The decline of Serie A - a year of disillusionment or a greater malaise?

[revelationx]

Currently the 3 healthiest leagues in Europe are The Premiership, La Liga and the Bundesliga. Each of these 3 leagues have very high attendences with most matches playing to almost full stadia.

In contrast Serie A has a whole host of problems leading to a high discontent with Italian matchgoers. The hooligan ultras, the racism, the fascism, the matchfixing, the subsequent leniency in punishments, the points deduction for several Serie A clubs and the loss of big players like Shevchenko, Cannavaro, Trezeguet, Zambrotta, Thuram etc have all contributed to a general malaise amonsgt Italian football fans. This is clearly shown in that despite being new World Champions, Italian attendences in Serie A are simply shocking this year.

Palermo has an average attendence of 76% - which is 3/4 full in their best season for a long time (maybe ever). All other attendences are much lower with only Fiorentina and Palermo having average attendences of more than 60% and Lazio having only an average attendence of only 20%! Inter at the top have average attendences of less than 43%!

http://stats.football365.com/dom/ITA/SA/attend.html

It is interesting to see whether attendences change next year when no teams will have points deductions hampering their ambitions. If it does not change then it shows there are big problems in Italian football when fans in such a big football mad country are not bothering to follow their teams.

The question is will Serie A recover and is this a low point rather than the new norm?

[LebenslangGruenWeiss]

They will catch up with the attendance of the other league once they get their roblems with fan violence and racism under control. Another problem is that many stadiums are not very fan friendly (no food, high prices for tickets etc.). Once they solve those problem attendance will rise again.

[Clan]

They will catch up with the attendance of the other league once they get their roblems with fan violence and racism under control.

What steps have they taken to improve on this problem, as opposed to even last season?

[MilanOnlyMilan]

What can you expect when there are so many mini clubs in Serie a like Siena,Empoli,Chievo , while many big clubs play in lower divisions.Serie b teams have won 46 scudetto between them, and Serie a teams have 47.That's amazing numbers. If ,as expected, Juve , Napoli and Genoa will achieve promotion this year, average attendance numbers'll rise about 30%. Just compare Chievos' average of 5.000 and Napoli with 50.000-60.000.Plus fans of these teams travel in thousands in away games.Also Juve allways plays away games in sold out stadiums.And there would be so many big games every week.
Of course there are more problems, but just italians can say all the reasons of low attendances.But it's really strange to see that Palermo can't sold out every home game (as i remember last year they had the same average), or just half full Olimpico when Roma plays.Lazio is a different case, because their ultras are protesting so they don't attend the matches. One positive thing is Catania-this team allways plays in full stadium (they also had 10.000 travelling fans in Rome last week when Catania played against Roma).

[Cassano]

Yes, the attendance problem can be associated to the number of small cities that are in Serie A at the moment. Chievo Verona has a very small fan base, and Empoli and Siena have populations less than 60,000 people. Second, many big fanbases are in Serie B- Juventus, Napoli, Bologna, and Genoa. Thankfully, all these clubs are on top of the table in Serie B and fighting for promotion. Next year with the return of 3/4 of these teams attendance should be higher. Also, the return of Napoli and a rejuvenated Juventus should provide some more excitement.

[nirvaanfc]

For a lot of fans this Serie A season is a joke!

Me personally the only reason for me to tune in is to see if the joke that is Inter can somehow screwup a title handed to them on a silver platter.

No JUVE (rectified by next season), points deductions for Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, Roma having no fit strikers....and Palermo chasing hard but somehow it just seems resigned to an Inter scudetto. Which in itself is more of a travesty than anything!

I really would have liked Palermo (unlikely as it seems) or Roma to get a Scudetto this season if for no other reason because of the sheer volume of quality Italian players in their squads with the foriegn imports rather than foriegn crap (I'm looking at you Julio Cesar and Olivier Dacourt)

It just is such a shame really (I know the main reason for me personally is that I'm a JUVE fan, but i love Serie A regardless, this year just seems surreal, boring and meaningless even!)

Add to that the departure of some of Serie A's highest profile stars to foriegn leagues or Serie B, itsa bunch of no name running around (oddly enough it's very entertaining to see new players develop for me, but majority of internatioanl audience wants star power!)

Attendances in Serie A has been falling for years (off the top of my head, don't ask me for figures) and people point out valid points with respect to the ultras, escalated ticket prices, etc.

All in all the product this season seems inferior and that I expect to change by next season as new stars emerge and some massive teams return from Serie B!

[dor02]

The standard of the Serie A has gone downhill since the 90s. In the 1990s, the Serie A was second to none. Recently, attendances have gone downwards mostly because of the TV rights. They are so cheap now and for most Italians, going to the stadium would be dearer. Juve were getting poor crowds at the dell'Alpi but the club was still generating great revenue and the TV rights had a lot to do with it. Without Juve, a team who would generate lots of money and attention, it will be hard to make profits with the TV rights.

In terms of image, the scandal has done its damage but before that broke out, more stars have been going to Spain and England anyway. A majority of English clubs are buying the best foreigners, even the smaller clubs have quality players. Likewise in Spain. In Italy, it's not like the 90s when even Fiorentina, Parma and Sampdoria could say that they had some of the best players in the world. Most of the clubs are in debt and some famous clubs like Fiorentina and Napoli have had to reform. Racism is bad everywhere but Spain have been known for being bad offenders yet La Liga is still very strong.

