I've just been watching Match Of The Day, and it was obvious to all that at all the games (apart from the West ham one) that there were plenty of spare seats.

In previous seasons, grounds were jam-packed and fans were complaining that they could not get tickets.

Even the West Midlands derby between West Brom and Birmingham (my Premiership team) was 4,000 below capacity.

What's gone wrong? Have prices gone up too much? Or are people (fans) just disenchanted?

I'd like to know what you all think.

Anyway, full marks to Mike Pollitt, the former Rotherham and Chesterfield keeper, who kept a clean sheet in Wigan's 1-0 victory over Sunderland.

And a big up for Kevin Davies (ex Sheffield United and Chesterfield) who set up a goal in Bolton's triumph.

I really think Sven should consider him for England's target man roll.

But what about all those empty seats?

i dont believe any bubblehas burst to be honest,attendances are at an all time high in prem i believe.

as for the capacity of west brom, it was on sky after all, and perhaps there was a lot of seats unavailable due to police restrictions?

I think a lot of fans are being priced out of the Premiership.

We were chatting to some Arsenal fans after the FA Cup 5th round at Highbury in February. They'd had to buy three year (I think) season tickets to guarantee their seats at the new Ashbourne Grove stadium. The fans we were talking to had had to spend well over a grand. That's a lot of money for someone to come up with of a summer.

Prices in the Championship are bad enough! QPR charge away fans £24 for a ticket at Loftus Road!

Give it a few more years of chelski winning the title... the premiership will be dead as a competition and for betting on as well :(

No, The premiership is alive and kicking and always will be. Also stadiums are also getting bigger than they used to be so that also makes them harder to fill.




COME ON YOU VILLA :clap:

Why are they making stadia bigger when they can't fill them? Surely it's better to have a smaller full stadium than a bigger half empty stadium?

They make them bigger because the Football Trust provides grants for doing it.

Personally, I think it's got the the stage where the obvious candidates should just bog off into a new Euro Super League and leave us to get back to a proper game with capped wages and 4 divisions that clubs can actually move between and survive.

Maybe people have been captivated by The Ashes this summer and have begun to realise that footballers are nothing but overpaid, whinging, cheating prima donnas .....

... and Shane Warn is a...? ;)

There are many sports full of overpaid, whining, cheating prima-donnas;

Tennis, Cricket, Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, American Football to name but a few.

Originally posted by dishwasher

What's gone wrong? Have prices gone up too much? Or are people (fans) just disenchanted?

Too expensive. Call me a 'bad fan' if you want, but I only watch my team when I can get a free ticket. Because to watch Nottm Forest (a third division side) it would cost you £25 on the day :o

Originally posted by SilentStatic
Too expensive. Call me a 'bad fan' if you want, but I only watch my team when I can get a free ticket. Because to watch Nottm Forest (a third divisio
and your pointn side) it would cost you £25 on the day :o

yes you are a VERY bad fan!!!

Bad fan?

Not everyone is rich/stupid enough to throw money at watching football.

I wish I could afford to go to every match, home and away. But I can't. Going to football matches is not cheap, especially if you have to travel or take children.

I love going to the wednesday games but if you can't afford to go it does'nt make you a bad fan or if you cant make it due to work. I've had a season ticket for the last 6 years but my mum and dad always paid for it, but at the end of this season when my 3 year season ticket runs out. I dont think i'll be renewing as i'll have to pay and its just too much. Even this season the gap between league one and championship away games is huge. At least last season it was affordable, best value money game was brentford play off semi £3!!!! What a game

It's asking a lot from fans when clubs are charging £25 to for 90 minutes of entertainment (depends who you are watching :hihi: )

The beauty of soccer is that, until recently, the result was unpredictable and therefore teams in the lower parts of the league could somtimes beat the teams at the top. In the Premiership this is now rarely true and so the games are less exciting. After all the Nottingham Test match was not exciting because Engald won but because they might have lost.

As well as the ridiculous ticket prices – tickets for games in Italy, Spain and Germany start at £10 as opposed to Chelsea's cheapest which is £45 – the quality of entertainment on offer continues to deteriorate.

