I saw some REALLY interesting (and kind of shocking) attendance stats. Here are the averages and capacity percentages of the top leagues in Europe.
Here is a break down of Serie A. Can't believe how bad it is in Italy...
It really puts MLS attendance in perspective. We aren't THAT far off of some of these top leagues. It seems like there are some powerhouses that keep the averages up and some outliers that bring it back down. Pretty crazy.
This graph tells a small story. I’m gonna tell you the rest.
These are all lessons for MLS soccer and other leagues to learn from. This is how the biggest league in the world started to collapse. Economic times are another story, but Serie A is not going anywhere and will continue to be a top tier league. They had their heads in their asses and waited too long to do something. So the reversal will take time.
The stadiums there are a disaster. Juventus has the most modern facility and the best attendance to capacity ratio. It also is the only team owned stadium. Most of the other stadiums right now are city owned and the team pays to use the stadiums on match days, which greatly reduces their profits potential. The powerhouse teams are all looking to build their own new stadiums and are hoping it will trickle down through the league. Udinese’s stadium is being renovated to a 25k stadium and only half the stadium is usable right now...so that number is abnormal. Roma and Milan are building state of the art facilities and others are waiting for a green light. The stadiums the teams are using were considered modern 35 years ago and nothing has changed. They are run down and provide no amenities of note. Many were built in the early 1900’s and are not SSS. Not a good way to promote continued success.
Calciopoli hit the league hard. A league wide network of referees on the take and match fixing could have killed the league. It was only like 10 years ago. Sponsors ran from the league. Serie A was known to have the top talent in the world, but could no longer pay them. Those players went to England and Spain. Teams took sanctioned hits and were absent from CL..which is another big blow. But if you follow Serie A, they started to spend money this year again. But Calciopoli is one of the biggest culprits to the decline.
Youth development. From 1990-2004 Italy’s under 21 dominated football and has the most championships. They lost their way, but are on the rise again. When a league has financial problems, youth development becomes a top priority. To be successful all the time, it always needs to be a priority. When the youth talent was down, they had to go out and buy players, which wasn’t a good recipe for a league just hit with scandal.
Then there’s the fans. Most stadiums there, are not family friendly and there’s been an influx of violence. Ultras have ramped it up to murder or severely beating opposing fans. There are some rivalries that are down right dangerous to be around. Lazio and Roma’s battle for Rome is one of the most heated rivalries in the world....but there’s no cotton candy there anymore lol.
This is pretty much the gist of things in Serie A....but believe me, it is not dead and will slowly work it’s way back to the top. The future looks like: England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy to remain the worlds greatest soccer leagues and if MLS doesn’t screw it up...they will join that group.
