UNFILLED

A few years ago they were like gold dust. Now, just a month and a half
into the Premiership season, evidence is emerging that tickets for top-flight
games are no longer out of reach of casual supporters as clubs struggle to
tempt fans away from their television sets and into their stadiums.

Of the 17 clubs who remained in the Premiership this year, 11 are
experiencing a decline in their average home attendances compared with
last season's figures. Although some small falls can be blamed on the overlap
with the end of the summer holidays when attendances are traditionally
slightly lower, the extent of the drop suggests the number of fans
attending England's biggest games may be past its peak.

The reason is almost certainly the Premier League's new TV deal, which, at the insistence of the European Union, has seen the number of live televised games rise from 96 to 138.

Even high-flying Arsenal have not been immune from the slowdown, recording
A two per cent drop in attendances compared with last season For the first
time in recent memory, tickets were put on general sale for their home
match against Middlesbrough on Aug 22 after tickets offered to the club's
'silver members' failed to produce the usual sell-out.

Can it be a coincidence that the Middlesbrough match was screened live by
Sky Sports on a Sunday afternoon?

Of the falls in the Premiership, the biggest has taken place at Everton, whose attendances are 10.6 per cent below last season's average. Oddly, home
crowds have declined steadily despite the club's improving league form,
culminating in their lowest crowd for their last Goodison Park game on
Sept 19 - again against Middlesbrough and again a match that was televised
live. This could well be a symptom of the 'Rooney factor', a protest vote by
fans at the way their prize asset was offloaded to Manchester United, though
the club's chief executive, Keith Wyness, believes it has more to do with the
Merseysiders' poor performances last season, when they narrowly escaped
relegation.

"The season before last we finished seventh, so we had record
season-ticket sales last season," he said. "Last season we finished 17th and sales went down. It's got nothing to do with the 'Rooney factor' at all."

With the exception of the big clubs, whose season-ticket sales guarantee a
capacity crowd for every home game, many Premiership clubs are looking to
similar marketing idea to keep their turnstiles busy. Only last Monday,
for example, Charlton took the drastic step of slashing the price of tickets
to £15 for their televised game against Blackburn.

Unpalatable it may be in the boardrooms, but the signs are that
the unswerving loyalty of fans can no longer be taken for granted.