Norwich City have already sold 21,500 season tickets for next season, with the prospect of Premier League football ensuring Carrow Road will be packed out again.
The Canaries lead the Championship table with 11 games remaining and have the fifth-highest average home attendance in the division this season of 25,825 so far.
While that’s behind Aston Villa (34,984), Leeds (32,936), Nottingham Forest (28,070) and Derby County (26,567) the Canaries have once again had the highest percentage of capacity sold.
After 17 league matches at Carrow Road that percentage of capacity is at 94.8 percent, ahead of Swansea on 92pc and Forest selling 91.7pc of their capacity throughout the campaign.
City took a novel approach to renewals in January, with a fun video featuring first-team players including Tim Krul, Christoph Zimmermann and Temmu Pukki working in the club’s ticket office – going viral online and featuring on television news around the globe.
Chief operating officer Ben Kensell explained: “We launched our home season ticket campaign in January with the ‘Ticket Office’ which was brilliantly done by the guys there.
“We can now announce that we’ve done over 21,500, which is phenomenal support, so it’s not just away it’s at home as well.
“We’re blessed to have the fans and the support that we have. I know that Delia, Michael and the board are just tremendously pleased with the support and the numbers that we’re getting – so long may that continue!”
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Kensell and sporting director Stuart Webber both made cameos, as did joint majority shareholder Delia Smith, but the COO isn’t taking any of the credit for his performance.
“Absolutely not, I credit Alex Tettey and the boys, for doing it on the pitch and off the pitch!” he laughed. “But I have to admit that it’s a massive team effort.
“The team here at Carrow Road that produced that Ticket Office video, that have gone through 21,500 applications to make sure that we’ve got the number we’ve now got. The team we’ve got on and off the pitch is phenomenal, long may it continue, along with the fans and their support.”
The Canaries are two points clear of second-placed Leeds ahead of Friday night’s televised encounter with mid-table Swansea at Carrow Road and four clear of third-placed Sheffield United, who host local rivals Rotherham at Saturday lunchtime.
While that leaves season ticket holders to renew with the hope of seeing Premier League football with 11 games remaining, promotion is far from sealed yet.
“There’s two plans, obviously, as there is at Derby, Sheffield United, two plans at Leeds and we’ve got two plans because that’s how we should run the football club from that perspective,” Kensell added.
“We’ve got a chance haven’t we but equally whether we’re in the Championship or the Premier League, we’ve got some phenomenal numbers cheering us on, so we’re just really pleased from that perspective.”
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Head coach Daniel Farke also added his words of thanks to season ticket holders at his pre-match press conference this afternoon, ahead of Friday’s game against Swansea.
“It’s unbelievable, we are really unbelievably impressed about this at the moment, we get the feeling that there is unity in the whole club,” the German said.
“All the Canaries are flying and this support is also crucial for our success because we know wherever we travel we have this support, even when there are difficult times we have this support.
“When you hear these numbers that trust us and want us to be there in whichever league we are in next season and support us, to build together this bond and unity with us, it’s impressive.
“It’s such a great honour to be allowed work for this club, to wear this yellow shirt as a player and also to be in this responsible position as a head coach or as any staff member.
“At the moment you really feel how big this is and what a great honour it is and all I can say is we are unbelievably thankful that we work for this massive club and that we have this trust of our supporters.”
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