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August 22, 2008

Italy: Serie A, Clubs in the 2008-09 Season (with 07/08 attendances).

Filed under: Italy — admin @ 3:00 pm

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(Note: to see my latest map-and-post on Italian football, click on the following, category: Italy.)
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Italy’s Serie A will start it’s 77th season on 30th August. This map shows the 20 clubs in the league this season. Club crests are sized to reflect 07/08 average attendances.

Last season, Serie A averaged 23,180 per game. This figure was up 25.5% from 06/07, but this can be viewed as an expected increase, as the pro game in Italy has recovered somewhat as the widespread fan disaffection in the wake of 05/06, and the “calciopoli” scandals wanes. Also, three clubs were promoted (Napoli especially) which that draw much better than the average promoted clubs.

Whether top flight Italian football can get back to it’s peak modern gate figures, of 1991-’92, when Serie A drew 34,002, remains to be seen. But a more reasonable goal would be the 25,400 per game that the league drew in 02/03, 03/04, and 04/05.

Thanks to Demis, for the base map {Click here}.

Thanks to European Football Statistics, for the attendance figures {Click here}.

Comments (2)

August 18, 2008

Spain: La Liga, Clubs in the 2008-09 Season (with 07/08 attendance map).

Filed under: Spain — admin @ 2:14 pm

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Note: to see my latest post on Spanish football, click on the following, category: Spain.
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The 30th of August will see the opening of the 78th season of Spain’s Liga de Futbol Professional, popularly known as La Liga. The map shows the 20 clubs in the 2008-’09 season. Club crests are sized to reflect each club’s average attendance from 07/08.

Last season, La Liga averaged 29,124 per game {see this}. That figure will probably go down this season, though. This is primarily because Real Zaragoza, who drew 30,000 per game last season, were relegated, and one of the three promoted clubs is Numancia (who drew only around 5,000 a game last season).

Since 2002-’03, La Liga has been averaging between 28,500 and 29,200 per game. The way it stands now, La Liga has two clubs that draw over 60,000 (reigning champions Real Madrid, and Barcelona); five clubs that draw between 35,000 and 45,000 (Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Real Betis, and Athletic Bilbao); 9 clubs that draw between 17,000 and 24,000 (Murcia, Espanyol, Villarreal, Mallorca, Deportivo La Coruna, Valladolid, Racing Santander, Recreativo Huelva, and Osasuna); and some medium-small sized clubs that usually survive a year or to, or go straight back down to the Segunda Division. The exception to this last category has come to be Getafe, the rather tiny club from a heavily industrialized region just south of Madrid’s city center, who were formed in 1983. This club is hard pressed to draw more than 10,000 a game, yet has thrived in their first 4 seasons in La Liga, and made it to the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup last season. Another example of this may be under way on the southeast coast, in eastern Andalusia, where top flight novices Almeria (established in 1989), finished in 8th place last season, and drew around 15,000 per game. {See this profile, from the Albion Road site}. Five years ago, new to the second tier, Almeria averaged only 5,800.

Thanks to Demis, of the Netherlands, for the base map {Click here}.

Thanks to European Football Statistics, for the attentance figures {Click here}.

Thanks to the Spanish Football & Sports site, for linking to this post {Click here}.

Comments (14)

August 12, 2008

Premier League: Clubs in the 2008-09 Season (With 2007-08 Attendance Map, and Final Standings Chart).

Filed under: 2008-09 English Football,Eng>Premier League (Eng-1st Level) — admin @ 4:09 pm

Please Note: to see my most recent Premier League map & post, click on the following category, Eng>Premier League.
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The Premier League, England’s top level of football, begins it’s 16th season, on the weekend of 16th-17th August.

Below are the average gates (from last season) of all the clubs who are in the Premier League for the 2008-09 season. Included is the percentage change from the 2006-07 season.

Thanks to Historical Football Kits {Click here}, for the kits used on the chart: copyright Historical Football Kits, and reproduced by permission.

Thanks to the European Football Statistics site for the attendance figures {Click here}.

Comments (7)

August 8, 2008

2008-’09 English Football: League Championship- Attendance Map (with attendances from the 2007-’08 season).

Filed under: 2008-09 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship — admin @ 10:29 am

The League Championship is the second level of English football. Last season, the league averaged 17,022 per game. Attendance was down 3.4%, which can be explained by the promotion to the Premier League, last year, of the two highest drawing clubs from the season before: Sunderland and Derby County.

This season, there will be an unusually large number of local derbies. That’s because there will be four clubs from South Yorkshire (with the promotion of Doncaster Rovers, plus Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, and Barnsley); two clubs from Wales (with the promotion of Swansea City, plus Cardiff City); two clubs from the East Midlands (with the promotion of Nottingham Forest, and the return of Derby County); and three clubs from the West Midlands (with the return of Birmingham City, plus Wolverhampton and Coventry City). And once again, there will be three London clubs (Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace, and Queens Park Rangers), along with Watford (which most people consider to be part of London, although it is just over the border, in Hertfordshire).

