Punching their weight? ~

I was looking at the stats for the past season and found a few things quite interesting. The main one is how the average attendance league actually compares to the final tables. Normally having more fans at matches, generates more money, and therefore should create better teams on the pitch. This of course is not always the case, due to how the clubs are managed on and off the pitch. Anyway I thought I would point out the largest discrepancies of league position versus attendance.

Below where they should be

Bradford are 39 places below.
Leeds are 34 places below.
MK Dons are 23 places below.
Leicester are 21 places below.
Norwich are 20 places below.
Forest are 17 places below.
Sheff Utd/S'ton are 13 places below.

In the case of Forest & Dons this discrepancy is being righted due to promotion. For Leicester things are getting worse.

Above where they should be

Portsmouth are 22 places above.
Wigan are 18 places above.
Stoke are all 13 places above.
Bolton/Plymouth/Bristol C/Palace are all 12 places above.
Blackburn/Burnley are 11 places above.
Hull are 10 places above.

Hull and Stoke will be punching even further above their weight next year.

Middlesbrough, Man Utd, Liverpool and Southend are in exactly the same position in the average attendance table. A distinctly average and satisfactory season!

Hope you find this interesting and I apologise to any I have missed. These figures are obviously slightly exaggerated the further from their position you go. In lower leagues, away attendances drop and some home fans lose interest, and vice-versa.

ps. I have only used the top 50 attended teams in England for these figures. Any teams with attendances of less than 8,000 have not been included.

Posted by harbinger of hope 18-05-2008 Go to thread

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