LEAGUE ATTENDANCES
League Attendances ~ 5% higher than last season
by Doug Martin
Attendances at Football League Matches are 5% higher than last season.
Which is good of course. Personally, I was not too surprised as I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to Football attendances as I have been studying English attendances since the late 70’s via “Shoot” magazine (RIP). Despite negative factors, such as, the recession, high prices (even though some clubs have reduced prices) & over exposure, attendances keep on rising year on year. What the media won’t tell you is that they have been rising every year since 1985. This would get in the way of their accepted wisdom that the Premiership has reinvented people’s interest in football.
This is true to an extent but gates were down the first season of the premiership (not the rest of the League) in 1993. Gates started rising after “Brussels” in which 39 people died but only at the end of the season. This was because the police (finally) started getting their act together with CCTV and the fans themselves decided enough was enough. The fans decided to turn the other cheek and so started the fanzine culture accompanied by inflatable bananas etc. The fans through the fanzines found that they all had a lot in common. The list is long, so here goes:-
Policing, Boards of directors, bad facilities, prices etc,etc. As you can see not much has changed. apart from the facilities but we have to pay through the nose for them now.
By the time “Italia 90” came around things had been on the up for around five seasons but Gaza’s tears and England’s heroic failure changed everything. Overnight the Press/Media changed. Instead of reporting the bad side of football they changed tune to reflect the new found interest. Suddenly, football fans weren’t the axe wielding yobs they had led you to believe but decent ordinary people who shared a passion for following their respective teams.
Gates carried on rising as did the ticket prices. Then some areshole had the bright idea of the Premier League. I suspect this person would have not been a football fan, just another suit with an idea for a quick buck. Sky and all their TV money joined the equation and suddenly we had football everywhere.
Fast forward to today and we have the wonderful attendances that we have. It is not unusual to have five figure gates for third level games. With Norwich, Southampton & Charlton all being relegated this season that will almost certainly change to 20,000 gates for that level. Fans tend to stick by their clubs more than they used to as clubs take their support down with them when they get relegated.
The Championship is now the forth biggest supported league in Europe behind the German “Bundesliga”, Spain’s “La Liga” and our own “Premiership“. Pretty impressive when I remember attending second division games in the 80’s & it not being unusual to have gates below 10,000. In fact it was the Norm.
We must never forget that it was the fans themselves who got the ball rolling. Gone are the days of feeling unsafe at football games, sure, it isn’t 100 percent perfect but I have always said (as I did in the 80’s) that I feel safer at football games then I do in some of our city centres on a Friday or a Saturday night.
I am just puzzled that it took the Media until 1990 to accept that we weren’t all yobs. Wonder if it was anything to do with money?
No chance. That would imply they are intelligent.
Douglas Martin
15th May 2009
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