Attendances

[grafikhaus]

So we've averaged six and-a-half thousand more than our nearest (crowd) rivals:Link.



This raises three questions:

• How come the pigs (Ave. 21,993) allow six other (non-massive) teams to get higher attendances?

• Why, with large away followings from most teams in the Championship, did they only average a piss-poor 2k more than us? And...

• Which manager would possibly want to come to United?

 

[Kenilworth]

Personally I think the main criterion for selecting the next manager is who can piss highest up the wall.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Personally I think the main criterion for selecting the next manager is who can piss highest up the wall.

In the same way Portsmouth attracted Paul Cooke from Chesterfield, United might be able to attract a manager any other League One club couldn't. Even a manager from the Championship.
Saying that my view is we stick with Clough for now, see what start we make next season.

 

[Kenilworth]

In the same way Portsmouth attracted Paul Cooke from Chesterfield, United might be able to attract a manager any other League One club couldn't. Even a manager from the Championship.
Saying that my view is we stick with Clough for now, see what start we make next season.

Ah, quite
But how far can he project his urine?
Seems key to me.

 

[Blade for Sale]

How's about, for once, we take a look at the city as a whole and applaud a combined average of over 40k for what has been, for both clubs, a pretty boring season on the league front. When you factor in being surrounded by Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley (combined 34k average), it's pretty impressive. The nauseating praise heaped on the big North East clubs' support does my nut in when you consider they are all 1 club towns/cities with practically no other competition for miles around.

 

[Bladesince59]

Predictions for next year?

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

How's about, for once, we take a look at the city as a whole and applaud a combined average of over 40k for what has been, for both clubs, a pretty boring season on the league front. When you factor in being surrounded by Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley (combined 34k average), it's pretty impressive. The nauseating praise heaped on the big North East clubs' support does my nut in when you consider they are all 1 club towns/cities with practically no other competition for miles around.

Indeed, considering the population that Newcastle United can draw upon for support, their crowds really aren't that impressive at all..... though I suspect, if they were winning AND they had a bigger stadium, they'd get bigger crowds. (But then so would SUFC, and the other lot).

 

[Bladesman]

How's about, for once, we take a look at the city as a whole and applaud a combined average of over 40k for what has been, for both clubs, a pretty boring season on the league front. When you factor in being surrounded by Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley (combined 34k average), it's pretty impressive. The nauseating praise heaped on the big North East clubs' support does my nut in when you consider they are all 1 club towns/cities with practically no other competition for miles around.

I agree I am impressed by the turnout of fans for both clubs in Sheffield really especially when neither club has had that much to cheer about for a fucking long time.

 

[grafikhaus]

How's about, for once, we take a look at the city as a whole and applaud a combined average of over 40k for what has been, for both clubs, a pretty boring season on the league front. When you factor in being surrounded by Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley (combined 34k average), it's pretty impressive. The nauseating praise heaped on the big North East clubs' support does my nut in when you consider they are all 1 club towns/cities with practically no other competition for miles around.

Well I'm certainly not going to give Wendyboyz any fucking praise at all. It's only the away fans keeping their crowds (fractionally) above ours. Throw in regular promotions like tenner a pig/fiver a piglet and they are hardly 'massive'. Our crowds, however, are magnificent. Between 21st and 28th March, we had three home games (Port Vale, Scunthorpe & Crewe i.e. dross) and totalled just under 60k. In eight days. On May 3rd (Chesterfield) and May 7th (Swindon) we got 57k. In 5 days. Given the away following in League 3 is usually one man and his fucking dog. Top stuff, Blades.

 

[Blade56]

Shame we turned up but didn't do our part in getting us promoted

 

[Kenilworth]

Predictions for next year?

We will have the highest average attendance in division 3

 

[Darren]

How's about, for once, we take a look at the city as a whole and applaud a combined average of over 40k for what has been, for both clubs, a pretty boring season on the league front. When you factor in being surrounded by Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley (combined 34k average), it's pretty impressive. The nauseating praise heaped on the big North East clubs' support does my nut in when you consider they are all 1 club towns/cities with practically no other competition for miles around.

Newcastle and Sunderland are in Tyne and Wear which has a population of about 1,100,000. Newcastle and Sunderland have combined average crowds of about 93,000 = 8.5% of the population of the county.

S. Yorks has a population of 1,340,000 and 5 clubs. Their combined average attendance is 68,690 = 5.1% of the population of the county.

So, yes, they are better supported than the Sheffield clubs. Whether that would last if they spent years knocking around outside the PL is another matter.

 

[Grappler]

Indeed, considering the population that Newcastle United can draw upon for support, their crowds really aren't that impressive at all..... though I suspect, if they were winning AND they had a bigger stadium, they'd get bigger crowds. (But then so would SUFC, and the other lot).

From memory, there are no teams north of Newcastle until you get to Berwick on Tweed, and nothing of note out to the west or down to Durham.

The catchment area is pretty big, as you say. My mate (and his mates) who live in Consett, all support Sunderland, so they have a big catchment area as well.

