English fans are rediscovering provincial football and the charm of the lower leagues. The confirmation comes from the fact that the attendance of the public in the stadiums of the Championship, League One and League Two teams is growing more rapidly than that of the Premier League. And on this rediscovery of more working-class football, of the “support your local team”, weighs also the ever higher cost of the tickets to watch matches of the English top division. According to what is reported by a very authoritative source like the Economist, the Premier League, despite its prestige on a global level and its status as the most competitive championship in the world, represents only 41% of the over 38 million tickets sold every year for English professional matches. Less than half.
There are other very, very significant figures: if on one hand it is true that, in recent years, the average of spectators for each single Premier League match has increased by 14%, the best numbers are recorded by the minor leagues. In League One (the equivalent of the Italian Serie C) the surge was 47%, while in the National League (the English fifth division) as much as 50%. And the Championship (the equivalent of the Italian Serie B) was the second most-followed football league in Europe – precisely after the Premier League.
In recent years the price of tickets to watch a Premier League match has increased dizzyingly. This does not seem to have frightened the stadium-goers, given that the facilities of the Premier League teams have had an overall average fill close to 97%. But the numbers do not always say everything and do not take into account the cultural and social changes that there have been. What has changed, in fact, is the type of supporter present: many tourists and, in any case, more people with greater purchasing power have replaced the historic fans. They are the ones who go to the stadium to live an experience, more than a football match. The consequence, as the Economist also explains, is that many fans of minor teams prefer to follow clubs that have remained more in contact with the local fanbase, even if smaller. According to some experts, this phenomenon goes beyond a pure economic question: the stadiums of the English lower divisions, in fact, are the legacy of a bygone era, made of passion, support and pints of beer drunk together with friends. This too makes the difference.