The National League was last season watched by over two million spectators for the first time in the competition’s history.




In what was a landmark campaign, crowds peaked to an all-time high as supporters surged through the turnstiles.


The highest attendance in the National League was the 8,282 recorded by Wrexham for their match with title rivals Salford City in January.
Stockport County were the most well-watched club in the National League North, with 6,311 seeing their home game with Spennymoor Town.


Despite dropping a division, Torquay United’s crowds were in fact up 32 per cent in the National League South – a season-best of 5,351 witnessed their Bank Holiday game with Hungerford Town.


National League chairman Brian Barwick said: “The National League is in wonderful shape and I am thrilled to say we have surpassed the two million mark for attendances for the first time.


“The figure is considerably larger than ten years ago, and it’s incredibly encouraging to see some many people going through the turnstiles at our football clubs, the heartbeat of our communities.”


National League chief executive Michael Tattersall echoed those words.
“This season our three divisions have exceeded an aggregate of two million for the first time,” he said.


“That mean crowds have nearly doubled in size over the past decade. This is wonderful news.”


Everyone knows the National League North is a divisions littered with big clubs, many of which have played in the Football League not so long ago.


But in terms of crowd increase from a year ago, the numbers were up most for the clubs who have been in Non-League for a very long time.
The power of promotion is clearly very big – Ashton United won’t argue against that.


Incredibly, their crowds rose by a whopping 70.4 per cent after coming up from the Evo-Stik NPL back in August.


Altrincham of course went up with them as champions. Their attendances surged by 41.7 per cent in their first year back, helped of course by another push for promotion!


Nuneaton’s struggles brought their fans together, gates up 34.4 per cent at Liberty Way – helped of course by over 3,000 Stockport County fans seeing them lifting the title on the final day.


Chorley’s title chase had their fans coming back for more every other Saturday. Jamie Vermiglio’s Magpies’ crowds were up by 34.38 per cent.


AFC Telford United too enjoyed a promotion-push kick back, their gates increased by a quarter, with Kevin Wilkin clearly doing something right at Brackley Town – they posted a 19.7 per cent hike.


The biggest season-on-season increases:
Ashton United: 70.4 per cent
Altrincham: 41.7 per cent
Nuneaton: 34.4 per cent
Chorley: 34.38 per cent
AFC Telford United: 25.8 per cent
Brackley Town: 19.7 per cent
Highest three club attendances:
Stockport County v Spennymoor: 6,311
Nuneaton v Stockport County: 4,054
Chorley v Stockport County: 3,597