The Serie A this year has been bizarre and a bit anti-climatic. Smaller clubs like Palermo, Siena and Livorno are making an impact but AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio have points penalties and Juve isn't there. Inter should have an easy run but the nerazzurri have a way to humiliate themselves. Even if Juve return, I'm not guaranteeing any great domination by a Juve side.

Italian teams in European football haven't had the impact they used to and I'm expecting any heroics (Parma are an exception). Inter and Roma haven't been too convincing in the CL and Milan have been placed in a very inferior group. Palermo hasn't been too focused on the UEFA Cup and Livorno doesn't have the squad for European football. If one Italian will do well, it will be Parma because it usually has a good run in Europe and despite struggling in Italy, they have been more convincing in Europe. If the team reach the middle of the table and stay there, they might end up winning the UEFA Cup unlike in 2005. Two years ago, they reached the semi-finals but they threw away the semi-final because they were more interested in gaining Serie A survival. Who knows this season? The rest of the sides, especially in the CL, I'm going to guarantee an Italian victory in two years. Inter has the team but they're Inter but Juve isn't present, Milan needs to rebuild, especially in defence and the smaller Italian clubs haven't been known for performing well in the CL. Spain and England have more realistic claims at the moment.

Italy can recover from this slump but this will take years. English clubs took a while to recover from their five-year ban from Europe, more than five or six years. Italy may have the talent but as always, the administration have to lift their game enormously.

[blanc]

I feel the Juve relegation and the top teams point deductions have played a huge, huge role in this current malaise in Serie A. Once Juve (and hopefully Napoli and Genoa? I'm not too sure if Serie B get three teams up, I'm sure they do) come back up, and everythings back to square one, we will see a different Serie A.

I hope.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

I don't see it being fixed so easily, as this year is simply a continuation of previous problems. The relegation and deductions to the bigger sides is a convenient excuse.

[benito camelpene]

I think it'll be years before Serie A gets its act together. Although I have to say that it would be fantastic to see Napoli in Serie A next year. And Juve is expected to be back so Serie A should be all right.

[RichardL]

Another problem is that many stadiums are not very fan friendly (no food, high prices for tickets etc.). .
I went to a match at the San Siro a couple of years ago, and it did surprise me just how grotty the place was. The place just felt neglected, as if the clubs just took fans attending for granted and didn't bother to ofer anything beyond the bare minimum of facilities. Fans don't go to matches beause the loos or nice, or that there's actually somewhere in the ground selling food & drink, but little things tend to make the experience a little depressing. Everything just felt a little dated.

I've no doubt that one of the things that's helped boost crowds in England and Germany had been the development of the stadiums, yet off the top of my head I can't think of even one single stand that's been built in Italy since the world cup 16 years ago. And going by the San Siro, those developments seemed to have been done in the cheapest materials available.

[Regency]

I went to a match at the San Siro a couple of years ago, and it did surprise me just how grotty the place was. The place just felt neglected, as if the clubs just took fans attending for granted and didn't bother to ofer anything beyond the bare minimum of facilities. Fans don't go to matches beause the loos or nice, or that there's actually somewhere in the ground selling food & drink, but little things tend to make the experience a little depressing. Everything just felt a little dated.

I've no doubt that one of the things that's helped boost crowds in England and Germany had been the development of the stadiums, yet off the top of my head I can't think of even one single stand that's been built in Italy since the world cup 16 years ago. And going by the San Siro, those developments seemed to have been done in the cheapest materials available.

This is why I hope they get the Euros in 2012 so they can update those bad stadiums.

[dor02]

I went to a match at the San Siro a couple of years ago, and it did surprise me just how grotty the place was. The place just felt neglected, as if the clubs just took fans attending for granted and didn't bother to ofer anything beyond the bare minimum of facilities. Fans don't go to matches beause the loos or nice, or that there's actually somewhere in the ground selling food & drink, but little things tend to make the experience a little depressing. Everything just felt a little dated.

I've no doubt that one of the things that's helped boost crowds in England and Germany had been the development of the stadiums, yet off the top of my head I can't think of even one single stand that's been built in Italy since the world cup 16 years ago. And going by the San Siro, those developments seemed to have been done in the cheapest materials available.Most of the stadiums haven't been updated since 1990. Only the dell'Alpi is getting renovated.

Here's a page with all of the potential new stadiums:

http://www.stadiumguide.com/future.htm

At this stage, they're only stadiums for small teams.

[Cassano]

I went to a match at the San Siro a couple of years ago, and it did surprise me just how grotty the place was. The place just felt neglected, as if the clubs just took fans attending for granted and didn't bother to ofer anything beyond the bare minimum of facilities. Fans don't go to matches beause the loos or nice, or that there's actually somewhere in the ground selling food & drink, but little things tend to make the experience a little depressing. Everything just felt a little dated.

I've no doubt that one of the things that's helped boost crowds in England and Germany had been the development of the stadiums, yet off the top of my head I can't think of even one single stand that's been built in Italy since the world cup 16 years ago. And going by the San Siro, those developments seemed to have been done in the cheapest materials available.

The problem is that each city has it's own "Stadio Comunale" (Community Stadium), and they are usually old and built more than 25 years ago. The city council then leases the stadium to the team from the stadium for a 99 year lease or such. The small owners are reluctant to spending their own cash to build a nice little stadium and refuse to see the financial value of such a structure. That's the problem. One of the things I admire about England is that every team, from the Premiership to the Conference and below have their own stadium, and it is very rare that you have 2 teams share a stadium. It's just one of those stupid Italian things that will never change...