If you believe the claims, attendances at England’s top flight matches are on an upward rise. There is little doubt that they are but the argument is based on quicksand, the foundations shift at the end of every season once the promotion and relegation battles are decided. Consider the changes at the end of last season; out of the division went Sheffield United, Charlton and Watford replaced by Birmingham City, Derby County and Sunderland. The capacities at the grounds no longer in the Premier League (EPL) total nearly eighty thousand; their replacements in excess of one hundred and twelve thousand. Indeed, the combined totals of The Valley and Vicarage Road are nearly three thousand less than The Stadium of Light. In one fell swoop, the EPL has space for thirty three thousand potential supporters in every home game for these clubs. Over a thirty eight game season, that is an increase of forty one percent just in three clubs. Little wonder then that attendances are improving. Were the matter that simple. On a weekly basis, television broadcasts pictures that show the ticket sales may not be as impressive as they appear at first glance.

In no more small measure, the figures are helped by the fact that the ‘Sold Out’ signs go up at Anfield, The Emirates and Old Trafford for every home game. Which begs the question as to whether the EPL is more popular or simply that the top sides are. It is reported that Old Trafford is planned to have a capacity of 96,000 in the future; no doubt it will sell out as long as Manchester United are successful, keeping up the appearance of a successful and growing business.

But is English football on the up or is the EPL guilty of a marketeers’ spin on events? Is it in danger of killing off the spectacle through saturated television coverage? The EPL has some of the most lucrative broadcast contracts of the Professional game. In any bar in Spain or Vietnam, you can watch the matches on a Saturday afternoon. Yet in England itself, you cannot. The EPL and clubs are being vigorous in pursuing those errant landlords who are buying foreign satellite systems to contravene the rules which were designed to protect the clubs when the first television deal was signed. It seems a lifetime ago that we were served by Match of the Day on a Saturday night and The Big Match on a Sunday. Now you can barely go one day of the week without a live game.

The wealth being created by these contacts is not filtering downwards to the fans though. Too much, too often, the revenues from this source are retained rather than being a force that should be driving ticket prices downwards. Dangerously, the clubs are reaching a point whereby they are pricing a generation out of the game. If a parent wishes to take two children to a match, they are not going to get much change out of £100. Compare that with other forms of entertainment and it is not difficult to see why football is struggling to maintain the numbers of supporters actually going to games, relying instead on Corporate Deals to make stadia profitable. Problematically for the game as a whole, the supporters are not drifting down the leagues in huge numbers so the habit of actually attending a match is not becoming ingrained in youngsters.

The figures may be up now but complacency must not be allowed to set in. Where is the enticement for broadcasters to continually pay vast sums of money if the stadia are not full?

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