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promotions (See Reading and again, Man City).
Some have argued that the attendance to matches can somehow be a measure of the quality of a league as a spectacle. That's like saying that because Westlife sold more albums than Rufus Wainright that makes them better?
Yes, the attendance at League side grounds is down, on average only 50% full across the three divisions, compared to an average attendance of 96% in the Premiership. But the attendance levels probably have more to do with the demographic of football league supporters.

Most of the League supporters don't have the financial ability to attend every league game, plus there is the fact that there are more games in the Football League fixture calender than in the Premiership, so supporters are forced to further cherry-pick the games that they attend. This may go someway to explaining the spread of attendance patterns within the Championship. Of the teams at the bottom of the attendance ladder (those failing to fill 65% of their ground on average) five of the six a teams in the north of England, the sixth is Plymouth Argyle - one of the most remote teams in the domestic, professional game.
To the fashion conscious, upwardly mobile fans of the Premiership, the top-flight does offer the kind of quick-fix, short-term gratification of (relatively) minor highs and lows that our X-factor, Big Brother viewing public crave for. All the rewards and none of the suffering.
The fans of the Football League side though, they are the veteran sloggers. The guys who have been gigging on the Club in the North East for years; playing dives, getting paid peanuts and always hoping that they might one-day get their five-minutes of fame.
A teams fortunes and future are far less predictable and ultimately entertaining for Football League fan. Because of what may have gone before the highs can be massive (the Play-Off Final is now the most lucrative single game on the planet. The potential lows could mean a club disappearing off of the Football League map or going into administration.
Does the Football League have more to offer than the Premiership?
Ask a REAL football fan and they would roar a resounding yes.

Learn more about this author, James Abbott.
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