Iranian Attendance Surges At World League Round 2

2017 FIVB WORLD LEAGUE – ROUND 2, DAY 3 SUMMARY

• June 2nd-July 8th, 2017
• Tournament site
• Results
• Round 1 – Day 1 Summary and Videos
• Round 1 – Day 2 Summary and Videos
• Round 1 – Day 3 Summary and Videos
• Round 2 – Day 1 Summary and Videos
• Round 2 – Day 2 Summary and Videos
• Round 2 – Day 2 Summary and Videos

Note: All attendance figures are direct from the FIVB World League website. If attendance numbers are listed wrong on the site, those errors will throw off this data as well.

As the FIVB World League’s Group 1 moved to three new host cities, Tehran, Iran exploded for the three highest single-match attendance figures and by far the biggest total attendance numbers, according to what’s listed on the FIVB World League website.

The numbers are staggering enough to raise eyebrows, especially after reports suggested Iran was refusing to sell spectator tickets to women. On the other hand, Iran does have a strong international track record in volleyball, and highlight videos and event photos do show a packed-house crowd:

Iran vs Argentina, listed attendance 12,000. Courtesy of FIVB

Site-By-Site

Iran’s total listed attendance obliterated all other sites, both from this week (Bulgaria and France were the other two) and last (Italy, Serbia and Russia). Matches in Iran averaged almost 7,000 spectators apiece, and total attendance between the six matches was over 37,000. That’s almost double the highest total attendance from last week, 21,700 from Italy.

Week 2 Sites:

Weeks 1 and 2:

Home-Court Advantage

Iran also led in home-court advantage, at least in terms of the boost in attendance for matches involving the host nation. Tehran-hosted matches that didn’t feature Iran still pulled an average of about 2400 spectators, but matches featuring the Iranian team boasted a whopping 11,500 spectators on average. That’s more than double the best average home-team attendances from last week.

Here’s the full numbers, expressed in averages of the three home-team or non-home-team matches at each site:

Bulgaria showed home-team support at a fairly similar level, while French fans showed up in force for all matches, holding the highest attendance for matches not featuring the host nation.

Still, no host had the insane 1200% home-team boost that Serbia had last week.

By Day

This week once again saw a dip in attendance on Saturday, though in week 2, fans showed up best on Sunday. On the first weekend, attendance was at its highest on Friday and almost came back to similar levels by Sunday.

Week 1:

Fast Facts

A few more fast facts:

• Highest single-match attendance: 12000, Iran vs Argentina in Tehran, Iran
• Lowest single-match attendance: 500, Belgium vs Argentina in Tehran, Iran
• Highest attendance for a match not involving the host nation: 4750, Serbia vs Argentina in Tehran, Iran
• Lowest attendance for a match involving the host nation: 3750, France vs Russia in Pau, France

Belgium has now been involved in the two lowest-attended matches of the tournament. The 300 spectators for USA-Belgium in week 1 is still the tournament low.

Russia has been the opponent for both week’s lowest attendance for a match involving the home team. Only 4100 showed up to watch Russia play Argentina and Bulgaria at home, and only 3750 fans showed up to watch Russia play France in France.

Full Numbers