Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

[enzee199]

I've been messing around with some attendance stats for domestic leagues across Europe, calculating their average rate of growth over the past few years and the thing I notice is that the Scandinavian countries are doing particularly badly.

Denmark for instance - in the season ending in 2007 average attendance was 8104, yet for last season it was way down to 6760

Norway has also seen attendances slide from 10485 in the season ending 2007 to 7010 for the season finishing in 2012.

Same goes too for Finland and Sweden.

I'll freely admit that I have next to no knowledge of Scandinavian football - is there anyone on here who can shed some light?

[Gerontophile]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

I have no idea about crowds, etc in Scandi football, but it's a good thread topic, and should not be 'nil'.

[Duncan Gardner]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

I hear Crues are taking 23 fans to Trondheim. 21 on the charter, two driving up from Oslo.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Interesting to note the modest increase in Serie A attendances from 2007-2013, a few years back people were suggesting that Italian crowds were in an irreversible free fall.

As for the Scandinavians, I would imagine those not attending games are now rooted to their armchairs watching the Premiership.

[Diable Rouge]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Denmark has become a Copenhagen fiefdom, with Brondby nearer relegation in recent seasons, but the Norwegian and Swedish leagues have been ultra-competitive in the last decade, which makes the slide all the more inexplicable.

[anton pulisov]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

The drop in Sweden could be due to some unsavoury incidents in Swedish stadia during the past few years. It has probably driven away the more family-oriented crowd.

[Reed John]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Surely, which clubs have been relegated and which have been promoted has a big influence, especially if a big club really shits the bed or if club in a smaller market makes it up.

[ursus arctos]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Indeed, as the article itself notes, Juventus explains almost the entire increase in Serie A over the period.

Seems to be less of a factor in Scandinavia, though.

[anton pulisov]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Wouldn't surprise me if Jari Litmanen's no longer playing was the reason behind the drop in Finland.

[Belhaven]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

I don't think you will find one single reason for the fall in attendances, apart from that they all reached record high levels in the mid-2000s.
As has been mentioned, Brondby's meltdown is probably the most important reason why Danish crowds have fallen, as the Köbenhavn-Brøndby rivalry is reminiscent of Celtic-Rangers in being the prime driver for interest in Denmark.

They have a few other clubs, such as Aalborg, Odense and perennial underachievers Aarhus, and maybe Midtjylland, but other than that, clubs struggle to attract more than 2-3000 spectators to their games.

In both Norway and Sweden league expansion from 14 to 16 teams partly explains the fall in average attendances. Swedish average attendances are also suffering from the overall decline of Stockholm over the last few years with Hammarby having been stuck at the second level for the last four seasons, while Djurgården have been close to relegation several times.

A lot of the interest in Stockholm revolves around the local derbies, and with Hammarby gone, there is only the “twin derby” between Djurgården and AIK left, i.e. down from 6 to 2 games a season. These games habitually attract crowds between 25000 and 35000, while normal attendances for Djurgården seems to be 8000 these days (they would be much higher if they did well), while AIK get around 12000. However, this season with AIK playing at the new national stadium, and Djurgården set to move to another new stadium in Stockholm, we might see at least a temporary rise in crowds in Stockholm.

Similarly, the collapse of both Örgryte and GAIS in Gothenburg means that there are none of the traditional derbies played in that city either. Neither of those two clubs have great crowds anymore, but they would regularly play in front of a full house in matches against IFK Göteborg.

Sweden like Denmark, depend on relatively few cities and towns to keep up the interest as there is not a great pool of clubs able to generate big crowds. This season for example, clubs like Brommapojkarna, Assyriska, Mjällby, Häcken and Gefle are all small outfits that often play before crowds between 1500 and 2500.

It may be that the competition from ice hockey for sponsor revenue, public support, merchandise and ticket sales restrict the actual size of the Swedish football league. Few towns seem able to support both viable football and ice hockey clubs. It is either one or the other.

In Norway, there was an explosion in the interest following the fall of the Rosenborg monopoly in the mid-2000, and in particular with the emergence of the other two "Big Clubs", Vålerenga (Oslo) and Brann (Bergen), as footballing powers.

Valerenga finished second in 2004, beaten by Rosenborg by the number of goals scored, won the league in 2005 and finished third in 2006. During this period, crowds at our home games rose from about 8000 to 15000 on average.

Brann had a similar rise in fortunes finishing third in 2004, second in 2006 and finally winning the league for the first time since 1963 in 2007. Brann played then several seasons before capacity crowds of 17500, and could probably easily had crowds of 25000 at their home games if the stadium capacity had allowed it.

Since then, both Brann and Vålerenga had reverted back to their normal mid-table levels, and crowds at both clubs are down to averages of 10000 in Oslo and 12000 in Bergen.

Interestinlgy, also Rosenborg had a marked increase in gates as they started to face a bit of domestic competition, and reached an all-time high in Norway of 19000 per game in 2007, despite only finishing fourth or fifth in the league, but have since then also experienced a decrease in interest. Last year, they were down to 13000.

Many clubs also moved to new stadiums in those years, and experienced a surge in interest as a result. Viking got crowds of 15000 in their new stadium, while clubs like Aalesund, Fredrikstad and Start all got 10000 plus crowds at their new grounds.

Since then, as the novelty factor has worn off, and also due to serious mismanagement at some clubs, crowds have dwindled back to more modest levels for most of these clubs.

However, it would be totally unrealistic to expect those crowd levels to be maintained. Adjusted for league and population size, 10400 on average in Norway is the equivalent of 75000 per game in the Premier League. There is no compelling reason why the interest in Norway should be many, many times higher than in virtually any other country on the planet. I still expect crowds to fall further back to an average of about 6000.

