Actually, I was able to put this together faster than I thought, so below is a screenshot of the attendance difference, by club for 1932 (played in 16) versus 1931 (played in 14).
The main variables side by side in this pivot table, all with two columns showing 1931 and 1932, are:
- The capacity of the ballpark.
- The total attendance for the club.
- The total capacity for the entire season (i.e., home games * capacity).
- % of capacity filled for the season. This is one biggie to look at (light orange).
Beyond that:
- The difference in capacity filled, in points, 1932 over 1931, another biggie (light orange).
- Average attendance for ONLY those clubs that spent both seasons in the same division, with percent change from prior year. This is one last biggie here (light orange).
The intention from 1931 to 1932 was to have average attendance drop by about 10% across all divisions, each and every one, to be consistent with the story I am trying to tell with my English Baseball League dynasty.
There is a lot going on here, so here are the highlights of what I am noticing:
- In Division 1, the clubs that spent both years there showed reasonable rates of change, some up and some down. Only the two clubs that spent the previous season in Division 2 showed dramatic increases. But overall, average attendance dropped 12% for same division teams. So far, so good.
- In Division 2, the clubs that spent both years there all show substantial increases, except for clubs in D1 the year before, who show decreases (as they should). But see the clubs that were in D3 the year before? They showed huge increases, each well over doubling their attendance. That makes some sense, since they went up which should spur a little more interest, but onver double in the middle of the Depression? But overall, same division clubs showed a +35% increase in attendance when they, too, should have decreased by around -10%.
- Division 3 is where it gets wacky. Most of the same division clubs went up by +100% or better, one going as high as +300%. Chelsea, a D2 club, went down by -42%, which makes sense. Notts Country went up by +4%, which probably should not have happened. But the weirdo thing here is that they all showed super high increases, and mainly having to do with the fact that the teams who were in D3 last year all had super high attendance increases, when the average that I set in settings should have been, again, -10%. (Also, notice how very similar the average attendance for the D3 clubs are versus each other? That's also weird.)
One last thing: I do see some inverse correlation between stadium capacity and attendance change, but if stadium capacity were the main reason, we should be seeing similar changes across all division for stadia of similar sizes, yet we do not.
What do you think? I mean, beyond the idea that I'm obsessive about my Dynasty?
