All 24 EFL Championship club stadiums graded from A to F for their atmosphere | OneFootball

A good atmosphere for home matches can have an effect on a team's performance on the pitch, so here's how the 24 Championship clubs weigh up.

It's been proven that a good atmosphere can have a significant effect on a team's performance, so here are the 24 grounds in the EFL Championship, ranked from A-F.

Professional football is about much, much more than 22 players kicking a ball around on a pitch. Matches themselves are an event, with the sound of thousands of people cheering or booing at the same time, organised singing and the back and forth between sets of opposing supporters.

Studies have been carried out on the effects of stadium atmosphere on players and match officials, and it's been pretty much conclusively proven that the atmosphere inside a ground on a match-day can make a huge difference to how a match plays out. From subconsciously affecting the decisions that a referee might make to even spiking cortisol levels in the players themselves, it can be more influential than we believe it to be.

It should also be added, though, that none of this is a judgement call on fan bases themselves. Stadium capacity, location and architecture can all play a role, as can the way in which a club is being run by its owners. Indeed, some of the most intense atmospheres inside a ground at matches can be found at clubs which are being mismanaged from the top down.

But different grounds do have different atmospheres, so let's take a look at the 24 Championship clubs to determine whose home matches may be having more of a positive effect on the teams playing there than others.

24 ? ? Ewood Park - F

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Well, somebody had to be bottom of the pile. The issue that Blackburn Rovers have had for many years is a conflation of two issues.

Firstly, Ewood Park is too big for Blackburn. They were the only club in the Championship in 2025-26 whose average attendance was less than half the capacity, and even when the club were the champions of England in 1995, the stadium wasn't sold out every week.

Ewood Park was rebuilt in the early 1990s to give it a capacity of 31,367, but the entire population of the Blackburn and Darwen area is only around 150,000 people, so even with big away ticket allocations, the ground is never full.

And secondly, there is long-standing disgruntlement among supporters over the way in which the club has been run by its owners, which doesn't help. Returning to the Premier League may fix the crowd size issue, but whether that will happen under the current ownership is a very open question indeed.

23 ? ? The London Stadium - F

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Big isn't always beautiful. The history of football is littered with stories of clubs moving into grounds which are wholly unsuitable for football, from QPR decamping to White City in the early 1960s to Rotherham United ending up playing at Don Valley in the 2000s, but there may have been no greater a folly in 21st century football in England than West Ham United's decision to move from the Boleyn Ground in 2016.

On paper, it looked perfect. With a 62,000 capacity and with the club being based in London, where premium prices can be charged, the move was pitched as being a stadium capable of turning West Ham into challengers for a place in the Champions League. And on top of this, an incredible deal was agreed which made it extremely inexpensive for the club.

But there was one massive problem with all of this. The London Stadium is simply not a football stadium. The views from either end are atrocious, and even when close to capacity, and the performance of the team on the pitch hasn't helped either, in recent years. All the rebranding and bubble machines in the world can't fix this, but the question of how it can be resolved is unlikely to have an inexpensive answer.

We know that it's not West Ham fans who are the problem. The Boleyn Ground was an absolute bear-pit, while West Ham's two opening home league attendances so far this season in the Championship have averaged at over 60,000. But it's difficult to argue that the club's decision to leave their East End home for Stratford wasn't influenced more by looking at numbers on a spreadsheet than understanding how and why crowd dynamics are so important to football clubs.

22 ? ? The Cardiff City Stadium - E

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The issue that Cardiff City have with their stadium is similar to Blackburn, only on a smaller scale. The Cardiff City Stadium is a bit too big for the club, if they're not in the Premier League.

The figures here are telling. Cardiff have spent two seasons in the Premier League since moving in, and on both occasions crowds shot up. In 2012-13 they increased from 22,999 to 27,430, and in 2018-19 they shot up from 20,164 to 31,408. Long-standing disgruntlement over the ownership of VIncent Tan hasn't helped, either.

Cardiff fans have a long-held reputation for being, to put it mildly, a pretty boisterous bunch, but in recent years there have been a lot of empty seats on display. The good news here is that attendances for this season so far have been extremely healthy indeed, which indicates that the club can still take advantage of their huge catchment area and grow further.

21 ? ? Y Cae Ras (The Racecourse Ground) - E

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The issue with Y Cae Ras is one that will likely only be a temporary one, and is ultimately an unfortunate side effect of the terrible way in which the club was run for years. The Kop End of the ground was closed in 2007 and effectively run to seed, and a ground being three-sided has an inevitable effect on atmosphere.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have taken action over this. A temporary stand was put in place, and a massive new stand is now being built at that end. But for the time being, Wrexham fans have to continue to endure a three-sided ground until it's completed.

20 ? ? The Swansea.com Stadium - E

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Completing a trifecta of Welsh clubs near the bottom of this list are Swansea City. The size of the Swansea.com Stadium isn't the issue. The problem is stagnation on the pitch. Five consecutive seasons in mid-table in the Championship have had an effect on attendances and consequently the match-day atmosphere there.

But there is good reason that this could be set to improve, with an impressive start to the 2026-27 season having pushed the club towards the top of the division. If the Swans can maintain this form, fans might well find that the decline in atmosphere caused by half a decade of relative inertia on the pitch could soon be arrested.

19 ? ? Deepdale - D

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After eleven consecutive seasons in the Championship, most of which have been spent in mid-table, it can feel as though Preston North End have had the life sucked out of them a little.

Deepdale isn't too big for the club, and visiting there makes for a fascinating mixture of the history of the game in this country and architecture which, despite having been rebuilt more than two decades ago, retains an air of modernity to it.

But attendances have stagnated, and this season's poor start is unlikely to help with that. One of the more fascinating "what ifs" of the Championship is what might happen to Preston North End were they promoted into the Premier League. Sadly for fans, there hasn't been much likelihood of this happening in recent years.

18 ? ? Vicarage Road - D

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Vicarage Road has been subject to one of the more sympathetic ground re-designs of the last thirty years, and it is now completely enclosed, but it has earned a reputation for getting a little quiet on match-days, which is somewhat ironic, given that one of the most febrile atmospheres of any Championship match of the last twenty years was witnessed at this very venue.

Again, though, what happens on the pitch makes a difference. Watford have had no issues in getting healthy crowds in at Vicarage Road in recent years, but it's a lot more difficult to build a huge atmosphere when the team has been flat-lining on the pitch.

17 ? ? Turf Moor - D

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Burnley's situation is a little like Watford's was a few years ago, in that they became a yo-yo club between the top two divisions. But also like Watford, there's a possibility that they've stopped bouncing this season. Their poor start to 2026-27 has impacted Clarets fans, and this, in turn, has affected the atmosphere at Turf Moor, although it remains one of the quintessential old school grounds to visit.

16 ? ? The Toughsheet Community Stadium - D

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With their return to the Championship at the end of 2025-26, Bolton Wanderers are finally getting back to the level at which they could be found before financial problems almost did for them altogether. The Toughsheet Community Stadium is a fabulous piece of architecture, and it's starting to get the big match atmosphere that it deserves after several years of ill-fortune.

15 ? ? Ashton Gate - C

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Strong home support and a home that has been significantly upgraded in the 21st century have improved the atmosphere on match-days at Ashton Gate by a significant degree. Bristol is still known as much for rugby union as it is for football, but Bristol City are part of a multi-sport operation under the ownership of Steve Lansdown, and that gap could be closed completely should they return to the top-flight for the first time since 1980. A solid start to the 2026-27 season gives them a chance to push towards this.