When one factors in the new clubs for this season, the relegation of two smaller clubs (Colchester United and Scunthorpe United), and the general trend over the last decade towards higher gates in the Football League, the League Championship will probably have it’s highest drawing season ever. [It's highest was 2006-07, with an average gate of 18,221.]

Here is a preview of the League Championship (Telegraph UK) {Click here}.

For promotion, the oddsmakers like Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers, and Reading {Click here (statto.com site)}. But if last season is anything to go by, some clubs in the middle of the oddsmaker’s pack will gain promotion, rather than all the favorites. It was wide open last season, and going into the final half-dozen matches, fully half the league (actually 13 clubs) had a viable shot at promotion. In the end, two of the three clubs who won promotion this May, Hull City and Stoke City, were not at all highly rated for advancement. Hull were 66 to 1 to win the league outright, and Stoke City were 25 to 1. Eventual League Championship winners West Bromwich Albion were highly rated to win it, though, at 6 to 1.

What has vaulted QPR into the top three projected clubs is their new ownership and investor {see this}. Ticket prices have shot up, and some are worried that the new ownership will price the average loyal fan out {see this, from The Guardian UK, by Benjie Goodheart}.

Here is a nice League Championship preview, from a QPR supporters’ site called Loft For Words {Click here}.

Staying on the QPR theme, here is a preview of the 08/09 team, from the great Unprofessional Foul site {Click here}. This site is in the process of previewing the whole league, in their insightul and irreverent way. [Note: that is QPR's old badge pictured there in the article...the new one can be seen on my map.]

Thanks to the European Football Statistics site {Click here}, for the attendance figures. Thanks to the Historical Football Kits site {Click here}. Not for images, this time, but for pointing out the plethora-of-derbies angle.

Comments (3)

August 4, 2008

2008-09 English Football: League One- Attendance Map (with attendances from the 2007-08 season).

Filed under: 2008-09 English Football,Eng-3rd Level/League One — admin @ 4:49 pm

Note: to see my latest map-&-post of the English 3rd division, click on the following, Eng-3rd Level/League One.
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League One is the 3rd Level of English Football. This level invariably has the biggest disparity in attendance figures. In the past decade, this league has been usually comprised of one or two “big” clubs, who have fallen on hard times; mixed in with a large portion of medium-small sized clubs; and rounded out by some rather small clubs who are punching above their weight. Last season, League One had an overall average gate of 7,992, up 6.7% from the season before (thanks to Leeds’ gate figures, mainly).

This season, in the first category are Leeds United and Leicester City. Both these clubs, particularly Leeds, have fan bases bigger than some current Premier League clubs. In recent years (1999 to 2008), Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City, and Birmingham City have had spells in the 3rd Level. These are all clubs that have spent considerable time (at least 45 seasons) in the top flight, and all regularly draw above 20,000 per game.

In the second category are clubs that presently draw around 5,000 to 10,000 per game. Some of these clubs, such as Oldham Athletic, Millwall, and Brighton & Hove Albion, have had a somewhat recent spell in the top flight (Oldham from 1991 to ’94, Millwall from 1988 to ’90, Brighton from 1979 to ’83). Huddersfield Town won 3 straight English Titles in 1924, ’25, and ’26, but has not been in the top flight since 1971-72. Four clubs here spent a single season in the top tier: Swindon Town in 1993-94, Carlisle United in 1974-75, Northampton Town in 1965-66, and Leyton Orient in 1962-63. Some of these clubs, like Colchester United, Southend United, Crewe Alexandra, and the just-promoted Stockport County have recently been in the second level, but have never made it to the top tier.

In the third category are a few clubs with very small fan bases, like Cheltenham Town, Hartlepool United, and the newly-promoted Hereford United. Yeovil Town, who until 5 years ago had never been above the 5th level, can be considered as part of this category, even with their rise in attendance (to the range of 5,400 to 6,400) since they were first promoted to the League, in 2004. Nevertheless, many feel the Glovers, from the Football-deficient outpost of Somerset, cannot maintain their status as a third-level club, and are due for the drop. Pretty much the same thing could be said for Gloucestershire’s Cheltenham Town, as well as Hereford. But County Durham’s Hartlepool seem to be holding their own in the third tier (with a 7th place finish last season), despite only drawing 4,500 per game.

As of 3rd August, the bookies’ favorites for promotion are Leeds United, the just-relegated Leicester City, and the just-promoted Peterborough United. The next favorites are the just-promoted MK Dons, as well as Huddersfield, Carlisle, and Southend. Brighton, and the just-relegated Colchester, are also rated as relatively good bets to go up {Click here (Statto.com site)}.