The only team I'd personally pay to watch in the premiership at the moment is Manchester United, because it seems to me they are the only ones who don't play negative football. The increasing trend to play just a single striker is visible evidence of an increasingly negative attitude; this season's competition was characterised on the opening day by Middlesbrough who, when drawing 0-0 at home to Liverpool with five minutes to go, had players shielding the ball in the corners of the pitch rather than trying to win.

Crowds are down, the competition is completely predictable, the football is far less entertaining than it used to be, with less atmosphere coming from the all-seated crowds, and it's massively expensive. No wonder many previously devoted footy fans are rapidly falling out of love with the English game.

Originally posted by Greenback
Crowds are down,. Not true. FA cup crowds are down, but Premiership attendances are on the up.

Originally posted by Greenback
the football is far less entertaining than it used to be,. Definitely not true. The modern game is much faster, with greater emphasis on skill and tactics and generally more entertaining than it used to be. Suppose it depends whether the team you support is rubbish or not.

Originally posted by Greenback
many previously devoted footy fans are rapidly falling out of love with the English game. Really?

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
Not true. FA cup crowds are down, but Premiership attendances are on the up.

Not from what I've read. Last season 's Premiership crowds declined for the second successive season. And just look at, for example, Blackburn's crowds this season – they're shocking for a team that's not actually doing that badly. TV viewing figures are also down on what they once were.

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
Definitely not true. The modern game is much faster, with greater emphasis on skill and tactics and generally more entertaining than it used to be. Suppose it depends whether the team you support is rubbish or not.

It's undoubtedly faster, because the players are fitter than ever before. But a greater emphasis on skill? I'd say there's far, far more emphasis on being able to cover every blade of grass for 90 minutes. For me, the entertainment factor in the Premiership in particular is decreasing rapidly. There hasn't been a single game so far this season that sticks in the memory, put it that way.

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
Really?

Yeah, at least with me and a lot of people I talk to, or listen to on the phone-ins. I honestly think the bubble's beginning to burst.

After Wednesday night's debacle at Windsor Park- when Sven's bunch of pampered millionaires were comprehensively out-played, out-competed and deservedly beaten by a bunch of so-called lesser sporting mortals - one question has to be aked.

Do Ferdinand, Gerrard and all the rest of those under-achievers deserved their bloated salaries?

If payment is based on achievements (and I know it's the clubs that bankroll them) it certainly is asking a bit to justify their staggering riches.

It's early season too, I can't be bothered with football until around October or so

Originally posted by SilentStatic
Because to watch Nottm Forest (a third division side) it would cost you £25 on the day :o

And it doesn't take a magician to realise that that £25 would be better spent in a pub than at the City Ground watching the once-mighty Forest get stuffed by the likes of er, Scunthorpe?

NB. No hard feelings to Forest! This is applicable to most sides.

It has popped. Don't just take my word for it.

On footie websites all over, people are commenting about empty seats at Premiership games.

And even Chelsea are coming under fire for their ticket prices.

It may not 'pop' just yet, but the air is seaping out, quicker then we think. Mark my words.

Originally posted by dishwasher
It has popped. Don't just take my word for it.

On footie websites all over, people are commenting about empty seats at Premiership games.

And even Chelsea are coming under fire for their ticket prices.

It may not 'pop' just yet, but the air is seaping out, quicker then we think. Mark my words.


Football is and always will be the worlds number one sport. You mark my words. Nothing else even comes close.

The premiership is still the greatest league in the world but tickets are becoming too expensive and it does not need a team with limitless supplies of money like chelsea which will eventually make the keague predictabkle and less entertaining

I watched the Newcastle Fulham game on TV, the night of Michael Owen's return to the fray. 50,000 people in the stands looking for a little magic. It didn't come. There was a little magic from the head of Brian McBride, an American fer crissake. I think the fans were expecting a miracle,but Owen can't score if he doesn't get fed, and I'm not sure some of his lower priced teammates were too willing to do that.
I watched Michael Owen take Celtic apart in a summer game in Connecticut last year when he was playing for Liverpool.

Interesting reading:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1573794,00.html

Thanks for posting that link, Greenback. It was a bit of an eye-opener.

