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Why Are Premier League Stadiums So Small? — Transcript

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0:00This is the Vitality Stadium, home of
0:02Bournemouth FC with a whopping capacity
0:05of 11,286.
0:08This season in the Premier League,
0:09Bournemouth have averaged an attendance
0:10of 97.42%.
0:13Let's move over to America. This is Kyle
0:15Field, home of the Texas A&M college
0:18football stadium with a tiny capacity of
0:20just 102,733.
0:23That's nearly 10 times bigger than
0:25Bournemouth's
0:26>> [music]
0:26>> and they somehow average an attendance
0:28of more than 100%. Crazier still, Texas
0:31A&M is only the fourth biggest college
0:33stadium in the States. But Bournemouth
0:35are a massively successful club in the
0:37best league of the most popular sport in
0:39the world and Texas A&M are just another
0:42university in Texas. So how is it
0:44possible that an exciting Premier League
0:45side's attendance is just a fraction of
0:48that of a college football team? Well,
0:50for one, the Vitality Stadium is the
0:52smallest in the league. In [music] fact,
0:54it would be the third smallest ground in
0:55the Championship, the league below. But
0:57even some of the bigger Premier League
0:59clubs don't come close to the size of
1:01college football stadiums. These are the
1:03top five stadiums in terms of capacity
1:05and average attendance for [music] the
1:06Premier League, the NFL and college
1:08football. And even though these are some
1:09of the biggest sports organizations in
1:11the world, they're still completely
1:13dwarfed by their American counterparts.
1:15[music] As a matter of fact, the average
1:17attendance for a regular NFL game would
1:19be the second highest attendance in the
1:21Premier League and brings in [music]
1:22nearly 30,000 more people than the
1:24average Prem game. But how does any of
1:27this make sense? American football is
1:29nowhere near as popular as football. Yet
1:31the biggest league in the world can't
1:33pull in as many fans as a random college
1:35game. Well, the reason that Premier
1:37League stadiums are so small, as we'll
1:39see, goes well beyond the popularity of
1:42the sport.
1:47Football in the UK is massive. It's
1:49completely unavoidable. If you live
1:51here, the chances are that you know
1:53someone that plays it, follows it
1:54religiously or will argue with you about
1:56it for hours on end. The same goes for
1:59fans going to games. It's an essential
2:01part of British culture, going to watch
2:03the footy with your mates on the
2:04weekend. [music] I mean, you've even got
2:06people that will follow their local town
2:08in the eighth division of the
2:09footballing pyramid up and down [music]
2:10the country every week. These are the
2:12average attendances from highest to
2:14lowest in the top four leagues of
2:15English football. And I know this is a
2:17lot of data to look at, so let's break
2:19it down into something more manageable.
2:21If we look at the average attendance for
2:22each league, the Prem's attracted around
2:2441,000 fans per game, the Championship
2:2722,000, [music] League One about 10,000,
2:30and just under 5,400 for League Two.
2:33It's about a 50% decrease the lower the
2:35league. This actually puts the Premier
2:37League second in Europe after the
2:38Bundesliga, with the Championship close
2:40to the Eredivisie in terms of
2:42attendance. This feels a bit weird. I
2:44[music] mean, the Prem's comfortably the
2:45richest league in the world. It should
2:47have the highest attendances, right?
2:49Well, we'll get into that later. But the
2:51total Premier League attendance going
2:52off every club's average would be
2:54832,159.
2:56[music]
2:57Adding the three leagues below and you
2:59get 1.74 million fans watching live
3:02football. Only half of the stadiums are
3:04in use because of away games, so halving
3:06that figure gives us a rough estimate of
3:07about [music] 870,855
3:11people going to watch their team every
3:13week. That's about 1.45% of the
3:15population of England and Wales in a
3:17stadium on the weekend watching
3:19football. And this is without including
3:21[music] any other Welsh leagues,
3:22non-league, Sunday league, or youth
3:24football. Now, let's look at the NFL.