Thanks to the European Football Statistics site {Click here}, for the attendance figures.

Comments (2)

July 31, 2008

France: Ligue 1, Clubs in the 2008-09 Season (with 07/08 attendance map, and final standings chart).

Filed under: France — admin @ 3:07 pm

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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}.

Comments (5)

July 27, 2008

2008-09 English Football: League Two- Zoom Map.

Filed under: 2008-09 English Football,Eng-4th Level/League Two,Zoom Maps — admin @ 8:08 am

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Note: to see my most recent post on the English 4th division, click on the following: category: Eng-4th Level/League 2.
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The map shows all 24 clubs in this season’s League Two, which is the fourth Level of the English Football pyramid.

As a whole, League Two averaged 4,337 spectators per game last season, up 4.8 % from 2006-’07 {See this, from the European Football Statistics site}. But much of that increase can be attributed to Bradford City, who, when faced with relegation to League Two last year, slashed ticket prices across the board (they ended up increasing their average gate by 5,000 per game: from 8,694 to 13,694).

Last season was an extremely competitive one, for the clubs outside the dominant top two of MK Dons and Peterborough United. In 2007-08, there were an amazing 208 away wins, compared to only 220 home wins. {See this, from the English Football [Dot] Info site.}

This season sees both promoted clubs from the Conference (ie, the Blue Square Premier League, the 5th Level) from the southern part of England.

Exeter City has had a long history in the Football League, over 75 seasons worth, and have recovered from their recent near financial collapse and dissolution. They won the Conference playoff last May, over Cambridge City. Exeter City has maintained a solid fan base for a club that had been banished to non-League status. The Grecians drew 3,705 per game last season; second highest in the Conference (behind only Oxford United), and drew better than 10 clubs in the Football League.

Aldershot Town is a relatively new entity, which has risen from the ashes of the defunct Aldershot FC (as depicted by their phoenix-bird logo), and 16 years later, have made it into the Football League. They won the Conference handily, and boast a small, but rabid fan base {See this, from last November, on the Pitch Invasion site}. The club may have some tough times ahead this season, but the stands will be jumping.

{Click here, for the odds-makers’ favorites for promotion in League Two this (Statto.com site).} As of 27th July, the bookies are picking Bradford City, Darlington, Gillingham, and Shrewsbury Town to be promoted. Chesterfield, Wycombe, and Rochdale are the next favorites.

Both clubs promoted from the Conference last year were newcomers to the Football League: North Lancashire’s Morecambe, and East London club Dagenham & Redbridge. Both survived. Morecambe did exremely well, with 16 wins, and an 11th place finish. The Shrimps’ average gate went up from 1,598 in the Conference, in ’06-’07, to 2,855 last season. Dagenham looked to be in a relegation battle, before finding safety through two consecutive wins to end the season. The Daggers finished in 20th place, and saw their average gate go from 1,756 to just 2,021 (second lowest in all the 92-club League, higher only than Accrington Stanley).

All four of the clubs relegated from the 3rd Level, League One, in May 2008, have spent most of their seasons above the 4th Level. Luton Town have notched 16 seasons in the top flight, and even won the 1988 League Cup. They have spent their most seasons (34) in the 2nd Level, and before their financial problems, the Hatters, under Mike Newell, in 2005-’06, were actually in the running for a shot at the Premier League. Every thing went pear-shaped fast, and the former board is in disgrace, for their financial improprieties. A new management team has come aboard, but not until after a fatal points deduction which sealed their relegation. And what’s worse is that more points will be deducted for the up-coming season. The same goes for Bournemouth, who put up a valiant eleventh-hour attempt at avoiding off the drop, but to no avail. Port Vale will be in the 4th Level for the first time in 23 seasons. Finally, there is Gillingham, who have spent 55 seasons in the 3rd Level, and as recently as 2005, were in the 2nd Level. But the club from Kent have their own set of money problems, and were unable to afford the caliber of player that would have kept them in League One. The club has a decent size fan base, though (6,077 avg. gate last season).

Here is a very recent article from the Soccer Lens site, by Gary Andrews, about the points-deduction holes that Luton Town, Bournemouth, and Rotherham United find themselves in…{Click Here.}

Thanks to the Historical Football Kits site {click here}, for the kits on the map, which are copyright Historical Football Kits, and reproduced by permission [note: I have indicated on the map which kits are new for this season].

Comments (6)

July 23, 2008

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Men’s Football Venues- Map with photos.

Filed under: Olympics: Football — admin @ 4:32 pm

The Group matches start on 7th August. All 16 teams in the 4-team Groups will play 3 matches, all on the 7th, 10th, and 13th of August. Here are each venue’s first set of games (the venues below are listed from top to bottom, in correlation with the sets of photos on the map).

