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Could it be the English Premier League is overvaluing itself when it comes to its popularity, at least in its homeland?  According to the BBC, which has done a bit of investigating, ticket sales aren’t all they could be in the EPL.

It seems while ticket sales are generally pretty strong, attendance has dropped over the last two seasons, but still sits at a respectable 92.4 per cent of seat capacity. However, only five of the 20 clubs have managed to sell out their season tickets by the opening weekend of the season.

These teams are Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, and newly-promoted Blackburn. None of these are really surprising as Arsenal and Chelsea are stationed in London and are always in the race for the league and other silverware. Blackpool is playing in the Premier League for the first time and Man City and Spurs will probably be competing for Champions League spots. But noticeably absent from the list are Liverpool and Manchester United.

In fact, United is going through a promotional push right now to help sell tickets as there are quite a few season seats still up for grabs. Getting them is pretty easy at the moment even though it’s been rumoured for years that there was a gigantic waiting list of thousands for season tickets.

Well, either the list was a figment of somebody’s imagination or everyone on it has suddenly lost interest. And ticket prices for United are actually pretty reasonable all across the board, from children to senior citizens, plus prices were frozen this season too.

Liverpool hasn’t fared much better even though they have rid themselves of the inept Rafael Benitez as manager and signed Joe Cole from Chelsea.  But the club raised the price of season tickets by seven per cent this season and single matches went up 10 per cent. The official word from Liverpool and United is that just a small percentage of fans didn’t renew their tickets for this year.

But the next time you’re watching a couple of mediocre EPL teams in action on TV, take a good look at the situation as you’ll likely see rows upon rows of people disguised as empty seats.