A recent article in the Guardian talks about pricing in professional football stadiums. The price of Premiership seats averages around $60 a ticket (although the Toon’s price list has a wide range of more expensive seats available). According to the Premier League, the average age of a fan is 43, while only about 10% of supporters are under 24. This compares with figures 15 years ago when 25% of fans at Aston Villa were 15-20 years old, and 22% of fans from Coventry were of the same age. Why is this? Does it mean that when the loyal older fans are phased out that there will be less interest among younger fans to replace them?

Are higher ticket prices the reason? They’re obviously one of the causes. But this is a busy world and there are far too many things to do at the weekend nowadays. When I was growing up in the 50’s there was a definite routine for the weekend. On Saturday mornings you usually played for your local or school team, and then looked forward to the afternoon when the professional matches always started at 3:00 pm. (Tickets then cost in the shillings). In the evenings you went to “the flix.” There were no Sunday games. You read the papers in the morning, had Sunday “dinner” at lunchtime, washed the car in the afternoon and did the garden. Week in, week out.

Now there are a host of activities conflicting for the attention of weekend sports fans. Planning family outings, driving (not walking) to the supermarket and Malls, eating (and drinking) out, chauffeuring kids to their matches, Harry Homeowner jobs, and just plain trying to catch up on sleep and energy in order to start the next week’s grind. And there’s the effect of television – notably SKY, and their ability to change the kick-off times to ridiculous hours that interfere with anyone’s weekend schedule - all in the name of extra cash for the clubs. Understandably, people would rather spend their $60 on something other than watching a riveting goalless draw between players who earn $100 thousand a week whether they play well or not. And this particularly applies to the young folk who would often prefer to be clubbing than supporting. Judging from the shots of fans on the terraces, few ethnic groups seem to be represented. So much for the development of Mr. Blair’s “multicultural society” in the UK.

NUFC should feel very proud and very lucky that 52,000 fans are still turning out for home games at St James’ Park week in week out. And it’s not so surprising that the European games are poorly attended during the week. People don’t have that sort of disposable income to give away when the likelihood of ultimate success (at the moment!) is uncertain.

Psyching out the penalty kicker

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have been studying videos of more than 200 penalty kicks from professional matches. The aim was to see whether the position of the keeper had anything to do with the side of the net that the kicker aimed for. It did – and in surprising ways. The conclusion was that even though keepers stood, on average, only four inches off-center – creating a space difference of less than 3% – most kicks were aimed at the slightly large space. Hardly rocket science – more like a logical conclusion – but one that no doubt would already have been seriously analyzed if this had been American football.

In additional tests with monitors, using a scale model of a keeper, observers playing the role of the kicker could generally figure out which side of the goal the keeper was closer to. Another study, in which players were told to kick only if they believed the keeper was exactly on center, found that people nevertheless took the kick even when the keeper was off-center by up to 3% and more often toward the imperceptibly larger side.

When the keeper stands off-center the odds the kicker will aim at the larger space increase by 10%. Wonder if anyone told Alan Shearer about that? Didn’t seem to matter to him where the keeper stood. He loved blasting that ball into the back of the net.