Reason to celebrate comes at a high price as Cardiff City won their FA Cup game in nearly empty stadium. Fan boycott brought the stadium’s lowest turnout ever.

It seems ironic that Cardiff City’s first game in 2015 drew fewer fans then there are new red seats installed in the stadium just last summer. Cardiff City Stadium was expanded by over 5,000 seats in 2014 and the team opened to a dramatic low of 4,194 people, representing barely over 12.5% of available capacity (32,898).

The Friday night game against Colchester enjoyed even fewer fans than the 2009 fixture against Dagenham and Redbridge in the League Cup (5,545). While Cardiff City won 3:1 yesterday and advanced to the fourth round of FA Cup, the club has little reason to celebrate. Media coverage gives nearly equal attention to the crowd drop as to the result on the pitch.

Cardiff City Stadium’s lowest attendance wasn’t a coincidence, but a planned expression of displeasure with the Bluebirds’ direction. The club was rebranded, suffered from five games without a win and was also criticized recently for raising entry prices. Also, the game against lower-ranked Colchester was televised, so the undecided fans were easier to convince to join the boycott.

Photo: Jon Candy (cc: by-sa)