“I have a new lower-league team (in the NPSL – one version of the fourth division in the US and considered the highest tier of amateur football) in my area that will open play in two weeks,” begins Harriet Osborn. “They will borrow a local school’s stadium which has a capacity of 8,500. As a few students of that school like to point out, that’s a larger capacity than some stadiums used by professional teams in Europe, such as Salford City (5,108). What is the most extreme example of this: how many leagues of difference can we find between a big stadium in a lower division and a smaller stadium in a higher one?”
Perhaps the most obvious answer to this is perennial stadium-stat conquerors Queen’s Park. The 52,000-capacity Hampden Park was home to the Scottish League One side for over a century but as of 2021 they are homeless, their lease on the ground having ended, and are awaiting development of a new home. Nevertheless in 2012-13 Queen’s Park were in the fourth tier of Scottish football while Ross County’s 6,541-capacity Victoria Park was hosting top-tier action.
