Falling Crowds Row Rumbles On - 25/09/2005

The media continues to pursue the story of falling football crowds: I got asked about it when I appeared on a breakfast radio show this morning. The view that this page has taken is that there is a problem which needs attention, but not a crisis. If Tesco lost four per cent market share, action would be taken, but it would not be seen as the beginning of the end of the company. Some of the sense of crisis is being hyped up by people in the media who have an anti-football agenda. They resent its working class roots and the opportunities it gives to lads from deprived and/or ethnic minority backgrounds to earn large salaries (which is not to say that they are not sometimes excessive). Cricket and egg chasing are portrayed as better reflections of English (i.e., middle class) values. Now Premiership chief executive Richard Scudamore has hit back at the tales of doom and gloom. 'There are fantastic stories all over the landscape', he said. 'Since the Premier League was established [in 1992] we have seen a 67 per cent rise in gates while TV income has increased from £40 million to £550 million a season. We know you can't go on raising the graph every year. We are entering a phase when you have to pedal hard just to stand still.' Scudamore pointed out that the league had set up a working group on attendances eighteen months ago.

The overall picture is, in any case, a complex one. Attendances on Merseyside have been booming, despite indifferent form at Liverpool and a poor start to the season by Everton. Six clubs are filling over 98.5% of their seats (in descending order Newcastle, Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea). However, Blackburn, with an occupancy rate of 63.8%, have seen average crowds fall from 26,226 to 20,018 this season. It will be interesting to see if they increase after the victory over Manchester United, although one factor for Blackburn may be small away crowds because of the cost of travelling there. Sunderland, who have had a disastrous start to the season, whose average gate was 46,774 in 2001/2, are now down to 33,153. Boro and Villa have also seen falls in attendance. Although price is an issue, the five cheapest tickets in the Premiership are exactly at the clubs suffering the worst attendances (although quality of product is clearly a factor). This debate will not go away and, on balance, that is a good thing for football.

But Non-League Crowds Are Rising

Crowds attending the national Football Conference are continuing to rise, albeit slowly in terms of absolute numbers. They went up from an average of 1,554 in 2000/01 to 1,918 in 2004/05. If the early season trend continues, they will break through 2,000 for the first time in 2005/6. Some of the biggest increases in attendances are, however, at ex-Football League clubs who look as if they might be on the way back to the higher level. For example, York City are one club to see a surge in attendances. Sophie McGill, Conference communications director, commented, 'The great thing about Non-League football is that it's real honest football. It's the game at the grass roots and not players concerned about their wages.' In fact, my contacts with the non-league suggest that money is just as much a factor, it's just that the sums involved are much smaller. Even so, there is some anecdotal evidence that fans find the game at the grass roots level more authentic and are turning to it in their part because high player wages turn them off. Leamington Football Club, of which I am vice-president, is at Level 5 of the pyramid but attracts an average gate of over 500 and had 861 for its FA Cup tie on Saturday. The chants at that level can also be more innovative. When Leamington went 2-0 ahead against Stratford Town away, the crowd broke into a chant of 'Two-nil or not two-nil?'