When the Guardian starts using phrases, such as 'statistics suggest that the boom period is over' and the Premiership is at the 'turning of the tide' because games have become defensive and 'a bit boring and too expensive', it's crystal clear that the game is in very serious bother.

I think a major part of the problem is that it's a foregone conclusion that Chelsea will win it. The title is already decided.

Nobody ever remembers who comes second, do they?

I realise that footy is a very unpredictable game, but Chelsea have won all their matches so far without conceding a goal. You can even bet on them winning all their Premiership matches this season.

Just how the playing field could be levelled up, I've no idea.

When a player can ask for £130,000 /wk (allegedly), top class football will die out.The true fans some of whom will take 10 yrs to earn that amount will surely start to question if they are getting value for money.They are already being priced out of watching.

the premiership is the most overrated league in the world, apart from chelsea the rest of the teams are very ordinary

Originally posted by spyro2000
Football is and always will be the worlds number one sport. You mark my words. Nothing else even comes close.

In Britain, however, Angling is the most popular sport.

As I've said before in another thread in this section- the premiership is dying a slow painfull death.

Due to the fact, that only one team will win it year after year after year now- it has taken all the surprise and competition out of it and it will only get worse.

Bookies have already paid out on chelski ruining already the thrill of betting on the winner of the premiership.

For me, if the rot continues, the spanish La Liga will be the way to go.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
For me, if the rot continues, the spanish La Liga will be the way to go.

It already is, and has been for some time. La Liga is brilliant in terms of technique and entertainment, whereas the Premiership, seeing as it is dying a death as a spectacle, doesn't even begin to compare on any level. Anyone who watches Spanish football on anything like a regular basis would agree.

Totally agree with you greenback.

We have some of the best players in the world -allegedly- playing in the premiership so how come then, the true world class talent, plays in spain?

Does that not tell everyone- just how ****e our league is becoming.

Even chelski cant get the proper world class players in- Ronaldinho and the like- even though they have been offered bucket loads of cash to come and play in england.

It is a very worrying sign, and one that will gradually get worse and worse as the years progress.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
We have some of the best players in the world -allegedly- playing in the premiership so how come then, the true world class talent, plays in spain?

Interesting then, that English and Italian clubs are progressing further in the Champions League in recent years than Spanish clubs.

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
Interesting then, that English and Italian clubs are progressing further in the Champions League in recent years than Spanish clubs.

Although that was true for the 2004-2005 competition it's not a general trend.

Taking the past 20 Champions League semi-finalists as a yardstick, four were Italian sides, five were English and six have been Spanish.

The last five winners have been; (last four in brackets)

Liverpool (AC Milan, PSV and Chelsea)
Porto (Monaco, Chelsea, Deportivo)
AC Milan (Juventus, Real Madrid, Internazionale)
Real Madrid (Barcelona, Man Utd, Bayer Leverkusen)
FC Bayern Munchen (Valencia, Leeds Utd, Real Madrid)

So the last four have seen(in 5 years);
6 Spanish sides (1 winner)
5 English sides (1 winner)
4 Italian sides (1 winner)
2 German sides (1 winner)
1 Dutch side
1 French side
1 Portuguese side (1 winner)

Hardly indicative of any one league being more dominant than another.

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
The last five winners have been; (last four in brackets)

Liverpool (AC Milan, PSV and Chelsea)
Porto (Monaco, Chelsea, Deportivo)
AC Milan (Juventus, Real Madrid, Internazionale)
Real Madrid (Barcelona, Man Utd, Bayer Leverkusen)
FC Bayern Munchen (Valencia, Leeds Utd, Real Madrid)

So the last four have seen(in 5 years);
6 Spanish sides (1 winner)
5 English sides (1 winner)
4 Italian sides (1 winner)
2 German sides (1 winner)
1 Dutch side
1 French side
1 Portuguese side (1 winner)

Hardly indicative of any one league being more dominant than another.

Absolutely, but your original point was that "English and Italian clubs are progressing further in the Champions League in recent years than Spanish clubs". :)

Originally posted by Greenback
Absolutely, but your original point was that "English and Italian clubs are progressing further in the Champions League in recent years than Spanish clubs". :)

I don't even know where I am.:partyhat: