Are fans starting to vote with their feet?
It’s clear that in such fiscally uncertain times as these, disposable income is at a premium. With Premier League clubs threatening to lose touch with the common man on the street and price hikes the de rigour, are fans starting to stray away from the terraces in favour of the cheaper comforts of home?
Sunderland remain the prime example, with former Chairman Niall Quinn’s vociferous opposition to fans choosing to watch the club’s games on TV as opposed to at the ground notable by it’s acerbic tone last February.
Quinn stated: “My belief is a significant number of these people are taking the easy option of spending their money in the pub watching their team as opposed to supporting their team and helping to create a better atmosphere at the stadium. Our attendances are down for a couple of reasons and the economic uncertainty right now is a factor.”
The ground capacity of the Stadium of Light is 49,000, yet the club’s average attendance this season is 37,890. This average was boosted somewhat by the crowd that gathered for the Tyne-Wear Derby against Newcastle on the second game of this season that saw 47, 751 turn out to see Newcastle’s 1-0 win.
Since then, Sunderland have had a further three Premier League home games against Chelsea (36,699), Stoke (32,296) and West Brom (34,815). With three out of the club’s four home games this season drawing crowds of 12,000 or more under capacity, it’s clear that there’s certainly something amiss.
Does Quinn’s assertion that economic uncertainty is a motivating factor hold up when you compare attendances across the rest of the Premier League?
Over at Aston Villa, the club boast a stadium capacity of 43,786 at Villa Park yet the average attendance this season has been just 32, 022. The clubs home games this season have seen Villa Park awash with empty seats after the Blackburn (32,319), Wolves (30,776) and Newcastle (34,248) games.
While economic uncertainty is certainly a factor in small attendances, there’s certainly a correlation between the two aforementioned clubs over the perceived underachievement of their team on the pitch and the fans displeasure at the management at the helm.
Alex McLeish is a deeply popular individual around Villa Park, and while, for now at least, they appear to be holding back, it’s clear that it’s a marriage doomed to divorce from the start. At Sunderland, Steve Bruce’s problems have been well documented as he begins to resemble a clueless manager clutching at straws in an attempt to halt a slide that runs right back to February last season.
Blackburn’s attendance under the tumultuous reign of beleaguered boss Steve Kean has seen attendances in freefall. Everton are coming up way shorter than usual and Wigan’s average attendance, as ever, struggles to maintain the interest normally associated with Premier League matches.
The spread of disaffection is not solely confined to the middle and the north of England, though, as newly promoted London-based outfit QPR are also struggling to sell-out their home ground Loftus Road.
QPR’s former owner Bernie Ecclestone attempted to cash in on the club’s promotion to the Premier League be dealing a 40% hike on ticket prices to fans earlier in the summer. The most expensive season ticket rose £300 on last season to £999. The cheapest adult season ticket came in at £549, compared with £379 at nearby Fulham. It even prompted the resignation of Vic-Chairman Amit Bhatia after he stated his disapproval at increased ticket prices.
New owner Tony Fernandes, in an attempt to appease the club’s fan base, has promised to cut ticket prices by 25%, which when consider that they had already been raised in real terms by 57%, it is still a significant hike.
Loftus Road’s capacity is 19,148, yet they average an attendance of just 16,038. Since Fernandes’s takeover, while it is still early days, the attendance rose by just 496 people the home game against Aston Villa after he came to the helm from the previous home fixture against Newcastle.
The greatest example of the fans displeasure at the astronomical nature of ticket prices at the club came when just 4,755 turned out for QPR’s lacklustre 2-0 home defeat to Rochdale in the Carling Cup second round last month.
It’s worth noting, though, that the slump has not affected some of the larger clubs in the league – the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs, as you would expect, are all still doing well with concerns to attendance figures as they buck the trend.
The gulf in class on the pitch has rendered the Premier League uncompetitive at times. This, of course, is a big turn-off for fans. There appear to be a lot of deeply average teams in the league this season and the relegation battle could comprise of up to as many as ten teams – hardly something to motivate a fan to continue paying top whack.
The monetary factor coupled with the regression of certain sides to perform to their capabilities has meant that there is a real sense of apathy about the current campaign. For most sides, languishing in mid-table is nothing to get excited about. When it’s just as easy, as Niall Quinn testified to, to watch the game from the comfort of your own home at a fraction of the price. While this continues to be the case, Premier League grounds will continue to bear the mark of tough financial times.