Another element to factor in at least in Norway is that the season has started earlier in the year following league expansion. While they started around the 10th of April previously, the trend now is to start the season in mid-March. The weather is still cold here at that time and as there is no tradition for winter football the interest is correspondingly lower. Some even claim that the early start is the reason for the downward-sloping trend as it kills the interest for the league among the less dedicated segments of potential spectators. Mind you, I am not convinced by that theory myself.

So, several factors, such as lack of local derbies, mismanagement and relegation of bigger clubs, changes to the league structure, as well as a less easily explained fall in the general interest all contribute to the present decline in attendances in Scandinavia. Alternatively, what we experience is a correction in crowds back to their natural levels.

[Duncan Gardner]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Interesting stuff Belhaven.

I hear the Crues boys are enjoying Trondheim's hospitality

[Janik]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Not about crowds, but can Belhaven enlighten us (or me at least) about what the hell is happening to Molde this season? Back-to-back champions to a relegation spot at nearing the mid point of a campaign is a pretty spectacular implosion.

[Belhaven]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

It takes a greater football brain than mine to explain what's happened to Molde this season. They lost the six first games, each one by the odd goal, after seemingly being a bit unlucky in all those games. Most times, they would have got at least a few wins out of those performances. Since then, they hav recovered somewhat and are now in 9th position. They are way too good to be relegated, but that freak start to the season removed any chances of a league hat-trick for Ole Gunnar Solskjar, which is just as well. While I do not have anything against him as a person, he's had it way too easy since he came back to Molde, and it is not unpleasant to see him having to sweat a bit for his money.

Also, related to the topic of this thread, Molde is the kind of club no one cares about, and whose success is the type of factor that reduces the general interest for the league. They are not even a fairytale story, they are just a small town club with rich backers.

[Janik]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

As I think I've said before, the Norwegian branch of my family is from the Molde area. So they care about the club, and by extension the non-Norwegian branches take a passing interest (although fairly fleeting as my WTF reaction to having looked at a slightly out-of-date league table shows). But I do understand it not seeming like any sort of fairytale to the rest of Norway.

[Belhaven]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Yes, I am aware of your Molde connection, and my "no one cares about them"- statement needs a litte follow up. There is a tremendous interest for the club in the town itself and the nearby Romsdal region. Along with the annual jazz festival, the football club is problably the single most important diversion to the citizens of Molde, and their attendance/popualation rate is among the highest in the country.

However, in other places they do not stir any emotions, at least not any positive ones. They are certainly the boring relation in the county of Möre & Romsdal with southern neighbour Aalesund considered a much colourful and fun club to follow.

The two teams met in the cup a couple of seasons back, and Oslo was draped in the orange and blue of Aalesund for the entire weekend, while Molde's colours were nowhere to be seen, "confirming" the fun and colourful against bleak and boring stereotype.

[Belhaven]

Does no one watch football in Scandinavia anymore?

Duncan Gardner wrote: Interesting stuff Belhaven.

I hear the Crues boys are enjoying Trondheim's hospitality

I saw they got beaten handsomely. Did anything else happen?

[Me Old Flower]

I haven't been following attendance trends in Finland recently, but it appears one club is at least trying to boost theirs. Last season, RoPS of Rovaniemi (in Lapland, pop. 62,000) offered 225 euro season tickets at 59 euros if over 3,000 individuals promised to buy one (the final figure was over 3,500).

This season, a similar campaign has been launched, but with an added bonus - the home fixture against KPV Kokkola on The 29th of June will kick off at 10.15pm, meaning the match will finish at midnight. Rovaniemi sits on The Arctic Circle, so the game will be played in daylight despite the late start.

[ursus arctos]

There's a baseball team in Alaska that has been playing Midnight Sun games for years.

They are are a lot of fun.

[Stobart]

Rosenborg's dominance in Norway may be a factor. Although attendances in Norway as a whole have dropped, Rosenborg's last 4 seasons have all shown higher attendances than each of the previous 4 seasons.

[Muukalainen]

I haven't been following attendance trends in Finland recently, but it appears one club is at least trying to boost theirs. Last season, RoPS of Rovaniemi (in Lapland, pop. 62,000) offered 225 euro season tickets at 59 euros if over 3,000 individuals promised to buy one (the final figure was over 3,500).

This season, a similar campaign has been launched, but with an added bonus - the home fixture against KPV Kokkola on The 29th of June will kick off at 10.15pm, meaning the match will finish at midnight. Rovaniemi sits on The Arctic Circle, so the game will be played in daylight despite the late start.

3500?!? That must be double the average home gate. I see that Veikkausliiga stopped publishing attendance statistics at the end of the 2014 season. Prior to that, RoPS' home gate was in the region of 1500-1800. As already noted, crowd figures were already headed south by 2015, and I suppose that those in charge want to suppress the details.

[Kowalski]

In my experience you think you're going to go to a match in Finland, so naturally you book non-refundable plane tickets and accommodation, then they move the match forward 24 hours and you can't watch the champions league qualifying match you planned to watch, even if it was your long cherished dream. T

hen you realise that you, the little guy, the prole, the dreamer, has no place at the top table of European football. You could have been someone, a contender, a big spender, a watch mender but all you ended up with is a one way ticket to Colwyn Bay and nobody cares that your dreams don't amount to anything.

But fate is a fickle mistress so you still you go to Helsinki and fall asleep watching the Tour de France in a sports bar because you missed the rendezvous with your friends. So instead of going to a match, you're tired in Helsinki and trying to find the buildings you recognise from Billion Dollar Brain, and that's just the first eight hours of the trip!