Trying to avoid the problematic thoughts of Team Selection and how to form an adequate defence with only 2 defenders for the game against high-flying Portsmouth I turned my attention to other matters. Flicking through the Sporting Life as one does, I noticed that several clubs were having trouble with low attendances during the first few weeks of the season. Only two games played so its early days yet but due to the arrival of two "small" clubs, Watford and Reading, and the relegation of Birmingham and Sunderland we can now claim more ( average ) bums on seats than 7 other teams in the Premiership.
Although Sheffield United, long starved of Premiership fare since their relegation in 1994, have bigger gates than us with an surprising average of 30800, both Watford (average 18898) and Reading (23974) lag behind us. Add to these the stay-at-home towns of Bolton (22020), Blackburn (20706), Portsmouth (19515), Fulham (18460), and Wigan (14636) and that should put us with our average of 24530 currently 13th in the "Attendance League".
Although Sheffield United, long starved of Premiership fare since their relegation in 1994, have bigger gates than us with an surprising average of 30800, both Watford (average 18898) and Reading (23974) lag behind us. Add to these the stay-at-home towns of Bolton (22020), Blackburn (20706), Portsmouth (19515), Fulham (18460), and Wigan (14636) and that should put us with our average of 24530 currently 13th in the "Attendance League".
The big boys way out in front are, of course, Manure and Arsenal with those 50,000 mad Georgies in third place. In the 40,000 are Chelski, Liverpool and Everton while in mid-table are obviously all the others.
All this won't give Monica any pleasure but at least Richard Murray can now promote little-old-Charlton as the 13th Biggest Club in the country so keeping those important sponsors and advertisers happy. All we need now is some more points to make sure we stay where we are...
2 comments:
Bit harsh on Pompey to suggest they are a stay-at-home town.
Average of 19,515 is not bad when their ground capacity is only 20,000.
Pompey supporting mate of mine tells me they've sold out of season tickets and have a waiting list.
Blame the difference on away clubs who don't sell all their allocation....(!)
Right, that's the last time I stand up for Pompey. Let's thrash them on Saturday! :-)
The Reading figure reflects their capacity and I think that's also true for Watford. Question for us is whether enlarging the East Stand would be worth it.
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