Serie A struggling with decreasing attendances

By Edmundo
October 26 2006

The attendances of Italian Serie A have decreased alarmingly over the last decade and even winning the World Cup with purely domestic based players hasn't stopped this trend.

The average attendance this season has been 19 511, whereas in 1997/98 it was still 31 161. The drop has been consistant over the last nine seasons and is unique in European football. The main contributors have been the continuous scandals that have rocked Italian football, corruption, football violence, poor stadiums, the complicated ticket purchase system and particularly this season the relegation of Juventus to Serie B. Interestingly the attendances of Serie B have increased by 20,3% as a result of Juve-gate.