Even keen fans stay away from PSL games

People still consume the product, but more so on TV

MATCHES in the three cup competitions saw a significant spike in attendances, but Absa Premiership matches remained poorly attended on average in the 2013-14 season, said PSL CEO Brand de Villiers this week.

De Villiers said the PSL faces a challenge to boost attendances in a tough economic climate where the league competes with television.

The former Bulls director joined the Premier Soccer League in June, saying he needed time to examine the lie of the land and identify key issues before addressing football’s poor attendances.

This week De Villiers said better information on matches, including a contract on radio magazine shows that has yet to be implemented, and encouraging clubs to market themselves and establish relationships with communities, were among measures he would encourage the PSL to adopt.

“In the cups the attendances were higher than previous years, and we’ve exceeded the budget gate-income quite substantially,” De Villiers said.

“For the league, it’s very low. We’re busy with research on the economic impact and the preliminary result I got back was there were 1.8-million paying supporters. That works out at an average of between 6 000 and 8 000 a game.

“I don’t have comparatives but I suppose it’s more or less what it was previously.”

De Villiers said the attendance issue is more complex than he had at first thought.

“I thought it was just purely a marketing campaign, but it’s more than that.

“Clubs need to build their communities, and that becomes a resource issue. The clubs are under tremendous financial strain — ones without sponsors even more so. Player costs have increased dramatically.

“It’s a chicken and egg — do you market when you don’t have money, and how much more must we expect owners to put out of their own pockets?”

De Villiers said viewership on TV had grown, and figures are very high.

“That goes against the argument of bad football or good football. People still consume the product — they just consume it on TV.

“We have to take into account that we’re the country who see all the matches from all the world’s leagues. So people watch our league and they watch the others too, rather than going to the stadium.

“The financial reality we’ve learnt from research we’re busy with is that the average spectator spends just under R300, including his ticket, transport, drinks, food and sometimes accommodation.

“If you compare that with the cost of a compact decoder for a month, where you have football for your whole family and friends and all the leagues, it becomes a very expensive game.

League faces a challenge to boost attendances in a tough economic climate

“So it’s complicated, and how to resolve all those issues is not an easy question.

“We are in a country where lots of people who do want to watch football don’t have money. When I was doing my articles I was taught — because I couldn’t understand how you can make money with a sock shop in London — that it’s economy of scale. You’ve got to have a lot of people, but they’ve also got to have money.

“We need to promote and tell people about the games and keep our fixtures consistent and let people know not only where the game is but where they can buy tickets.

“We also need to make football topical and have people talking about it all the time. And that’s a league responsibility.”