3:26They clock in with an average attendance
3:28of 69,582,
3:30which is already levels above any
3:32football league in the whole world.
3:34Their total attendance is 2.23 million,
3:37which is halved to give us 1.1 million
3:39fans watching the NFL alone on any given
3:41week. College football takes it to a
3:44whole 'nother level. The top 20 college
3:46football teams average 89,971
3:49fans per game, which seems absurd for a
3:51pretty niche sport at just a collegiate
3:53level. And surely more people could name
3:56Bournemouth starting striker as opposed
3:57to Michigan starting quarterback. I
3:59mean, to be fair, college football teams
4:01only play 12 to 17 games a season, and
4:04they're highly populated by students.
4:05[music]
4:06But whichever way you look at it,
4:07they're still making English football
4:09games look like friendlies in the park.
4:11Premier League clubs do fill out their
4:12stadiums, so you could argue it's solely
4:15to do with capacity. But if football is
4:17so popular, then why are the stadiums so
4:20small? One thing we can do is take an
4:22existing English football ground and see
4:24if we could expand it [music] in any
4:25way, shape, or form to compete with the
4:27size of an American football stadium in
4:29the States. Anfield is a perfect
4:31example. Iconic stadium, huge city and
4:34fan base, and Liverpool have a massive
4:36demand for tickets, and the fifth
4:37highest revenue of any football club in
4:392025. The perfect recipe for filling out
4:42a 100,000 seat stadium. Anfield,
4:44however, only holds 61,000 fans right
4:47now, [music] even after a recent
4:48expansion. That seems like a lot, but
4:51for one of the biggest, most historic
4:53clubs in world football, it's kind of
4:55small. So, let's expand [music] it. The
4:58main stand and Anfield Road have already
4:59been extended and redeveloped in the
5:01last decade. [music] So, that leaves us
5:02with the Kop and the Sir Kenny Dalglish
5:04stand. To expand the Dalglish stand, the
5:07club would have to buy the houses on the
5:08adjacent road,
5:09>> [music]
5:09>> knock them down, and relocate the
5:11residents. Something that was already
5:13controversially done to upgrade the main
5:15stand.
5:15>> [music]
5:16>> The Kop backs onto a main road, which
5:18has loads of local businesses and
5:19transport, which is essential to how the
5:21city and the club run. Let's say, for
5:24argument's sake, they could upgrade a
5:25stand, and the capacity grew to around
5:2770,000. And the idea sounds great. More
5:30fans, more support, more revenue. But
5:33the club would have to make serious
5:34changes to the transport and
5:35infrastructure around the stadium to
5:37make it safe and easy for the fans
5:38before and after the games. [music]
5:40They need to extend a railway or build a
5:42tram line, all after getting permission
5:44from the local city council. All for an
5:46extra 5 to 10,000 fans, is [music] the
5:48payoff even worth it? So, if you're the
5:51Liverpool owner, what are your options?
5:53The only other reasonable choice would
5:55be to relocate to a location with much
5:57more space [music] and better transport
5:58options, but this comes with arguably
6:00the most controversy. Firstly, those
6:03kind of locations don't exist in central
6:05metropolitan areas, but moving away from
6:08Anfield, a location used since 1892,
6:10which is deeply rooted in Liverpool's
6:12culture, would cause absolute havoc.
6:14Liverpool's rivals, Everton, actually
6:16recently moved to a new stadium that,
6:19according to the Financial Times, cost
6:21them 800 million pounds. And their new
6:23stadium only has 52,000 seats. So, if
6:26Liverpool wanted to relocate and
6:27accommodate closer to 90,000 people,
6:30they'd be looking at over a billion
6:31pounds to [music] do so. Relocation is
6:33such a huge financial risk, but the real
6:36damage is done to the fans. West Ham
6:38moved from the vibrant, charismatic
6:40Upton Park to the London Stadium in
6:422016. Fans voiced their disapproval. The
6:45atmosphere got worse, and the club lost
6:47some of its real identity. One of our
6:49friends who supports the club said the
6:51stadium move represented the [music]
6:52death of West Ham United, the club I
6:54fell in love with, and the birth of West
6:56Ham London, a club I barely recognize.
6:59And I'm sure a club like Liverpool, with
7:01fans that cherish the culture of
7:02football so much, would respond in a
7:04similar way. Essentially, Anfield is
7:06trapped, built in the heart of the city
7:09with no options to expand or relocate.
7:11And this is the case for a lot of clubs
7:13in England. Don't get me wrong, this
7:15isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anfield
7:17is a great stadium with endless culture
7:19and history. We're just looking at
7:21things purely from a business point of
7:22view. But sometimes clubs do get too
7:25[music] big and have to move somewhere
7:27else. But, like we said, this comes with
7:29a whole array of problems. It's not like
7:31in the NFL when a franchise like the St.
7:33Louis Rams can just move halfway across
7:35the continent to a more [music]
7:36lucrative area and continue to be just
7:38as successful and profitable. The only
7:40significant time a club in England
7:42relocated somewhere completely different
7:44was when Wimbledon FC moved to Milton
7:46Keynes in 2004 and changed their whole
7:48club identity, becoming MK Dons.
7:51Wimbledon fans were outraged and
7:53recreated AFC Wimbledon, and there's
7:55been a fierce rivalry since. But neither
7:57club has exactly progressed since the
7:59split, and they both still sit towards
8:00the bottom of the EFL with problems on
8:02and off the pitch. The only teams that
8:05have successfully relocated, if you can
8:07even call it that, are clubs at the top
8:09of the Premier League. The most notable
8:11being Spurs, who demolished White Hart
8:12Lane and moved to the Tottenham Hotspur
8:14Stadium in 2019. The thing is, [music]
8:16they built the stadium on the exact same
8:18land and played at Wembley during the
8:20construction. It would have caused
8:22outrage if they had to move out of
8:23Tottenham, and the disconnect with the
8:25fans and the culture of the club would
8:26just be unheard of. Everton, like we
8:29just mentioned, are the most recent side
8:30to move, relocating to the Hill
8:32Dickinson Stadium on the river. It's
8:34only a 10-minute drive from Goodison
8:35Park, but again, only a club firmly
8:38established in the Premier League can
8:39feasibly relocate. And even so, they're
8:42restricted massively to an extremely
8:44dense and populated city without being
8:46able to stray too far from their loyal
8:48fan base. And even then, we've seen how
8:50it's caused a disconnect with the fans
8:52when clubs have to prioritize finances
8:53and economic growth over the club
8:55identity. And another reason that
8:57football grounds are so small is
8:58geography, and this affects capacity in
9:01many different ways.
9:02First of all, Britain is smaller than
9:04America, like by far. The 48 American
9:07states that make up the contiguous land
9:09area are just under 3 million square
9:11miles, whereas England and Wales, home
9:13of the English footballing pyramid, are
9:15only 58,000. America is 50 times bigger,
9:19and football's still the most popular
9:21sport in the world, and England is its
9:23home. It [music] just means much more
9:24competition for the limited league spots
9:27and space for a football team. Let's
9:29take London for example, the most
9:30populated area of the country. In the
9:33Premier League alone, you've got
9:34Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Fulham, West
9:36Ham, Brentford, and Palace. In the EFL,
9:39which is the official top four leagues
9:41in the English footballing pyramid,
9:42you've got 14 clubs alone. And that's
9:44not to mention hundreds of non-league
9:46and semi-pro sides that will all have
9:48small grounds, official expenses, and
9:50players under contract. We're running
9:52out of space. And sadly, clubs towards
9:55the bottom of the EFL are much more
9:56likely to go bust or plummet down the
9:58league system than rejuvenate their club
10:00and fan base with a progressive
10:01relocation. But the biggest difference
10:03between the UK and America isn't even
10:06directly [music] to do with geography.
10:07It's the structure of the leagues. One
10:09main reason college and NFL teams
10:11attract so much investment is because
10:13their future is almost guaranteed.
10:15Obviously, no one can predict who's
10:17going to win the Super Bowl in five
10:18years, but I can tell you for a fact it
10:20will be one of the 32 teams in the NFL.
10:22[music]
10:22I know that sounds stupid, but
10:24theoretically, the 2031 Premier League
10:27winners might not even be in the Premier
10:28League right now. The point is American
10:31sports leagues are closed. There's no
10:33promotion or relegation. Every team,
10:36regardless of skill or performance, will
10:37be there at the start of next season.
10:39And this is arguably the most
10:41significant difference between the
10:42sports structure of each country, and
10:44why stadiums in the UK will never reach
10:46the magnitude of their American
10:47counterparts. In the Premier League, if
10:50you get relegated, you're in real
10:52trouble. You do have teams like Leeds
10:54and Burnley that seem to be able to
10:55recover and bounce between the top two
10:57leagues, but most of the time, the shock
10:59and financial blow of being demoted into
11:01the Championship is enough to cause a
11:03knock-on effect which can send the club
11:05into a spiral. Look at teams like
11:06Leicester, Huddersfield, Norwich,
11:08Watford, Sheffield United. The list goes
11:11on. They still haven't recovered from
11:12relegation, and it's pretty clear why.
11:15If you survive the drop by even just one
11:17position, you're granted about 130
11:19million pounds from the Premier League.
11:21It's nothing groundbreaking [music]
11:22on a club scale, but more importantly,
11:25you're guaranteed another season of
11:26Premier League football. That's sold-out
11:28stadiums, more shirt sales, and TV
11:30money. But most importantly, it's
11:32another 100 million pounds at the end of
11:34next season, even if you finish rock
11:36bottom. In the Championship, the
11:38finances fall off a cliff. If you win
11:40the league, you only receive 11 million
11:42in prize money. It's night and day, and
11:44you can see why investors would be
11:46[music] reluctant to get involved with
11:47any club that's not absolutely nailed on
11:49to be playing Premier League football
11:51year after year. It's not just different
11:53in the States, it's the complete
11:55opposite. [music]
11:55You almost get rewarded for being bad.
11:58The collegiate and drafting systems
11:59means that the teams with the worst
12:01records will have the earliest picks in
12:02the following draft. [music] And this is
12:04actually a great way to keep the league
12:06competitive. It's more than common to
12:08see franchises in a complete state turn
12:10everything around in a matter of years
12:12and go from the worst team in the league
12:13to championship contenders. In fact, the
12:16term tanking is literally used to
12:18describe the act of a mediocre team
12:20trying to lose on purpose so they can
12:22have a better chance at a higher pick
12:23the following year. The problem with
12:25this is that it can kind of ruin the
12:26integrity of the league, [music] and it
12:28also means that halfway through the
12:29season the majority of the teams are
12:31kind of playing for nothing. Whereas in
12:33the Championship, for example, every
12:35game on match day 33 will mean
12:37something. But regardless of which is
12:39more preferable and pure from a fan
12:41point of view, it's clear what's more
12:43appealing to a business. And this might
12:45be why stadium sizes differ so much. A
12:47college football team will sell out
12:48their stadium basically every week.
12:50>> [music]
12:50>> There's tens of thousands of students
12:52alone that will buy season tickets just
12:54for the social aspect of doing something
12:56fun on the weekend. [music] It almost
12:57doesn't matter how good the team is. The
12:59same goes for the NFL. Most of the fans
13:02are going for the spectacle, and even
13:04[music] if their team is terrible, they
13:05could be competing for a Super Bowl in a
13:07few years. For football, it's completely
13:09different. If you're bad, it means
13:11you're more likely to be even worse
13:13[music] as time goes by. And this has
13:15had its effect on the fans. If their
13:16team's not playing well, it's simple.
13:18They'll stop watching. Take Birmingham
13:20City, for example, [music] a team from a
13:22big city with a large fan base in the
13:25the division. And at the moment, they've
13:26got plenty of momentum, new investment,
13:29and look likely to be promoted in the
13:30next few seasons. As a result, they're
13:32filling their stadium out. Fans want to
13:34see good football. But, just a few years
13:36ago, it was a completely different
13:38story. [music] No potential, terrible
13:40performances, and you can see how stark
13:42the difference is in [music] attendance
13:43were. Over the course of a season, this
13:46has a real damaging impact on club
13:47revenue. And this volatility is a
13:49nightmare for investors.
13:51The closest comparison I could make was
13:53with the Washington Commanders,
13:55>> [music]
13:55>> a team that's had a pretty rough decade
13:56or so on the field, but it showed some
13:58real promise in the last couple of
13:59years. While the Commanders' attendance
14:01[music] has also increased, it's nowhere
14:03near as drastic as Birmingham's. In
14:05fact, in 2023, they had about as bad a
14:07record as you can really get [music] and
14:09still filled out their stadium every
14:10week. The attendance has basically no
14:13correlation with how good they are. And
14:14as an investor, that's exactly what you
14:16want to see. Funnily enough, Birmingham
14:19were actually taken over by Tom Wagner,
14:21an American businessman that's funneled
14:23loads of money into the club. But, one
14:25of the real reasons behind this
14:26seemingly risky investment is building a
14:28massive new stadium in the second
14:30biggest city in the country that can
14:32hold dozens of non-footballing events.
14:34Spurs have set the blueprint of how to
14:35succeed financially, regardless of what
14:38happens on the football pitch. And other
14:39clubs are starting to follow suit. But,
14:41even their match days are completely
14:43different to any other club in the Prem.
14:45And this shines light on exactly why
14:46these American mega stadiums are so
14:48lucrative. Your average Premier League
14:50match day probably looks something like
14:51this. You leave the house at midday and
14:54go and meet some friends in the local
14:55pub. You might get some lunch, maybe a
14:57few pints, nothing that's going to break
14:59the bank. More importantly, you're
15:01supporting a local business, not the
15:02football club directly. Lineups get
15:04released, and you start heading towards
15:06the ground. You might get the bus or a
15:08tube, but a lot of people walk. You get
15:11to the ground, find your seats, and get
15:13ready for the game. You might arrive
15:14half an hour before kick-off, but it's
15:16unlikely to be much earlier than that.
15:18The game takes about 2 hours. You watch
15:20the whole thing, and when it's finished,
15:22you head home.
15:22>> [music]
15:23>> Again, modes of transport will vary,
15:25especially for the away fans, but for
15:27most people, it's about a 7-hour round
15:29trip that probably costs anywhere from
15:3150 to 100 pounds. But, your average NFL
15:33game day is a completely different
15:35story. That probably looks something
15:37more like this. You leave the house in
15:39the morning. The average distance from
15:41the stadium in the NFL is naturally much
15:43longer. You're most likely driving to
15:45the game, and it's going to take a
15:46while. You get to the stadium a couple
15:48hours before kickoff and get some food
15:50to make the most of the drive. There's
15:52plenty of options, but most of them are
15:54in and around the stadium and support
15:56the club directly. Even if you're not
15:58inside just yet, all the pre-game events
16:00and tailgates are on the premises.
16:02Pre-game consumption is a lot more
16:04common. You might buy a program and some
16:06merchandise, but even the food and beer
16:08is way more expensive than an English
16:10football stadium. The game lasts closer
16:12to 3 and 1/2 hours. There's constant
16:15breaks, advertisements, and
16:16distractions, and the game itself is
16:18harder to engage in. After the final
16:20whistle, you head off, [music] but the
16:22average fan isn't local, and by the time
16:24they're home, it comes closer to a 10-
16:26to 12-hour round trip that costs 3 to
16:28400 dollars, especially when you include
16:30the steep price of match tickets. Don't
16:32get me wrong, this is a massive
16:34generalization, and there'll be
16:35exceptions on both sides, but you get
16:38the idea. These almost seem like two
16:40completely different activities, even
16:42though when you break it down, it's just
16:44fans going to watch their favorite team
16:46kick and throw a ball around. But, all
16:48this proves just why American stadiums
16:49can be so massive. The games can be
16:52awful, the ticket prices are ridiculous,
16:54but the stadiums sell out every single
16:56week. Not only this, but the money spent
16:58during a match day is through the roof.
17:00The revenue is massive, and most
17:02importantly, it's consistent. [music]
17:04And when you look at the English
17:05footballing pyramid, below the top half
17:07of the Premier League, it's the complete
17:09opposite. I think this all boils down to
17:11the culture in each country. I can't
17:13speak for the Americans, but as a
17:14British casual fan that's been following
17:16a team for over a decade, it can feel
17:18more like a religion than simple fandom.
17:20You have fans that use all their money
17:22to travel the length of the country
17:23every weekend to watch their third
17:25division team lose every week. And if
17:27you ask them if they enjoy it, they'll
17:29probably say no. But at the end of the
17:31day, it's their culture. [music] It's
17:33their ritual. And if you're from the UK,
17:35you'll just know what I mean. American
17:37match days come across as a spectacle. I
17:39feel like you could ask most people in
17:40the stadium who the second option
17:42running back is and they wouldn't be
17:43able to tell you. The franchises control
17:46the event and the fans don't feel as
17:47engaged or connected with the team and
17:49the players.
17:50>> [music]
17:50>> And this stark difference is why
17:52stadiums in America can be so much
17:54bigger.
17:55I think the best question to ask is, if
17:57theoretically the stadiums had the
17:59space, would English football teams fill
18:01the seats? And it depends [music] how
18:03you look at it. Most of the big Premier
18:05League clubs certainly would. I mean,
18:08just look at how many fans are on the
18:09waiting list [music] for their season
18:10tickets. It's ridiculous. I know not
18:13every single person would go to every
18:15single game, but theoretically, Man
18:17United could fill a stadium with 170,000
18:20seats. And football really is that
18:22popular. It's not unreasonable.
18:24>> [music]
18:24>> However, the further down the leagues
18:26you go, the less likely it is. And the
18:28beauty of the league structure is that
18:29any club, regardless of size or stature,
18:32can compete against the best with the
18:34right coaches, players, and management.
18:36That's why you have clubs like
18:37Brentford, [music] Bournemouth, and
18:38Brighton doing so well in the Premier
18:40League. It gives fans from smaller towns
18:42and cities the experience and joy of
18:44watching amazing football without having
18:46the financial powerhouse 150 miles away.
18:49But even a club like Bournemouth that's
18:52been in the Premier League for nine of
18:53the last 11 seasons [music]
18:55hasn't expanded their tiny stadium. And
18:57now we know why. College football, the
19:00NFL, [music] and American sports in
19:01general are all about consumption and
19:03capitalism. It reflects in the stadium
19:06sizes, the match day experiences,
19:07[music]
19:08and how the leagues operate. I'm not
19:10even saying this is an insult. I'm a
19:11huge basketball and American football
19:13fan myself, but it comes with its
19:15drawbacks. English football is about
19:17culture and the fans. It has a
19:19completely different feel to it, [music]
19:21and while it has its downsides as well,
19:23it's what makes football so unique and
19:25special. The thing is,
19:26>> [music]
19:26>> football in the UK is becoming more
19:28American. Club takeovers like Birmingham
19:30and Wrexham, tourist match days at Spurs
19:32[music] and Man City, even stadium
19:34relocations at Everton and West Ham.
19:36It's brilliant for the finances and the
19:38global attraction of the sport, but it
19:40can sometimes feel like it's detaching
19:42[music] from the real authenticity that
19:44English football fans know and love. But
19:46as long as the structure of the leagues
19:47remains the same, and supporters keep
19:49their voice, British football has,
19:51>> [music]
19:51>> and always will, be about the fans.

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