NORWAY
The most egalitarian
league in Europe in terms of differences in attendance and geographical spread between
best and worst supported teams. Yet the Norwegian League took a long time to
become a fully-fledged national tournament. Until 1937 there was no national
competition and even when the League of Norway was established its winners were
decided via a two-leg knockout competition involving no fewer than eleven
separate district champions. In 1948 a two-section championship with eight
clubs in each was created with the winners meeting to decide the title. It
wasn’t until 1961 that a single division emerged and even then clubs from the
far north of the country weren’t permitted to participate. It was 1972 before
clubs from that region were eligible to play in the top flight. They were still
discriminated against as the regional champions were denied automatic promotion
and forced instead into play-offs with runners-up from the two southern
regions.
Oddly enough in this
land of sporting equality it wasn’t until 1979 that clubs from the far north
were treated on the same basis as the rest of the country as far as promotion
to the top division was concerned. The long-standing belief that northern clubs
were inferior was shattered by the consistently good performances of the
leading pair from the region - Tromsø and Bodø/Glimt – once they were given the
chance to compete with the best.
Norway adopted a
calendar year season in 1963 and has stuck to it ever since though the number
of sides in the top flight has varied over the years. It’s proven to be a
successful model as a decent occupancy rate of 58.97% demonstrates. It’s an
even spread too. Many leagues’ best supported teams come from beyond their
capital cities but Berlin is the only other major capital to be as
comprehensively eclipsed as Oslo.
For decades Norwegian
clubs in European competitions were regarded as cannon fodder but just as the
national team began to earn international respect – especially after the
legendary “can you hear me, Maggie
Thatcher?” commentary when Norway defeated England in a World Cup qualifier
in 1981 – so too did club teams. For many years Rosenborg defied gravity with
frequent appearances in the Champions League and were regarded as a role model
for aspiring clubs from smaller nations. Twenty-seven of the top thirty
Norwegian attendances in UEFA games have been at Rosenborg matches but the
highest of all – 25,074 in 1961-62 - was for Frederikstad’s 2-0 loss to
Standard Liège (4-1 aggregate) in the European Cup. Lowest was the 416 who saw Lillestrøm’s 3-0 pyrrhic victory
over Lokomotiv Leipzig in the 1984-85 UEFA Cup, after losing the first leg 7-0.
2016 AVERAGES WITH % OCCUPANCY
RATE IN BRACKETS
12380 (71.49) Brann
9074 (35.48) Vålerenga
8813 (53.39) Viking
8392 (75.15) Molde
8039 (59.55) Odd
6826 (76.40) Strømsgodset
6370 (59.10) Aalesunds
5856 (50.32) Lillestrøm
5212 (57.96) Haugesund
4466 (38.17) Start
4031 (58.77) Tromsø
3877 (75.47) Sarpsborg 08
3809 (54.41) Stabæk
3668 (49.88) Bodø/Glimt
3143 (56.74) Sogndal
In common with many other countries the
mid-1980s saw the low point for Norwegian attendances and again in concert with
elsewhere the 21st century saw an increase, culminating in a
five-figure average in 2007. While crowds have tailed off in recent seasons the
drop is not as drastic as the raw numbers suggest. The top flight increased to
sixteen teams in 2009, meaning the addition of less well supported clubs and an
increase of fifty-eight games (32%) to the league calendar. Inevitably this has
had an adverse effect on attendances.
The highest individual attendance is
28,569 for Rosenborg’s 1-0 win over Lillestrøm in 1985. No club has averaged
20,000 in a season though Rosenborg came close with 19,903 in 2007. The lowest
ever top flight crowd was 202 for Strømmen v Mjøndalen in 1986. Ranheim are the only club ever
to post a three-figure average (no other club has averaged less than 1,300)
with 741 in 1955-56.
SEASONAL
AVERAGES TIPPELIGAEN
1949-50 4155
1950-51 4573
1951-52 4771
1952-53 4305
1953-54 3579
1954-55 3554
1955-56 3626
1956-57 3799
1957-58 3504
1958-59 3505
1959-60 3670
1960-61 3516
1961-62 4749
1963 7997
1964 6128
1965 4911
1966 4489
1967 6135
1968 7603
1969 7422
1970 5636
1971 6578
1972 5636
1973 5590
1974 5750
1975 6772
1976 6488
1977 7339
1978 5534
1979 6238
1980 5085
1981 5880
1982 4568
1983 5526
1984 4309
1985 4403
1986 3229
1987 3553
1988 4365
1989 4732
1990 4905
1991 5352
1992 5083
1993 5542
1994 5216
1995 4624
1996 4622
1997 4242
1998 5270
1999 5404
2000 5639
2001 5567
2002 6002
2003 6587
2004 8012
2005 9489
2006 9097
2007 10521
2008 9812
2009 8956
2010 8117
2011 7994
2012 7003
2013 6824
2014 6961
2015 6711
2016 6971
The second tier only became a national
division in 1997. At first it struggled to achieve decent crowds but these have
improved in recent times, helped by the presence of ‘big’ clubs such as Brann. A
divisional record of 17,284 watched their 2-2 draw v Nest-Sotra in May 2015.
Brann produced the only second tier five-figure average with 10,124 that
season. On occasion there have been sub-500 averages though rarely do
individual crowds drop below three figures. There have been none below 200
since 2013. Occupancy is 31.85%
2016 AVERAGES WITH % OCCUPANCY
RATE IN BRACKETS
2905 (45.19) Sandefjord
2028 (63.34) Kristiansund
1873 (43.06) Mjøndalen
1723 (34.67) Sandnes Ulf
1718 (42.10) Hødd
1605 (15.84) Bryne
1595 (23.81) Kongsvinger
1229 (70.23) Jerv
1030 (17.17) Levanger
766 (30.64) Raufoss
755 (54.51) Ranheim
640 (21.33) Ullensaker/Kisa
591 (19.70) Åsane
565 (31.39) Strømmen
466 (31.07) KFUM Oslo
SEASONAL AVERAGES 1. DIVISJON
1998 741
1999 1033
2000 775
2001 1506
2002 1188
2003 1663
2004 1697
2005 1385
2006 1983
2007 1722
2008 1987
2009 1280
2010 1555
2011 1186
2012 1381
2013 1458
2014 1385
2015 2002
2016 1489
The Norwegian pyramid extends down ten
levels with regionalisation kicking in sharply in a third tier that consists of
fifty-six clubs in four divisions (avdelings). The winners of each
automatically replace the bottom four in the second level.
The overall average for this level is
usually between 280-320 though this masks big discrepancies between the
avdelings. Gates can climb as high as 2,500 in two of the sections, 1,500 in a
third and fail to crack the 1,000 barrier in the fourth. Crowds can fall below
fifty. It’s rare for any team to average 1,000 and some can fall below 100. That
sounds poor but a better perspective can by gained by considering that sixteen
clubs at this level averaged 400 or more in 2016. Including the two top leagues
that’s forty-eight clubs in all that hit that mark, about on a par with the
slightly larger in population Scotland where forty-one of the forty-two league
clubs did the same.
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