billsportsmaps.com

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Note: to see my latest map-&-post of Ligue Un, click on the following: category: France.
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The Ligue Un season starts the weekend of 9th and 10th August.  {Click here, for the official Ligue 1 site.}

Lyon has won an unprecedented 7 straight Titles. They will face competition from Bordeaux and Marseille.  A big surprise last season was Nancy, who were only expected to avoid the drop, as they had no player acquisitions to speak of.  Instead, they finished fourth, and will play in the UEFA Cup.  Saint-Etienne finished fifth, and will also play in the UEFA Cup.  But these latter two clubs are not expected to vie for the crown.  Indeed, it is telling that the oddsmakers have a seperate betting category for “League, without Lyon”  {click here, for odds to win Ligue 1 (Easy Odds site)}. 

I am trying out a new type of map and chart for leagues, here.  Basically, I have combined an attendance map with a zoom map,  but without the “zoom lines”.  Instead, each club’s thumbnail profile is positioned in order of their place in the final standings from last season; also, the clubs that qualified for European competitions are listed.   For the Champions League, it is Lyon and Bordeaux, with Marseille into the CL 3rd Round Qualifiers.  For the UEFA Cup, it’s Nancy, Saint-Etienne, and Coupe de la Ligue winner Paris St-Germain (click here, for info on the relatively new Coupe de la Ligue).  The Intertoto Cup will feature Rennes.  At the bottom of the chart, the three promoted clubs are shown (Le Havre, Nantes, and Grenoble).  

This short article from June goes into the problem Ligue 1 has with comparatively low television revenue: {Click here (Reuters Soccer Blog)}.

I was having trouble finding previews of the Ligue 1 08/09 season, but I finally found this: {Click here (Center Holds It, via Big Soccer site)}.   [It's the first installment, starting with the champions, Lyon.]

Here is the Sky Sports/ Ligue 1 page: {Click here}.

The Offside has pretty good French league coverage, with correspondents for 10 of the clubs…{Click here, for The Offside /France}.

Thanks to Colours of Football, for the kits {click here}.

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After years of drawing maps of sports leagues, I decided I wanted to better represent how “big” each team was.  By “big,” I mean successful and popular.  These two usually go hand in hand.  An ideal way of measuring this would be some complicated system tabulating championships,  cup wins,  years spent in the first division,  attendance figures, and merchandise sales.  But that would be a ridiculously vast undertaking.  To cut to the chase, I came up with this kind of map.

I decided to simply use average attendance figures to determine the pixel size of each team’s logo.  I think this system works well in visually establishing which teams are big, which are also-rans, and which are minnows.

Here, one can see the predominance of Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, and Olympique Lyonnais.  Also, one is able to see which smaller clubs are nearby the big clubs, while, at a glance, understanding their importance (or lack thereof). 

Another feature is that 2nd division clubs with solid followings are not ignored, as they so often are by the media.  One can see how two clubs, SM Caen and RC Strasbourg, drew better than 30% of the 1st division.  Incidentally, they both were promoted at the end of the season.

Of course there are anomalies, such as in the case of Lille LOSC.  Lille are awaiting finalization of plans for a new stadium, and are playing currently in a small, inadequate stadium with a capacity of around 18,000.  Nevertheless, they finished in 2nd place two seasons ago, and have played well in the Champions League for two straight seasons.  So by the dictates of my system, their logo is rather small sized, and does not reflect their recent success.  This will change when their ~33,000 seat stadium is completed.  It is targeted for a 2010 completion, but no one is holding their breath.

On the other hand,  Stade Rennais (aka Rennes) averages 25,000 per game, but has little silverware in the trophy case (last trophy: French Cup in 1971).  So on the map, their logo is rather large, but their accomplishments are  small.  This can be  explained by the fact that, as the prominent team of Brittany, they are assured of solid support, regardless of success.  The ultimate example of this is northeast England’s Newcastle United, the poster boys for popular futility.  Year in, year out, this club draws near or above 50,000 per game, but has not won anything meaningful since 1955.

In other words, my Attendance Maps don’t necessarily measure accomplishment, but they do measure the ability to sell tickets.  And nine times out of ten, success at the turnstile means success on the pitch.