Welsh Premier League Football - Like-for-like attendances are down

MUCH has been made of an increase in the Welsh Premier's attendance figures after the first two rounds of games in the restructured league.
Compared with last season, the first weekend saw an average gate of 347, some 26% more than last season's figure of 276, while this weekend's matches drew an even better average of 399.
But, far from proving that the Super 12 competition is an instant success, a deeper analysis of the crowd figures on a like-for-like basis shows that the new format has yet to capture the imagination of Welsh football supporters.
A comparison of the attendance figures against the corresponding fixtures last season shows that the average attendance has actually fallen by more than 10%.
And no less than eight of the 11 games played have attracted a lower attendance than last season.
Three games have attracted more supporters through the turnstiles, Haverfordwest leading the way with 322 for the visit of Newtown against 122 last time around.
But, there was a 42% decline in the number of fans that watched Port Talbot's opener at home to Bala Town a week ago, while 28% less saw the Steelmen win 3-0 at Llanelli in Friday night.
The league's official stance is that the attendance average "shows great promise for the season ahead" but, as Mark Twain said, "there are lies, damned lies and statistics", and it is surely too early in the campaign to draw any long term conclusions.

	2010/11	2009/10	+/- %
Haverfordwest v Newtown	322	122	+164
Bangor v Neath	507	411	+23
Carmarthen v Airbus	312	273	+14
The New Saints v Prestatyn	330	333	-3
Carmarthen v Aberystwyth	413	451	-8
Prestatyn v Haverfordwest	197	217	-9
Aberystwyth v Newtown	487	620	-21
Bala v Bangor	723	938	-23
Airbus v Llanelli	182	240	-24
Llanelli v Port Talbot	274	382	-28
Port Talbot v Bala	326	564	-42
AVERAGE	370	413	-11

Photo: Friday night's crowd at Aberystwyth's Park Avenue was 21% down on the corresponding fixture last season.