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mashed in maryland 10:21 Thu May 12
Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Strange topic i know.

Was in Macclesfield today. Was surprised to see a huge amount of people walking round in Macclesfield Town replica gear, and a lot of shops/vans etc with rosettes, flags etc. Not bad for a non-league club. Was expecting mostly Manc teams/Liverpool, and saw none.

To be fair they have a population of 51,482 and an average attendance of 2,971, and can't be many if any fans from outside the town, so that's likely 5-6% of the population at a Macclesfield home game.

According to google, on any given home game, 27% of Burnley's population, in theory, is at Turf Moor (attendance of 20k, population of 73k)... are there many Burnley fans not from Burnley? Can't be many.

Also maybe an extreme example but Forest Green have a record attendance of 2,430, and the population of Nailsworth is 5,794... so if they all lived in Nailsworth that would be nearly half of the town at a game. Guessing not every Forest Green fan comes from there though.

Any more examples?

WHU(Exeter) 6:15 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Mashed, non~league is fucking great.

Team I go and watch got through to an away play~off final at level 8, crowd of over 1000 which isn’t bad at the eight level of the pyramid.

About 250 of us travelled to their ground (Winchester City vs Bristol Manor Farm, and just like you say the atmosphere was like 30, 40 years ago was like…particularly at the end of the game)….

mashed in maryland 3:58 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

WHU(Exeter) 1:38 Wed May 18

I went to a Bath City game about 10-15 years ago. Stadium was packed (wikipedia says max attendance of about 3k, was definitely more than that), was singing/atmosphere throughout, and a pitch invasion at the end. Also zero police and about 3 stewards.

Definitely the exception rather than the rule for non-league football (this was a huge game for them, can't remember why), but remember thinking it was like going back in time, a bloody good day out, and cost about a fiver to get in.

ironsofcanada 3:53 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Mike Oxsaw 3:20 Wed May 18

Might be something there. Most of Oxford United's supporters seem to come from areas that grew up around the Morris/Rover/BMW/Mini plant rather than... mostly obviously those that serviced the University.

Far Cough 3:53 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Truro and Ely are pretty small ish

SurfaceAgentX2Zero 3:42 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

The smallest city in England is Old Sarum, isn't it? Population - 0

Swiss. 3:40 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Wells City is pretty small

El Scorchio 3:39 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Swiss. 3:35

We're talking population rather than area. Westminster is officially a city and in terms of population a pretty big one.

El Scorchio 3:37 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

paulon 3:17

For some reason I saw Wakefield when I was putting my little list together but was convinced they'd been in the league at some point. But no, so Wakefield it is!

Swiss. 3:35 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

El Scorchio

No St Paul’s is the cathedral for City of London or the square mile which must be the smallest in England by area . Westminster serves London as a whole . I assume Ely City is the smallest by population

Mike Oxsaw 3:20 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Is there any relationship between the number of clubs a given town has and the type of industry that town grew up around?

Do places with a heavy industrial background (factories/docks/etc.) have more clubs than, say, places associated with farming & agriculture (bit extreme in this case as I'm aware that most of the land is not given over to housing people).

paulon 3:17 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

WHU(Exeter) 1:38 Wed May 18

Wakefield is your answer

Unrelated fact - Carlisle is actually the biggest city in England in terms of area

El Scorchio 2:32 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

WHU(Exeter) 1:38

It would have been Salford until moneybags Neville and his mates artificially grew their club way beyond it's level.

If you're willing to count it, it's actually the city of Westminster, I think.

Bath is quite low down the list, surprisingly.

The following are all bigger and I don;t think have had a league team: (but happy to be corrected)

Chelmsford(?)
Canterbury
St Albans
Lancaster(?)
Gloucester(?)
Winchester
Worcester(?)

Swiss. 2:05 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

I think Bolton is the largest town in England of around 260,000 and a good attendance.

WHU(Exeter) 1:38 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Biggest city to have never had a league team? Bath?

Swiss. 12:43 Wed May 18
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Leonard

I think Bristol is 8th with a population of 470,000 next is Newcastle with 296,000. Also Bristol City were in the old 1st Division .

WHU(Exeter) 11:26 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Just had a quick look, I think it might be the one called the pain and the glory but not 100%.

It talked a lot about the smallness of the place and how their player recruitment came from the place itself mainly for years, the final vs Leeds and how when clubs were tasked with changing their name, Featherstone refused whilst the others did as asked. (Or similar to all that, not a rugby fan, just loved the documentary and their ethos)

WHU(Exeter) 11:19 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

It’s weird as well that lower down the non~league structure you’ll get towns/areas of similar size and one team will bring away support that you can count on your hands, whilst another similar sized place will take hundreds away.

I watch a local Bristol club at level 8 and you’ll get clubs turn up from places I’ve barely heard of and would struggle to put on a map, but they turn up with more away support than a lot of 4th Division clubs take away.

SurfaceAgentX2Zero 11:15 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Don't think so. I'll search it out.

WHU(Exeter) 11:13 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

Surface, did you see the documentary about Featherstone Rovers that was on the box a few years back? It was brilliant.

SurfaceAgentX2Zero 11:10 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

I think it's (or was) Featherstone Rovers if we include all spectator sports.

WHU(Exeter) 11:10 Tue May 17
Re: Most "local" support... clubs/towns with massive attendance to population ratio?

(Sorry Gary, see that you asked the same question)

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