FM 2011 - Attendances drop although I win and win...

I played with swedish team Djurgårdens IF in the FM 2011 demo and got more than a good result until the demo period was over. I didn't lose one single game and when the demo ended I was 12 points before the 2nd team in the league.

The strange part is that the number of people who attended my home games were constantly dropping for every home game I played, although my team played better and better. Before the season started the board expected a solid position in the middle of the league, but I was in the top position from the very start. I also got news that the fans "were extatic by the team's performances" and to my ears it sounds as MORE people should attend the games...not less. This doesn't sound too realistic if you ask me...even if it is the swedish league we're talking about ;-)

Here are the games I played, and the attendances as well (the two games against AIK and BP were against rival teams from Stockholm, hence the higher attendances. Those two games are not the reason I worry - it's the other games):

Gefle-DIF 2-3

DIF-Göteborg 0-0, attendance: 10011

BP-DIF 1-2

DIF-Halmstad 3-2, attendance 6658

Helsingborg-DIF 1-2

DIF-Elfsborg 1-1, attendance 6644

Mjällby-DIF 0-1

DIF-Kalmar 1-0, attendance 6273

GAIS-DIF 1-1

DIF-AIK 3-1, attendance 36907 (derby game against rivals)

Trelleborg-DIF 0-2

DIF-Malmö 1-0, attendance 6270

DIF-Häcken 2-1, attendance 6255

Åtvidaberg-DIF 0-2

Örebro-DIF 0-2

Göteborg-DIF 1-1

Halmstad-DIF 0-0

DIF-BP 4-1, attendance 10795 (derby game against rivals)

DIF-Gefle 2-0, attendance 5973

Sounds like a bug to me.

Only things I could think of would be if the drop was as a result of the away team bringing less fans but that can't be the case seen as they've constantly decreased.

Or it could be that a rival club is performing better and so is taking some of your support, but again, if you're top this cannot be the case either.

I'd put it in the bugs forum - I'd maybe even check the impact it's having on your gate receipts to see if any potential bug extends to that

Might also be down to the reputation of your opponents. I've noticed that if i'm playing against a team with poor reputation that the attendence drops which in real life is usually the case but it could also be a bug.

Hmm - if you're expect to win a game comfortably, maybe the fans don't bother turning up to support? That might be the rationale behind it... I don't really think it works like that in real life, though.

Thanks for your answer. I'll have a look and see what happens when I get the full version and continue my save.

Edit; while I'm here...I still think the amount of rain that fall during swedish games in the game is absurd. For an average season it might rain 2-3 times in 26 games. In FM it rains in 3/4 of the games approx :-)

Thanks for your answer. I'll have a look and see what happens when I get the full version and continue my save.

Edit; while I'm here...I still think the amount of rain that fall during swedish games in the game is absurd. For an average season it might rain 2-3 times in 26 games. In FM it rains in 3/4 of the games approx :-)

You think that's strange? I play with Villareal and so far it rained on EVERY single matchday.:confused:

There is usually a bumper crowd at the first few home matches of a new season, especially if the club has been only recently promoted. The attendance is not purely based on a set average with an adjustment based on how well the team is doing (there is code to simulate this naturally), but there are many other factors that also affect the total attendance for a single match. For example the level of opposition (matches against bottom clubs will be less interesting), the importance of the match, the number of away fans brought in by the opposition (depends on both the size of the support the away team has plus the geographical distance between the two clubs), day of the week (matches on the weekend tend to draw better crowds than on week nights), is the match being televised etc. And there is a little randomness at play as well.

From looking at the attendance figures there, the first 3-5 home matches are usually boosted by the start of the season enthusiasm, so we should excluded those like we exclude the rivalry matches with bumper crowds. This leaves 4 home matches, with 3 having very similar attendances and only the last one has about 300 less than the other three. As the demo ended there, it's hard to say if there really is a proper downward trend or if the last match was just an exception and if the attendances had gone back up in the next matches.

You can check the above points and compare the situations with matches in your save to see if they explain the drop in the last match and if you still think it is wrong, you can log the issue in the bugs forum and provide saved games for us to look at the attendances in detail to see why they were what they were.

Interesting reading. Was wondering if weather patterns also affect crowds, eg raining will keep spectators away? And will the tendency also be taken into consideration, at least as it happens in the Danish league, that as the season progress, less people will attend games over the fall/winter, but will return during the spring/summer? Of course depending on how the swedish league demo is set up, this might not explain anything... (starts in the spring, ends in the fall).

You think that's strange? I play with Villareal and so far it rained on EVERY single matchday.:confused:

Probably a good idea to post in the bug section...