After a long break, “Falling Premiership Attendances” has returned as a guest speaker, and everyone wants to get a ticket for the debate. But, typically, tickets are limited in numbers and are only being offered to those regular attendees; “Poor product” and “High ticket prices”.
The Premiership has changed English football beyond all recognition, that much is a given. As with all things in the british media, once something has been branded “a success”, the next step is to try to destroy it.
Hence the general trend towards attacking ticket prices. The only thing that is clear here is that if you ask “Average Joe” if tickets are too expensive, he will give a resoundingly affirmative answer. But the real issue surely has to be not “are the tickets too expensive?” but “are fans prepared to pay for the tickets?”.
The evidence being used to suggest that fans aren’t prepared to pay for the tickets is flawed. Simply holding up attendances at particular clubs in the premiership as a demonstration that they are falling ignores one of the simple truths of the premiership revolution- it has changed the type of clubs which now populate the league.
No longer are good attendances a requirement to provide the kind of revenues to get a club promoted to the premiership. Instead, individuals providing their personal wealth can plug any losses and fund the purchasing of the necessary players. Attendances are becoming somewhat secondary.
Equally, no longer are large attendances a pre-requisite of Premiership survival. With a benefactor prepared to pay large sums, allied to the millions to be garnered in tv revenues and higher league finishes, a club is able to survive happily in the premiership with fairly meagre attendances. The current case in points being Wigan Athletic and Portsmouth, who are able to afford the salary and/or transfer fees for the likes of Sol Campbell and Emile Heskey on sub-20,000 crowds.
As a result of all this, clubs such as Portsmouth, Wigan, Blackburn, Reading and Fulham have obtained promotion and survival in the premiership despite fairly modest attendances, whilst clubs such as Sunderland, Leicester, Derby, Ipswich and Leeds have found themselves down in the Championship on comparatively very good attendances, desperate for a benefactor to cope with mounting debts.
The Premiership has turned English footballs top league into a cash-laden dream ticket. But, when important football figures complain about low attendances at certain premiership matches, they need to consider that this is a direct by-product of the league they have set out to create.
Quite simply, if a business isn’t selling its product as it would need to, then it must take drastic measures. But the clubs have changed and their needs have changed.
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