A number of broad trends in league match attendances in English football at the aggregate level have been identified in chapter 2. During the post-Second World War boom, league attendances surged, reaching an all-time high of 41.0 million in the 1949 season. The boom, however, was relatively short-lived. It was followed by a period of sustained decline that continued, almost uninterrupted, until the 1986 season, when attendances fell to 16.5 million. The period since the late 1980s has seen a gradual but significant improvement. By the 1999 season, total attendances had risen to 25.4 million. The recent growth in attendance actually under-states the growth in demand because of ground-capacity constraints, with many leading clubs currently experiencing demand for tickets far in excess of existing capacities.

Chapter 2 has also reviewed the academic debate about the causes of the long post-war decline in football attendances, and its recent reversal. Social and demographic change, increasing material affluence, the option to watch football on television rather than in person, crowd misbehaviour, the deteriorating physical state of many of football's stadia and the dubious quality of the some of the ‘entertainment’ on offer on the field of play are among the factors considered to have contributed to the decline in the popularity of attending live football. More recently, improved facilities in all-seated stadia, together with the near-eradication of the hooligan problem, have helped strengthen football's appeal as a middle-class spectator sport.