Climate Change

A lot is being made of the current weather conditions - as we speak on 3pm on a Saturday there are only 6 league matches being played right now:

Arsenal vs Everton
Cardiff vs Blackpool
Derby vs Scunthorpe
Coventry vs Barnsley
Leeds vs Wycombe
Norwich vs Exeter

The freezing weather has severely affected the football programme - but which teams have been most affected? And which teams least affected?

Here is a list of the number games (league + cup) played by teams in the football league and conference since the weekend of the 5/6th December 2009 (not including 5th December, and including games expected to be played tomorrow+monday)

Altrincham 0
Wrexham 0
Darlington 1
Chester City 1
Gateshead 1
Histon 1
Rushden & Diamonds 1
York City 2
Salisbury 2
Kidderminster 2
Forest Green 2
Rotherham 2
Port Vale 2
Notts Co 2
Walsall 2
Burton 2
Mansfield 2
Oxford Utd 2
Tamworth 2
Stevenage 3
Luton 3
Kettering 3
Hayes and Yeading 3
Grays Athletic 3
Ebbsfleet 3
Eastbourne 3
Crawley Town 3
Cambridge Utd 3
Barrow 3
AFC Wimbledon 3
Macclesfield 3
Lincoln 3
Hereford 3
Dagenham and Redbridge 3
Crewe 3
Chesterfield 3
Bury 3
Bristol R 3
Oldham A 3
Aldershot 3
Rochdale 4
Northampton 4
Morecambe 4
Grimsby 4
Cheltenham 4
Bradford 4
Bournemouth 4
Barnet 4
Southend 4
Carlisle 4
Colchester 4
Charlton 4
Doncaster 4
Brentford 4
Gillingham 4
Hartlepool 4
Huddersfield 4
Leyton O 4
Yeovil 4
Shrewsbury 5
Accrington 5
Torquay Utd 5
Exeter City 5
Tranmere 5
Swindon 5
Stockport 5
Brighton 5
Bolton 5
Hull City 5
Wigan 5
Blackpool 5
Bristol C 5
Cardiff 5
Leicester City 5
Preston NE 5
Sheffield Weds 5
Southampton 6
Millwall 6
Wycombe 6
MK Dons 6
Norwich City 6
Barnsley 6
Burnley 6
Portsmouth 6
Aston Villa 6
Stoke City 6
Swansea 6
Watford 6
Sunderland 6
Spurs 6
West Ham 6
West Brom 6
QPR 6
Reading 6
Wolves 6
Crystal Palace 6
Middlesbrough 6
Newcastle 6
Peterborough 6
Plymouth A 6
Scunthorpe 6
Sheffield United 6
Blackburn 7
Man City 7
Birmingham C 7
Everton 7
Chelsea 7
Fulham 7
Liverpool 7
Coventry City 7
Derby County 7
Ipswich T 7
Nottingham Forest 7
Arsenal 8
Man Utd 8
Leeds United 8

(not including fa trophy matches)

FA Cup Attendances

this is going to be a place where i collect a few numbers together about football to cut through the media guff and put over the real facts. along the way i will try to explain my methods and hopefully you can help streamline them in some way if i'm lacking.

first up: the fa claim fa cup attendances are at a thirty year high

in spite of the fact wigan vs hull (a division three game 13 years ago!!) attracted 5335 fans, this was apparently the most widely attended fa cup third round since 1980.

in plain figures this is absolutely true - the average is higher, however undoubtedly (and as the daily mail article points out) the postponements of games at notts county and accrington stanley helped matters.

i can't find the attendance stats for thirty years ago (any idea of an internet resource for this?) however - here's a comparison with 95-96

games at top flight clubs:
09-10
aston villa 3-1 blackburn rovers: 25453
average villa league attendance - 37780
fa cup attendance 67%

bolton wanderers 4-0 lincoln city: 11193
average bolton league attendance - 21439
fa cup attendance 52%

everton 3-1 carlisle united: 31196
average everton league attendance - 36943
fa cup attendance 84%

fulham 1-0 swindon town: 19623
average fulham league attendance - 24345
fa cup attendance 81%

portsmouth 1-1 coventry city: 11214
average portsmouth league attendance - 18929
fa cup attendance 59%

stoke city 3-1 york city: 15589
average stoke league attendance - 27217
fa cup attendance 57%

sunderland 3-0 barrow: 25190
average sunderland league attendance - 40552
fa cup attendance 62%

tottenham hotspur 4-0 peterborough united: 35862
average spurs league attendance - 35803
fa cup attendance 100.2%

wigan 4-0 hull city: 5335
average wigan league attendance - 18464
fa cup attendance 29%

manchester united 0-1 leeds united: 74526
average man utd league attendance - 74870
fa cup attendance 99.6%

chelsea 5-0 watford: 40912
average chelsea league attendance - 41384
fa cup attendance 98.9%

west ham 1-2 arsenal: 25549
average west ham league attendance - 33335
fa cup attendance 77%

well attended matches at spurs, man utd and chelsea. it should be strongly noted that these teams have some of the most consistent attendances in the league. spurs have about 700 person window that the peterborough game nicely slotted into.

apart from spurs, man utd and chelsea for all the above teams this fixture was worse attended than their lowest premiership attendance. man utd and chelsea only have one match lower each (vs wolves and vs blackburn respectively).

95-96
arsenal 1-1 sheffield wednesday: 33453
average arsenal league attendance - 37568
fa cup attendance 89%

gravesend & northfleet 0-1 aston villa (played at villa park): 26021
average villa league attendance - 34877
fa cup attendance 75%

liverpool 7-0 rochdale: 28126
average liverpool league attendance - 39553
fa cup attendance 71%

manchester united 2-2 sunderland: 41563
average man utd league attendance - 41683
fa cup attendance 99.7%

west ham united 2-0 southend united: 23284
average west ham league attendance - 22317
fa cup attendance 104%

chelsea 1-1 newcastle: 25151
average chelsea league attendance - 25598
fa cup attendance: 98%

everton 2-2 stockport county: 28291
average everton league attendance - 35428
fa cup attendance: 80%

southampton 3-0 portsmouth: 15236
average so'ton league attendance -14822
fa cup attendance: 103%

09-10: 3/12 grounds as full as you would expect for a league match
95-96: 4/8 grounds as full as you would expect for a league match

09-10: 6/12 grounds more than 70% of the average league attendance
95-96: 8/8 grounds more than 70% of the average league attendance