THERE were some encouraging signs on the first day of the new season, with Brighton and Newcastle United fans providing a noisy backdrop to their first games in the Premier League after winning promotion. Could this be the start of something interesting? For a while now, it has become clear that English crowds are somewhat […]
WITH the opening of West Ham United’s Olympic Stadium this coming season, the English Premier League may see a slight increase in attendances. The Hammers will undoubtedly average 50,000 for the first time in their long history, but the change in composition in the Premier will see clubs with smaller crowd potential coming to the […]
IF the UEFA Champions League has a familiar look about it, most of Europe’s top football leagues are becoming even more predictable. Apart from the English Premier, which may deliver just about the most unexpected final outcome for many years, most of Europe’s leading competitions will be won by members of the footballing elite. Germany […]
The big leagues continue to prosper, but right across old Europe, attendances are a travesty. Football has benefitted from a free market economy. Is that really true? Like all free markets, there are big winners but plenty of losers. Ask anyone born in Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslavakia, Romania and parts of the old Soviet Union if […]
For years, non-league football clubs have spoken about the need to engage with youngsters and the desire to nurture young players. The future of a football club is the youth of today, we are told. But the message doesn’t get through that often. Just look at the average non-league crowd and at some clubs, there […]
Interesting news coming out of the Emirates Stadium this week was the over-stated “actual” attendances being declared at Arsenal’s fine stadium. In the eight years that Arsenal have been at their new home, seven have seen aeverage crowds rise above 60,000. Their last season at Highbury saw them draw 38,000 per game. It’s a remarkable […]
The recent announcement that Non-League Day will take place on September 6, 2014 is a reminder that the grass roots game can prosper when the emphasis is off the Premier for a weekend. Attendances around the non-league circuit have certainly been boosted on Non-League Day since it began a few years ago, although I sense […]
How many people go to watch a cricket game at Lords or the Oval? What is the average attendance at rugby games? What about athletics? In all these sports, nobody cares too much about what the crowd figure is, although the amount they pay will obviously matter to their bank managers. Football has always been […]
