Off to the game: Increased signs of vitality in the Championship

London: There were 32,152 at Southampton's St Mary's stadium for a recent Tuesday night match. That's one person more than saw Southampton play Arsenal in the Premiership eight years ago.

It is 1,000 more than there were for Manchester United's visit to The Dell in 1969. The 32,152 figure was the largest home attendance for Southampton in more than 100 years.

This is the Football League, this is the Championship, where anxious foreign owners of Premier League clubs should know there is life after relegation.

West Ham were the visitors to St Mary's — they had more than 30,000 at Upton Park against Blackpool a few days earlier. On the same day there were 33,000 at Derby County.

A division below and there were 28,000 at Bramall Lane for the Sheffield derby and 24,000 at Hillsborough the previous weekend.

Below that there were nearly 10,000 at Southend and more than 7,000 at Luton Town against Wrexham on a Tuesday night in England's fifth division.

The remarkable endurance of the football fan is one of the domestic game's unsung glories. There is a concern about the unappealing volume of empty seats on view on BBC's Match of the Day programme on Saturday nights, but clubs' resilience in the face of a deep recession is evident.

This is Southampton's seventh season outside the top tier, Wednesday's 11th.

But life goes on, in fact in the Championship in particular, there are signs of increased vitality. This is why after the Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga, the Championship is the fourth most-watched league in Europe. With 9.6 million paying fans last season, more watched the Championship than Serie A (9.2 million) — though obviously a 24-team division plays more games than Italy's 20-team top flight.

Dramatic comparisons

But domestically there are even more dramatic comparisons: in season 2009-10, more than 17 million people went to Football League matches across the three divisions. In season 1985-86 that figure was 7.5 million. In 1995-96 it was 11 million.

With early attendances in the Championship fractionally up on last season, this is likely to be the eighth consecutive season when more than 16 million people file through Football League turnstiles.

Jon Keen of the Football Supporters' Federation is a Reading fan. "I've said it for years — as a supporter, the Championship is the best place to be," he said. "The obstacles to being a fan in the Premier League are so much worse: TV scheduling, prices, predictability. In the Championship anyone can beat anyone, there's always a team that can surprise, like Blackpool."

That openness — just five points separate Sam Allardyce's West Ham in second place from Leicester in 14th — illustrates the competitive nature of the division. Yet the ultimate aim is to leave it, upwards.

"That makes people feel conflicted," Keen added. "Reading's first season in the Premier League [2006-07] was great, but in the second we realised that we would just be fighting to stay there.

"Talk to Portsmouth fans now and they are happier because there's less hype, you feel closer to the team, it's a bit more old-fashioned. And the prices aren't as ludicrous."

The lack of competition in the Premier League is a much more common fan conversation than owners, foreign or not, perhaps appreciate.

Part of the Championship's popularity is geographic. It is packed with clubs from major conurbations, clubs such as Brighton and Southampton, who have re-organised and got their act together. Brighton's average gate two seasons ago was 6,400. After a promotion, a good start to this season and a move to a new, bigger stadium, they now average 20,199.

Serious football history

Cardiff, Leicester, Leeds, Middlesbrough — these are towns and cities with significant populations and serious football history.

Two seasons ago Sheffield United finished outside the Championship play-offs but still attracted an average attendance in excess of 25,000 to Bramall Lane. That was more than Wigan, West Brom, Fulham and Bolton in the Premier League.

Parachute payments also appear to have helped avoid panic after relegation and made relegated Premier League clubs freshly competitive in a lower grade. Intelligent and realistic pricing of the sort that has seen Hartlepool accumulate 5,900 season ticket holders 12 months after having an average crowd of half that have further stimulated attendances and, as they testify in Hartlepool, the atmosphere. That in turn generates income via retail, advertising and so on.

The 11,000 who watched the Sheffield derby via a beam-back at Hillsborough may also mark the emergence of a trend. Crystal Palace did the same for their sold-out game at Brighton.

Former MP and Wednesday director Joe Ashton said: "It was absolutely brilliant. The atmosphere was great, the commentary was great, the picture on those three giant screens was great — everything was spot-on.

"For a tenner, and a fiver for concessions, fans were able to see their team play away at their home ground while enjoying a beer and a good old sing-song.

"Imagine if this were to become a regular event. The fans would save a fortune and hours of their time travelling up and down the country."

Football League spokesman John Nagle said: "The progress made by clubs outside the top flight during the last few decades has been one of the big success stories of English football. The game here has a breadth and attachment to local communities that simply isn't replicated anywhere else in the world."