Quote: Wellsy13 "So how do you explain Wigan's crowds? '"
I didn't know that I had been assigned this task.
Quote: Wellsy13 "They haven't had much success in a while, but their crowds have been growing. In fact, they actually grew the year they were nearly relegated. Who was hunting glory that year?'"
Don't make me laugh. For a start, everyone loves (or loved) a good relegation struggle. I can't remember now, as I wasn't paying much notice, but wasn't there something about poaching the current Great Britain coach, and buying up half the league's best players for record-breaking fees that might have had something to do with it?
Is not avoiding relegation against all odds in one sense "glory hunting", if you must use that stupid phrase?
Quote: Wellsy13 "Leeds didn't have a very successful year in 2006 but still managed to maintain a near-capacity crowd every week (capacity was reduced because of the stand works, so crowds will dip due to this). Where as Bradford in 2006 dropped their crowds by 2,000 despite being the reigning champions AND only one win away from the Grand Final. They were still successful, but lost a lot of fans.'"
Nice, if amazingly shallow, try, but unfortunately for you there is no simplistic, magic formula for getting in crowds. Things decline over a period of time, just as they are built up over time. There are no instant on-off switches like you seem to think, and potential attendees simply do NOT behave like programmed robots. If you would realise that it's actually an extremely complex subject, you would find what you seem to think are anomalies less baffling.
So, for example, rallying around a team which is in dire relegation straits, but suddenly goes on an unprecedented signings splurge, is actually, when you think about it, something that might well galvanise non-committed people to go watch a game or two, see the superstars signed perform, and share the drama of the battle for survival.
Whereas if Wigan, or anyone, slid into the doldrums and stayed there, then the longer it remained so, the more crowds would gradually decline, in general proportion to the standard the team was at. Each league will have its exceptions, up to a point, but if I were you I'd use a different starting point:
What is the average attendance in SL?
What is the average attendance in the Championship?
What is the average attendance in NL1?
What is the average attendance in the Pennine League?
In general terms, attendances within a league are broadly comparable.
And in a lower league they are lower, on average.
And the teams that do well tend to get the higher attendances.
Teams with a pedigree, such as Wigan, Leeds or Bradford, or in soccer teams like Leeds United, retain a higher base, for a while, because the starting point was so much higher, for so long, in the first place. But if they drop out of the League a la Luton, what would their crowds be then, do you think?
As I said - this is not rocket science.
