Never to the dark side Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 in season 2022/23 total attendance of 19.8m in the 2022-23 season, the biggest since the 1953-54 season. The Championship total of 10,391,945 fans is the first time for four years the number has broken eight figures. and if the EFL stopped scheduling the likes of Bristol City cardiff swansea against Sunderland and Middlesbrough and vica versus for mid week games they would be a lot higher. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Popodopolous Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 You give two different figures, not entirely clear from the post. Is it that the total attendance across the 3 divisions was 19.8m and of thst the Championship was 10,391,945. It is welcome news of course, but also worth noting that as we know, tickets sold and season ticket holders are counted come what may (club and or relevant safety authorities will both actual attendees and sold seats) whereas in the past with so many more tickets sold on the day that was a truer reflection. Not a fully true reflection but truer all the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davefevs Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Mr P. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65855048 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Looking at Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich & Plymouth coming up, plus Leeds, Leicester & Southampton all coming down, I can only see that record being broken next season. Bizarrely Luton getting promoted also helps this, as whatever we think of them their ground is League Two standard. Wigan, Reading & Blackpool are 3 small clubs comparatively, too. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red-Robbo Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Generally, what these figures show is English football continuing its march to be the best attended live professional sport leagues in the world. Figures were higher in the pre-TV owning age, but after the decline of the late 70s and early 80s, caused in part by lack of investment in outdated facilities, off-putting violence and health & safety disasters, it really is remarkable that in times of economic stress purchases of season tickets across all league clubs has risen by an average of 15% and that the Championship remains the 5th most watched division in Uefa. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinapig Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said: You give two different figures, not entirely clear from the post. Is it that the total attendance across the 3 divisions was 19.8m and of thst the Championship was 10,391,945. It is welcome news of course, but also worth noting that as we know, tickets sold and season ticket holders are counted come what may (club and or relevant safety authorities will both actual attendees and sold seats) whereas in the past with so many more tickets sold on the day that was a truer reflection. Not a fully true reflection but truer all the same. It doesn't matter much what metric you use as long as you use it consistently over time if what you are interested in is the trend. Either way you count it the trend is positive. That's the good news. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slartibartfast Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 (edited) If only Bristol Rovers could get promotion the Championship would overtake the Prem ! Edited June 10, 2023 by slartibartfast 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baba Yaga Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Think the best attendances in history were in the years just after WW2 and I think we are going through a similar post covid bounce at the moment. I can't see it continuing when the new TV deal kicks in to be honest but we shall see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never to the dark side Posted June 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Baba Yaga,thats my concern as well,I'll still be there,home and away,God willing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eardun Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 To be fair, this is pretty impressive in a cost of living crisis and also shows again what a good Division the Championship is: ‘[The EFL] racked up a total attendance of 19.8m in the 2022-23 season, the biggest since the 1953-54 season. ….the Championship [is] the fifth-best supported division in Europe, behind the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A.’ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red-Robbo Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 1 hour ago, Baba Yaga said: Think the best attendances in history were in the years just after WW2 and I think we are going through a similar post covid bounce at the moment. I can't see it continuing when the new TV deal kicks in to be honest but we shall see. Attendances were rising before the Covid-hit season. They've been on a broadly upward curve in the second tier since the low point of 1986. Championship attendance now are approximately the same as the old Division 2 in the late 50s. We're unlikely to ever match the record post-war attendances though, due to all-seater stadiums and crowd control concerns. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidered abroad Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 9 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said: You give two different figures, not entirely clear from the post. Is it that the total attendance across the 3 divisions was 19.8m and of thst the Championship was 10,391,945. It is welcome news of course, but also worth noting that as we know, tickets sold and season ticket holders are counted come what may (club and or relevant safety authorities will both actual attendees and sold seats) whereas in the past with so many more tickets sold on the day that was a truer reflection. Not a fully true reflection but truer all the same. I don't disagree with you but you have to consider this fact. Match attendances announced nowadays are actual "tickets sold" because it is now rare for Championship clubs to allow entry to stadia by cash payment at an entry gate. Thus actual attendance numbers are accurate because all sales are recorded and used in returns to HMRC. Whereas in olden days there was fiddling at all stages from turnstiles to board room. Hence inaccurate attendance figures now a thing of the past. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fpcity Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 11 hours ago, Never to the dark side said: in season 2022/23 total attendance of 19.8m in the 2022-23 season, the biggest since the 1953-54 season. The Championship total of 10,391,945 fans is the first time for four years the number has broken eight figures. and if the EFL stopped scheduling the likes of Bristol City cardiff swansea against Sunderland and Middlesbrough and vica versus for mid week games they would be a lot higher. I think I've read before that those types of midweek games are on purpose because even on the weekends they say it's unlikely to sell more tickets than against a team closer due to the distance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redtrojan Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 Not a massive surprise.The population is increasing every year so undoubtedly the crowds are likely to continue increasing. The population in the 50’s was probably 15-20 million less than now ,so no real surprise. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinapig Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 14 minutes ago, Redtrojan said: Not a massive surprise.The population is increasing every year so undoubtedly the crowds are likely to continue increasing. The population in the 50’s was probably 15-20 million less than now ,so no real surprise. If there was a simple linear correlation between the size of the population and crowd numbers then crowds would have increased consistently year on year since the 50s but they actually declined before recovering. So there must have been other factors at play. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Popodopolous Posted June 10, 2023 Report Share Posted June 10, 2023 1 hour ago, cidered abroad said: I don't disagree with you but you have to consider this fact. Match attendances announced nowadays are actual "tickets sold" because it is now rare for Championship clubs to allow entry to stadia by cash payment at an entry gate. Thus actual attendance numbers are accurate because all sales are recorded and used in returns to HMRC. Whereas in olden days there was fiddling at all stages from turnstiles to board room. Hence inaccurate attendance figures now a thing of the past. Get that, certainly days gone by. Yes agree although we all see a few thousand season ticket holders who don't make it often on average. Fiddling for sure but from say early 1989s to maybe 1985, 1986 a lot did stop going for a host of reasons. Sure a bit of fiddling went on then too but it took some time even after the PL came in for attendances to truly recover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never to the dark side Posted June 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 paul_fox. The three divisions in the EFL going back a few years ago did, to the best of my knowledge, conduct a vote if they wanted to have long distance games for mid week games. This might suit the 3rd and 4th tier sides,but not the championship sides Just imagine two scenarios,a mid week game at Hull and a midweek game at Reading If you were offerred to attend a mid week away game at Hull at 2pm on the day would you go,taking into account that you would be working the following day,most would say no. If you were offerred to attend a mid week away game at Reading at 2pm on the day would you go,taking into account that you would be working the following day,most would say yes. These long distance mid week games don't suit certain clubs ourselves Cardiff Swansea Southampton Ipswich Norwich Ipswich Hull Sunderland and Middlesbrough,which in my opinion should be played on Saturdays When the fixtures are first released,so what happens after that is up to Sky and the like. We only play five away mid week games and five home midweek games surely we could fit in a few short distance games in the five away mid week games that are planned. My concern like others have said is season cards for season 2024/25.if five of the twelve weekend games are going to shown over the four days of the weekend and at various different times regular season ticket holders might think twice about buying a season card ifrom season 2024/25 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davefevs Posted June 11, 2023 Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 5 hours ago, Never to the dark side said: paul_fox. The three divisions in the EFL going back a few years ago did, to the best of my knowledge, conduct a vote if they wanted to have long distance games for mid week games. This might suit the 3rd and 4th tier sides,but not the championship sides Just imagine two scenarios,a mid week game at Hull and a midweek game at Reading If you were offerred to attend a mid week away game at Hull at 2pm on the day would you go,taking into account that you would be working the following day,most would say no. If you were offerred to attend a mid week away game at Reading at 2pm on the day would you go,taking into account that you would be working the following day,most would say yes. These long distance mid week games don't suit certain clubs ourselves Cardiff Swansea Southampton Ipswich Norwich Ipswich Hull Sunderland and Middlesbrough,which in my opinion should be played on Saturdays When the fixtures are first released,so what happens after that is up to Sky and the like. We only play five away mid week games and five home midweek games surely we could fit in a few short distance games in the five away mid week games that are planned. My concern like others have said is season cards for season 2024/25.if five of the twelve weekend games are going to shown over the four days of the weekend and at various different times regular season ticket holders might think twice about buying a season card ifrom season 2024/25 I might be wrong here, but I thought the reasoning behind some mid week games being long distance was that you’ll lose less crowds than if you moved a close game. To use your example but made up numbers. Hull(a) Saturday 800 sold midweek 350 sold net 450 down Reading Saturday 2500 sold midweek 1500 sold net 1000 down Something like that anyway. Does that ring a bell? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristol Oil Services Posted June 11, 2023 Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 13 hours ago, Redtrojan said: Not a massive surprise.The population is increasing every year so undoubtedly the crowds are likely to continue increasing. The population in the 50’s was probably 15-20 million less than now ,so no real surprise. Between the wars there was economic crisis and huge unemployment, after WW2 unemployment fell dramatically and wages increased. Football was affordable for more of society than today, at the most affordable it had ever been in 1950. There was austerity but little in the way of alternatives if you wanted to get out and cheer yerself up. Simply put, it was cheap, everyone had a job, and there weren't any "live streams." By 1960, it had become less affordable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldyman Posted June 11, 2023 Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 I think the reason may partly be that the Championship has become the new top flight for most fans . The standard is very good and it’s competitive. Unlike the utterly predictable Premier league where you could with a large degree of accuracy pick the top 10 and bottom 3 every year before a ball is kicked . It’s fantasy land really with only a tiny handful of clubs genuinely expecting to win anything and the other 90% hanging on for dear life . Where’s the fun in that ? Then ……….. you have the Championship and that’s why it’s proving so popular ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Popodopolous Posted June 11, 2023 Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Bristol Oil Services said: Between the wars there was economic crisis and huge unemployment, after WW2 unemployment fell dramatically and wages increased. Football was affordable for more of society than today, at the most affordable it had ever been in 1950. There was austerity but little in the way of alternatives if you wanted to get out and cheer yerself up. Simply put, it was cheap, everyone had a job, and there weren't any "live streams." By 1960, it had become less affordable. I largely agree with this analysis or a lot of it, but less affordable by 1960 surprises me a bit. Had price inflation begun then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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