[Note: all population figures are for city-area, not the much larger municipality, or urban, area.]

Shenyang (China’s 10th largest city) is a sub-provincial city, and the capital of Laoning province, in northeast China, with a population of around 4.4 million (2007 estimate). On 7th August, Shenyang Olympic Stadium will host the Group C teams: Brazil v. Belgium (early match) and China v. New Zealand (late match).

Quinhuangdao (around China’s 78th largest city) is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, 190 miles east of Beijing, with a population of three-quarters of a million. Thursday the 7th of August, Quinhuangdao Olympic Stadium will host the Group D teams: Honduras v. Italy (early match) and South Korea v. Cameroon (late match).

Beijing is China’s capital, and the second largest city in the country, with a population of around 10.3 million. Both of the Beijing Stadiums will not host matches in the first 2 sets of games, and the National Stadium will only host the Mens Football Final, on Saturday, 23rd August.

Tianjin is the 7th largest city in China, with a population of 5.2 million. This northern coastal city is 120 miles southeast of Beijing, on the Bohai Gulf. On 7th August, Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium will host the Group B teams: Japan v. USA (early match) and Netherlands v. Nigeria (late match).

Shanghai is China’s largest city (and one of the top 10 largest cities in the world), with a population of around 16.2 million (20.6 million in the urban area). On 7th August, Shanghai Stadium will host the Group A teams: Australia v. Serbia (early match) and Cote d’Ivoire v. Argentina (late match).

Group Stage chapter, from Wikipedia’s page on this competition.: {Click here}.

List of largest urban areas in China, from Wikipedia: {Click here}.

Here is something interesting, from the official 2008 Summer Olympics site, which shows the Beijing National Sports Stadium (aka, “the Bird’s Nest“) being built, in time lapse-photography: {Click here, and scroll one-third down the page, to the box below where it says Focus}.

While searching for images, I came across this blog, called Off the Chang…here is an article about the Bird’s Nest stadium, and the larger issues surrounding the Beijing Olympic games: {click here}.

Thanks to the Football Temples of the World site {click here}.

Comments (6)

July 20, 2008

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Men’s Football- National Teams Map.

Filed under: Olympics: Football — admin @ 11:14 am

[Note: This map was done in collaboration with the Soccer Lens site: {click here for Soccer Lens' preview of the competition.]

Thanks to Wikipedia for the map and information; {click here, for their page on the competition}. Thanks to the CIA World Fact Book site, for the population statistics {click here}. Thanks to Ahmed, at Soccer Lens, for the idea, and input {click here}.

My next post will be a map, with photos of the 6 venues for the football competition, at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Comments (9)

July 16, 2008

Canadian Football League.

Filed under: Canada,Canadian Football League — admin @ 3:59 am

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[Note: the map shows each CFL team's present day helmet. At the bottom of each team box is: 1. the team's earliest logo I could find; 2. a helmet design from the 1960s-1980s; 3. a recent variation of their logo/ or their current logo.]

The Canadian Football League was formed in 1958, though some of the teams had already been playing for many decades. The Canadian championship of gridiron football, the Grey Cup {see this}, was last won by a non-CFL team in 1944, when a battalion from Montreal called Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Donnacona {see this} were the champions. (Just because I love historical trivia like this, the last two non-CFL winners before this were the Toronto RCAF Hurricanes, in 1942, and The Sarnia (Ontario) Imperials {see this} in 1934 and 1936.)

The CFL is widely (and almost completely) ignored by the American media, and is overshadowed, even in Canada, by the National Football League. But it has been getting solid attendance figures for years, and averaged 29,438 per game in 2007. In fact the CFL is the 7th highest drawing league in the world {see this}.

The CFL season runs from July 1st to early November, with the Grey Cup played (in alternating cities) in late November. The CFL has some crucial rule differences from the NFL. First of all, there are only 3, not 4, downs (or plays), for the offensive team to gain the 10 yards necessary to start a new set of downs. Secondly, the offensive backfield (ie, the players who get the ball the most often) can be in forward motion prior to the ball being put in play. This gives the offense a much better chance of gaining yards than in the NFL. Thirdly, the game is a far more wide-open affair, as the CFL field is wider, longer, and has deeper end-zones. Again, more chance for the offense to score. Finally, there is the opportunity for a 1-point score (called a “rouge”), via the kicking game.

Here is Wikipedia’s page on the CFL {click here}.

Last season, the Saskatchewan Roughriders won only their 3rd Grey Cup, beating Winnipeg in the “Prairie Cup.”

{Click here, for the 2008 CFL standings.}

{Click here, for the CFL site.}

Thanks to http://www.sportscolours.org, which includes Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page; Helmets, Helmets, Helmets; and Logo Shak.

Comments (5)

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