GdS: Easter enthusiasm and stadium tourism – big turnout for today’s Serie A games | OneFootball

Due to a very full calendar, Serie A has scheduled three games for Easter Sunday, with Milan-Atalanta being one of them. By the looks of it, there will be quite a turnout at the stadiums as well.

As highlighted by Gazzetta dello Sport this morning (see photo below), games on Easter hasn’t been a thing for many, many years but today, there will be three of them: Empoli-Venezia at 15:00 (9k spectators), Bologna-Inter at 18:00 (32k) and Milan-Atalanta at 20:45 (73k).

In short, the response from the fans has been very enthusiastic and it remains to be seen if the actually football will live up to the expectations.

Stadium tourism and a high average

Despite it being the Easter weekend, the less-than-exciting season and the Coppa Italia derby on Wednesday, Rossoneri fans have responded once again. Milan have the highest average attendance in Serie A this season with 71.612, which will increase slightly after today’s game.

In fact, after the clash against Gian Piero Gasperini’s side, Milan will break the ceiling of 1.2m spectators in the league alone this season. Furthermore, the city of Milan usually becomes a tourist destination during Easter, so it’s no surprise that 18k of the tickets for today were sold abroad.

Anyone who has attended San Siro recently knows that it’s not unique. The so-called ‘stadium tourism’ is now a reality for both Milan and Inter. Fans or simply foreign football enthusiasts clearly like to combine the trip to see the Duomo with a game at the Meazza, an iconic stadium.

Furthermore, for tonight’s game, a delegation from the NFL is also expected with special guest Ja’Marr Chase, wide receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals. Chase, among other things, visited Milanello on Friday and warmly greeted the two Americans of the Milan squad, Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah.

A game for the standings

The sold-out clash at Renato Dall’Ara, meanwhile, can be explained by the league standings. Bologna are in fifth place currently and are fighting for a Champions League spot, while Inter remain at the top of the standings with the Scudetto in sight.

There have been high ticket sales for many games at Bologna this season, though, with the 30k mark surpassed when the likes of Napoli, Milan, Roma and Lazio came to visit as well. Easter, however, is always a special day and the high turnout wasn’t so predictable.