http://www.skysports.com/football/n...re-closest-to-capacity-in-england-last-season go half way down the page. it seems despite the supporters unrest at the new owners, we still averaged about 6000 more fans per home game than millwall.
Bournemouth had a magnificent season, playing wonderful attacking football, but could only fill 85% of a 12,000 stadium, despite bringing 5,000 to the Valley.
i dunno if it's the championship manager playing me, but whenever i got promoted in that game i'd build up the ground. weird to see bournemouth not doing that - imagine the tickets they could sell next year
They cannot add many more home supporters. There simply is not the population density in that area. The nearest decent size conurbation is Southampton, which already has a good Premiership side. So is it worth enlarging the stadium for four matches a year (Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool) when they might well go down at the end of the season? That is why I am surprised no-one apart from RD was interested in Charlton. Our "natural" catchment area is around a million, as against 250,000 tops for Bournemouth.
It's surprising how many people will travel to watch football. Perhaps Bournemouth could bus people in from Swanage, Corfe and Wareham.
I included places like that in my (probably generous) 250,000 catchment area. Ipswich, Norwich and Plymouth have the same problem. Sizable towns set in interminable wastes of mangel worzels. Could never exceed a certain attendance even if they offered concessions to scarecrows.