Empty seats at League games
It has come to my attention that in recent seasons, the amount of Premier League stadiums that regularly fail to fill their grounds for the usual league match at the weekend. I accept that not all stadiums fall under this debate but the majority of them do. Take Middlebrough's Riverside stadium as an example. The stadium was opened in 1995 with a capacity of 35,100. Now, I have watched many matches (all be it on telly) from this ground and I have noticed that every time I have watched them that their has been a large majority of the ground empty. From seeing this, I was shocked to hear that there is provisional planning permission in place to expand the 35,100 to 42,000 if required.
It appears to me as though the average attendances have steadily been decreasing at Premier League games as the seasons have gone by and I think that the reason for this is that the cost of tickets have risen and people just aren't willing to pay that kind of money week in and week out to see their side play. I also think that another factor is that the quality at some of the Premier League games of the recent past haven't been up to scratch and people have had enough.
I have also noticed a steady rise in the price of tickets for Premier League matches. Many fans aren't happy at the fact that when the English Premier League announced a new television rights deal, the money went straight into inflating players wages instead of fans and now they are deciding to boycott attending their teams games. Despite the fact that the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal still sell-out every week, the majority of other Premier League stadiums are half-empty.
What annoys me is the fact that lots of clubs nowadays are announcing plans to extend their stadiums when their not even sure if they will fill them. I would rather see clubs spend money on more important matters like grass routs and such. I was watching the Coventry V. Preston match at the weekend and I was shocked to see that a side that are leading the Championship could only manage to fill 17,551 seats in a stadium that holds 32,500.
Now Coventry only moved in to this new stadium a couple of seasons ago and they can only half fill it, which begs the question, why the hell did they bother spending all that money on a brand new stadium when they could of put it to a lot more use somewhere else? They may aswell of stayed at Highfield Road and got bumper crowds in every week and get a good atmosphere going instead of moving to a huge stadium that they will probably never fill.