By Paolo Mangone
Even though Serie A has seen a spike in attendance numbers, there is more to do when it comes to improve their gameday experience. The first problem is the difficulty in purchasing tickets to the games. Due to Italy’s historical problems with disorderly conduct and violence emanating from the Ultras, the Italian Government passed a law that requires fans to show identification when purchasing a ticket. This means that your name is printed on the ticket and that it belongs to you and to you only. In North America, it is not required to have a personalized ticket which means you can resell the ticket if you are not able to attend. This is illegal in Italy because your identification must match the name on the ticket when entering the stadium. This has a negative effect because it diminishes the will of the causal fan to purchase a ticket because they will lose their money if they are unable to attend the game. This also punishes the clubs because they are losing out on foreign fans who do not understand the intricacies of the Italian ticketing system. Another intricacy of the Italian ticketing system is that fans of certain cities cannot buy tickets to away games. For example, Roma fans cannot buy tickets to an away game in Naples and vice versa. This is due to the violence and disorderly conduct of the clubs’ Ultras group. The Italian Government and the FIGC should examine if they could ban these Ultras groups from entering the stadium, as they are intimidating and preventing the casual fan from attending the games. It is a certainty that Serie A would see an increase in attendance because the absence of Ultras group would eliminate the need of personalized tickets and create a market for reselling tickets.
The second problem is the unorganized entrance into Serie A stadiums. It is a system of automated turnstiles that requires you to scan your ticket before entering the stadium. The deficiency of this system is that there are very few entrance points for 20,000-50,000 people. This leads to pile-ups, delays and the potential of unruly behavior when you are trying to enter the stadium. In North American arenas and stadiums, there are multiple entrance points with attendants using a scanner to check for the validity of the tickets. This dramatically reduces the waiting time and creates a more orderly entrance into the stadium. This system is also used by the NFL, a league that brings in an average attendance of almost 70,000 fans per season.
Finally, a major problem of the Serie A gameday experience is the absence of instant replay on the big screen in the stadium. In North America, the four major leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB) make it a priority for their fans to see replays and live feeds on high definition big screens. In Serie A, this is a foreign concept. There are no replays and there are certainly no live feeds of the game on the big screen. Recently, former Serie A referee Roberto Rosetti, who is now in charge of Serie A’s implementation of the VAR system, has pledged full transparency by introducing replays in the stadiums. This is a positive step that will improve the average fan’s gameday experience because they will feel involved by being able to view the same footage as the match referee during the VAR review like they would be able to at home. It is an important step that Serie A has seen its largest increase in attendance over the past three seasons, but there is still room for improvement to catch up to the level of the Bundesliga. It is a guarantee that Serie A would experience a much larger increase in attendance numbers if they were to adopt the North American style of purchasing/reselling tickets, entering the stadiums and introducing replays and live feeds to the stadiums’ big screens.
