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Articles on attendances and spectator numbers in football – soccer.
You don’t get big away followings at most non-league matches. But there are usually a few hardcore fans who turn up. I was at Leamington v. Oxford City in the Zamaretto Premiership yesterday and a small group of City fans kept up a ragged chant behind the Leamington goal while others could be seen around the ground.
Fans of Premier League football clubs are increasingly sharing the costs of season tickets, according to a new survey by Virgin Money that covered 3,900 responses.
One in eight Man U supporters said they shared their ticket with mates, whilst one in 11 fans of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham admitted sharing tickets. Only one in
20 Chelsea fans said they did so – as they waved their wads at anyone who walked by…
Why are crowds declining in Australia’s A-League. This article suggests that the league has expanded too quickly. Eight teams was a sustainable number, but eleven, and possibly twelve next year, was too many. The result has been a decline in quality and a loss of interest by fans. There is a risk of the A-league going the way of the National Soccer League.
Non-League day on September 5th saw the total number watching games in Steps 1 to 4 of the pyramid up almost 12 per cent up on the corresponding day last year with 5,965 extra attendees at 128 matches. This gave a total of 56,678 compared to 50,607 at 128 games last year. Perhaps a better comparison is with the last Saturday a full Step 1 to 4 non-league programme was played on August 22nd when 130 matches were attended by a total of 54,653. This suggests that the number of extra fans brought in was around 4,000.
Last Saturday was Non-League Day when some non-league clubs let in Premiership supporters for free and at half price. But often a non-league ticket costs more than one in the Premiership. On Saturday you can get a Blackburn v. Fulham ticket for £10 whereas it will cost you £12 to watch a Blue Square North match.
At Wigan a family of four can see Wigan play Sunderland for a total of £25. A season ticket at the DW Stadium costs from £250 which is what you would have to pay at Bradford City in League Two. You can pay quite a bit more in League One.
The Riverside stadium saw a record low attendance for a league game yesterday, 14,633 for the televised clash between Middlesbrough and Sheffield United. There are those who think that a mixture of television overkill and the recession will empty stadiums everywhere.
Joe Cole’s comment that Liverpool are the biggest club in the country provoked a debate on Radio 5 this morning. There is no one criterion that determines whether a club is big or not. Attendances and the size of the stadium are certainly part of the picture and honours are also a criterion. But supposing most of them were won a long time ago? Does the fact that Nottingham Forest won the European Cup twice make it a big club? Is Liverpool’s claim based largely on the fact that it has won the European competition five times and can
About 110,000 fewer foreign visitors than forecast are expected to make their way to the World Cup in South Africa. Recent political turbulence is not thought to be a factor, but the recession and what are seen to be high ticket prices have deterred fans from going. However, those that do go are likely to stay longer and spend more, giving a welcome boost to the South African economy.
After Arsenal drew at Burnley, Arsene Wenger blamed the fixtures computer for the congestion it had produced. This is a new entry in the Big Book of Managers’ Excuses, but there is a more serious issue. Football attendances have held up well in the recession, but during these midweek fixtures five Barclays Premier League clubs recorded their lowest league attendances for between two and five seasons in midweek. Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers took a hit at the turnstiles as they staged their second home matches in four or five days.
Transfer spending involving Premiership clubs in the summer transfer window is expected to total £450m, down 10 per cent on last summer’s £500. Moreover, Manchester City alone accounted for more than a quarter of the total buying eight players for more than £120m. Another £80m was accounted for by the sale by Manchester United of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. The value of transfers from overseas clubs is about 40 per cent down on each of the past two summers.