Kerala Blasters FC greeting fans after their final home match of ISL 2019-20 season (Photo: ISL)
Kochi: Kerala Blasters had all the ingredients for success; a talented group of players, an inspiring and influential coach but the team was a failed experiment.
By the time Blasters played their last home game, even the loyal fans, who proudly call themselves ‘Manjappada’ or the yellow army seemed to have abandoned them. The attendance for the match between Kerala Blasters and Bengaluru on Saturday was a mere 7754.
Kerala Blasters had the best attendance in the first four seasons of Indian Super League (ISL). However, the attendance for the 2019-20 season was 1,57,641. Though there is a slight increase in comparison to last year’s attendance of 1,36,996 but the figures are much lower compared to the previous years.
During the first ISL season, Kerala Blasters had an average attendance of 49,111. It rose to 52,008 during the second season; an increase of 5.9 percent. However, during the third season, the number reduced to 49,343 before further reducing to 31,743 during the fourth ISL season. The fifth ISL season saw the average attendance reducing to just 17,125. The average attendance in the 2019-20 season is 17,515.
Attendance at Kochi during 2019-20 ISL season | |
| Opponent
| Attendance
|
| ATK FC
| 36,298
|
| Mumbai City FC
| 28,445
|
| Odisha FC
| 20,107
|
| FC Goa
| 21,157
|
| Jamshedpur FC
| 12,772
|
| NorthEast United FC
| 12,168
|
| Hyderabad FC
| 9,856
|
| Chennaiyin FC
| 9,084
|
| Bengaluru FC
| 7,754
|
It must be noted that five among the top nine attendances in the history of ISL were recorded in Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, the home ground of Kerala Blasters. The other four were recorded in Salt Lake Stadium, officially known as Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK), the home ground of ATK FC.
The record attendance at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium was a whopping 62,087 that witnessed the match against Delhi FC in the second season of ISL.
The numbers prove that no matter how good they are in terms of statistics, if the team does not secure victories, the attendance will fall.
While 36,298 people flocked to the Kaloor stadium to watch Kerala Blasters take on ATK FC in the opening match of the 2019-20 ISL season. However, as the men in yellow struggled to win matches that followed, the fans stopped just stopped coming.
Seasonal attendance for Kerala Blasters FC | |
| Year
| Total attendance
|
| 2014
| 39,2886
|
| 2015
| 36,4054
|
| 2016
| 44,4087
|
| 2017
| 28,5870
|
| 2018
| 13,6996
|
| 2019
| 15,7641
|
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