The Premier League is often said to be the most entertaining league in the world, but with the price of survival far outweighing the strength of most club’s ambition at the moment, supporters are wisely preferring to save their pennies. Football is part of the entertainment business and if clubs continue to strangle and squeeze every last penny they can out of their fans, then attendances will continue to fall up and down the country.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
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You mean “with price hikes de rigeur” … not “with price hikes the de rigour”.
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What do these clubs expect, to fill their grounds for every game, when they have sold out to Sky for an annual payout and then expect supporters to find £20 – £40 a week for seat, if they were battling for a top four place the grounds would be full every week, the only reason the top four have full grounds is because they invest in the team with top class players, and not sell them on to the highest bidders at the Chairmans will.
Spangle is Admin @ http://www.manutdreds.com
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spangle, typical red to55er, how can you have a pop at teams ‘selling out to sky’ ? your team invented selling out and developing the brand. how else do you get to be the pride of singapoore ?
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Red Rupert Reply:
October 12th, 2011 at 3:39 am
spangle is spot on – all the clubs want their cake and eat it whilst fans are fleeced and less well off forced out of it.
tublu, the bitter blue, that includes you. Long standing supporter I bet…for the past two years. You are Middlesboro with a lottery win. Clown. All you lot will win is another top 4 place.
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Arsenal are hanging in there…just!!
For the first time ever at the Emirates tickets for EPL games are available to non members, ie on “general sale”, sometimes just a few days before the game.In the past even if you were a member you had to be quick off the mark to get a ticket. It’s got little to do with the economic climate, people are tired of paying £50 (min) a pop to see an average team.
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with the average wage in Britain hovering around 33K sterling per annum and the average ticket costing 40 sterling, it is no surprise that fans are starting to prefer spending that money on a sky monthly cable fee and watch their Football from the comfort of their couches. The obvious advantage is that if the team plays crappily, you can do something else but once you’ve spent the money and time to get to the stadium, will you leave if the game is crap? Not too many do but once they do they usually don’t come back.
It is time the Clubs drop ticket prices significantly, which will help them fill their stadiums. Is it better to offer tickets at 20 sterling and have 45ooo people come or is it better to keep them at 40 sterling and have 25000 people come?
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Domhuaille your comment on is it better to offer tickets at 20 sterling and have 45,000 or keep them at 40 sterling and have 25,000.
£20 for 45,000 attendance would generate £900,000. £40 for 25,000 attendance would generate £1,000,000. I know which I’d prefer lol. Bad example really. But I know what you mean. The atmosphere is dead in most grounds now..
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Went on an Arsenal website recently, the correspondent admitted most minor PL games have around 10,000 season ticket holders that don’t turn up (they still declare a sell-out). Plus the commercial department have to go into overdrive to sell the 12,000 tickets on open sale. This simply confirms my long held feeling that Arsenal’s support is soft, after years of being spoiled. If they are losing at the Emirates with around 15 minutes to go, you can play spot the fan. Other clubs have similarly high prices, but few empty seats.
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How can you call Spurs a “larger club” when they only pull in 36,000 compared to United’s 47,000? And we would be attracting our usual full house if it wasn’t for the protests against Ashley.
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Who needs crowds? The focus of football’s organisers on the viewers rather than the supporters is so biased (for obvious reasons) that it was obvious that the latter would diminish eventually. Prices, difficult tv scheduling times (from the paying fan’s point of view), the fact that only a handful of clubs have a chance of winning any thing, lack of loyalty and perceived greed fronm the players, all lead to a reduction in interest in all but the top six or so sides. Add to the that the hammerings handed out in the Premier League in the early part of the season, which show how the gap is getting wider, and there’s no wonder that interest is dropping amongst those around the country who are the paying customers.
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arsenal havent been exempt from the empty seats at all. arsenal declare tickets sold as their actual attendance which can be seen by the ract they always declare a full capacity when empty seats can be seen all around the ground by the thousands. many of arsenals fans have season tickets but are not going to games. furthermore now arsenal are even emailing non members trying to flog premiership tickets now because the original demand for every ticket is nowhere near what it was just a few years ago. arsenal are just papering over the cracks and hoping nobody will notice and i say this as an arsenal fan myself
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