The official figure for attendances recently is around the 46k mark, capacity is 52k. Bearing in mind those will include season ticket holders who are not going and the club are seeing some big empty seating areas for the first time in a very long time. Don't underestimate how disliked Ashley is up here and he has just chipped away at fans year after year. They are not well organised enough to make a real difference, just don't buy a damned shirt next season people, but natural apathy has taken over.Saw yesterday that newcastle are giving away half season tickets to existing season ticket holders. Has support got that bad under Ashley ?
The numbers are still good but no club likes to see empty seats and this makes some sense to fill the ground again. It wont actually be that many tickets but it does show that the casual fan has turned away from the club right now as they are not selling spare tickets normally. It is actually a bit harsh on Steve Bruce who is piggy in the middle here. He is doing an equal job to Benitez but he is just not getting the same love at this point.