Take me back to ninian park
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We all know that clubs post their attendance figures based on ticket sales - City's 21,273 was more likely 15,000 actual attendees - but with that in mind consider how many people actually attended these Championship games this midweek
Hull 10272
QPR 11669
Reading 10088
Blackburn 12343
Millwall 11209
Luton 10008
Fulham 17626 [ inc. 2500 Swansea].
Fulham aside, probably less than 8000 in most of those games. True it was an awful night weatherwise, but folk are getting out of the habit of actually getting out of their chair and going to watch their teams. In the PL it was accepted that games would practically sell out each week but when fans in either division stop buying a ST and just 'cherry pick' the games, I think it will be the start of the decline in attendances for the 1st time in 20 yrs.
TV saturation is bound to be the main contributory factor, but also I believe the football being played is just not exciting enough. The PL especially, hyped up week in week out, but essentially ends up attack v defence for 90 mins. Next season will be interesting. I think a lot of PL ST holders who previously were reluctant to give up there ST in case they couldn't get to the games may well just do that, and pretty much the same with the majority of Championship clubs..
Take me back to ninian park
Would be interesting what average % play for and against for the four main divisions.
In a word, no. The football bubble is not about to burst.
Financially maybe not. Football as TV 'entertainment for the masses - possibly not, but as a sport watched by paying supporters of the club, I think yes. Sky et al will always get large audiences for Liverpool v Man City, but viewers will turn off form watch other games in half empty, echoing stadia..
We are going to return to the eighties
There will be a european super league for united , liverpool etc and good fecking riddance to them
And a reorganisation of football in this country below that
It may be two or three years , it may be ten years but it's going to happen
That's capitalism for you , always needs more money to feed its fire
Indeed
Look at the empty seats at man city , arsenal etc for top flight games
The premier league clubs were too greedy
Apart from liverpool and united , who have more hangers on than a cows arse , it's a busted flush
West ham , 60000 capacity stadium ? How many seasons do they think the cockney oiks will be filling that for ?
City's attendances have levelled out, mainly because the team is pretty boring to watch and the realities of what success at this level actually brings have become apparent. The same is true at many other clubs. It's no big deal. It's the same as it ever was.
Predictions that the football 'bubble' is about to burst are made numerous times every season and that's been the case for decades.
The amount of times this has been said over the last 15 or so years is eye roll worthy. There is no "bubble" to burst.
Your reasoning doesn't make sense, in fact you argued the lower attendances could be down to the weather. Even then our attendances aren't that shocking, we average that when we aren't in the PL or in a promotion race, I imagine it's the same up and down the league.
Dear God no! It was well past it’s sell by date, I dread to think what it would look like now if we hadn’t have moved and indeed where we’d be in the football pyramid. Pissing against walls in an open air toilet in the pouring rain is something I shall never miss. I had nearly 50 years turning up there, loved the early 60s when it was all a new adventure to me, enjoyed the European nights and enjoyed (strange to say ‘enjoyed’) the promotion misses of the late 60s/early 70s. After that it was the odd game that enthralled in many years of shite in a crumbling ground. Thank goodness for the move into the 21st century.
You highlighted Fulham's attendance in midweek (it was actually 1,500 Jacks, not 2,500).
Twenty years ago, in 2000/01, Fulham were promoted to the Premier League after finishing top of the Championship with 101 points.
Their average league attendance in 2000/01 was 14,803.
Their average league attendance this season is 18,181.
The highest average attendance in the Championship in 2000/01 was 21,283 (Birmingham City). This season, nine Championship clubs have a higher average than that.
The Bundesliga has the best product from the fans perspective. High quality football played in a good atmosphere at a reasonable price.
Fulham, Chelsea and QPR are all in the same borough, with a population of 185,400, (That's just 40,000 more than Bridgend Borough) they all do pretty well with their crowds. Of course, like City, they all rely on fans from outside the borough to push the numbers up.
Hardly anyone from the QPR Fulham, Brentford, Chelsea i.e. West London, supports Chelsea do they? I thought the vast majority of their fans were plastics from outside that West of London Borough. Wasn't it 4-4-2 magazine or maybe it was When Saturday Comes that did an article in the 90s about how Brentford have more season ticket holders than Chelsea that lived in west London?
Mine has!!!, keep thinking I'll do a few games as each season approaches, but with almost every game now available on the fire stick any enthusiasm to venture out into the rain and cold quickly dissipates, as just a TV spectator from the armchair, the football on offer is appalling. I was watching some personal videos I took when we were in the Wembley era last night, they did bring back some fabulous memories, I have lots of videos from dungeon grounds around this period and I look back at them very fondly, desperately want the club to do well and especially respect the fans who continue to go up and down the country following the team and whilst I've had a few breaks in actively following the club, I do think it's now over for me.