many EPL clubs.

I got that figure from ARD, but other sources speak of 46000. It's a little bit surprising, because our management was very unhappy with the fixure at it was the friday before the Oktoberfest, so there may have even been more spectators.
St. Pauli is a very attractive opponent though, which explains the high number. In fact, so far all our home opponents were very attractive: Kaiserslautern, Köln and St. Pauli, which is the reason for our average attendance of ca. 46000 this season so far. Last season, we had an average of ca. 36000, and the season before ca. 40000. (that was the first season with the Allianz Arena, which partly explains this huge figure)

I think Gladbach, Cologne and Kaiserslautern home matches are usually sold out as well with average attendances of around 50000 each.

2. Bundesliga attendence (according to weltfussball.de)

1 TSV 1860 München 136.900 3 45.633
2 1. FC Köln 128.900 3 42.967
3 Bor. Mönchengladbach 100.309 3 33.436
4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 89.215 3 29.738

2007/2008 average attendences:

German Bundesliga 39,595
English Premier League 35,635
Spanish La Liga 31,815
Italian Serie A 24,012
French Ligue 1 21,720
Germany 2. Bundesliga 18,941
Dutch Eredivisie 17,969

anyone knows the average for the English Championship?

Its usually around 18,000.

What source are those averages from?

The EPL's attendance figures are dragged down by clubs like blackburn, Wigan and Fulham. Some clubs are expanding though. Portsmouth have a plan to build a new stadium. Blackburn and Fulham will never atrract much more than 20,000 though

NCFC wrote:Its usually around 18,000.

What source are those averages from?

www.weltfussball.de

to get data for a country:

click a country's name (on the left a little down, starts with 'Italien', Italy) => you'll get the page for that league

click 'Zuschauer', spectators, ( on the left again, below the selected country name ) => average attendences for all clubs in that league; at the bottom 'insgesamt' is the avg. attendence for a match in that league.

The thing is German matches cost 15 Euros

I went to watch Stevenage and Cambridge play today

2-1 to the Cambridge

Anyway they charged us £12 for child tickets and it was £15 for adult tickets.

And that's for the fucking conference, the pricing is ridiculuos in England.

Unfortunately there are a couple of issues that negatively affect English attendances and atmosphere. Tickets prices are probably the most significant issue for both of these. Still, as Frank says, the German leagues should be applauded for their attendance levels and also their atmosphere. I'm sure a lot of us in England would like English crowds to be more like those in some of the German stadiums (particularly with a return of standing terraces). I've been very impressed whenever I watch German games this season.