Ours, though, is not, which is why our support is much better than people give us credit for. If you accept that most fans go to the club closest to them (not always the case, I agree), we are surrounded by Chesterfield, Mansfield, Rotherham, and SWFC (only the Pennines to the West of us), and in the gaps you have Donny and Barnsley. If you live in Retfford, Worksop, Sutton, etc., you are probably looking at Notts County or Forest as you nearest club as much as any of the Sheffield Clubs. SWFC have a big catchment area to the north, stretching virtually all the way to Huddersfield.

 

[alcoblade]

Newcastle and Sunderland are in Tyne and Wear which has a population of about 1,100,000. Newcastle and Sunderland have combined average crowds of about 93,000 = 8.5% of the population of the county.

S. Yorks has a population of 1,340,000 and 5 clubs. Their combined average attendance is 68,690 = 5.1% of the population of the county.

So, yes, they are better supported than the Sheffield clubs. Whether that would last if they spent years knocking around outside the PL is another matter.

Is that exactly a fair comparison though? It would be if we (as 2 clubs) were to draw unchallenged on the entire South Yorkshire conurbation - but that contains lots of other clubs that we aren't vouching for here.
On top of this, there really is nothing for miles further outside the T&W conurbation. We are surrounded by clubs who are vastly more successful (not difficult), within an hour (ish) drive.


UTB

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Newcastle and Sunderland are in Tyne and Wear which has a population of about 1,100,000. Newcastle and Sunderland have combined average crowds of about 93,000 = 8.5% of the population of the county.

S. Yorks has a population of 1,340,000 and 5 clubs. Their combined average attendance is 68,690 = 5.1% of the population of the county.

So, yes, they are better supported than the Sheffield clubs. Whether that would last if they spent years knocking around outside the PL is another matter.

Alternatively focusing on the direct back-yard of Newcastle United - areas in which ONLY that 1 club exists:

Newcastle draw their support generally from Newcastle upon-Tyne (280,177), North Tyneside (200,801), Gateshead (200,214), Northumberland (316,028)

That's a population of: 997,200 for the 1 club.

There's also surrounding areas to cover too - a large proportion of the population of Durham (513,242), and even those in towns in Cumbria and the Scottish borders tag themselves as Newcastle supporters (most people I know in Durham are Magpies rather than Black Cats or Pools etc).

I'd suggest that makes them no better supported than United and less well supported than the other lot in Sheffield.

It also makes them considerably more poorly supported than Sunderland who have say South Tyneside (148,127) and Sunderland (275,506) to draw on (plus as with NUFC, a share of the Durham population).

 

[Darren]

Is that exactly a fair comparison though? It would be if we (as 2 clubs) were to draw unchallenged on the entire South Yorkshire conurbation - but that contains lots of other clubs that we aren't vouching for here.
On top of this, there really is nothing for miles further outside the T&W conurbation. We are surrounded by clubs who are vastly more successful (not difficult), within an hour (ish) drive.
%

I included Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley within the S Yorks total.
If we add reasonable hinterlands, we can add maybe the districts of High Peak, Derbyshire Dales, Chesterfield and Bassetlaw to S. Yorks, which adds 379,000 in population and 1 club (Chesterfield). That gives a population total of 1,719,000 and a total average for 75,615 for an average of 4.4%.
Reasonable hinterlands in the NE would be Durham and Northuberland counties (though the distances there are much greater than in S Yorks), which gives a population of 2,318,800 and a average of 4.0%

 

[Darren]

Alternatively focusing on the direct back-yard of Newcastle United - areas in which ONLY that 1 club exists:

Newcastle draw their support generally from Newcastle upon-Tyne (280,177), North Tyneside (200,801), Gateshead (200,214), Northumberland (316,028)

That's a population of: 997,200 for the 1 club.

There's also surrounding areas to cover too - a large proportion of the population of Durham (513,242), and even those in towns in Cumbria and the Scottish borders tag themselves as Newcastle supporters (most people I know in Durham are Magpies rather than Black Cats or Pools etc).

I'd suggest that makes them no better supported than United and less well supported than the other lot in Sheffield.

It also makes them considerably more poorly supported than Sunderland who have say South Tyneside (148,127) and Sunderland (275,506) to draw on (plus as with NUFC, a share of the Durham population).

Fair points, but bear in mind Northumberland is huge - it's 63 miles from Newcastle to Berwick and I hardly think we would see Immingham (64 miles from Sheffield) as natural Blades territory

 

[yorkshirecoast]

So we've averaged six and-a-half thousand more than our nearest (crowd) rivals:Link.

View attachment 11666

This raises three questions:

• How come the pigs (Ave. 21,993) allow six other (non-massive) teams to get higher attendances?

• Why, with large away followings from most teams in the Championship, did they only average a piss-poor 2k more than us? And...

• Which manager would possibly want to come to United?

Reminds me of the Dingles claiming (when we played them recently) that we are similar sized clubs. Yeah right.

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Fair points, but bear in mind Northumberland is huge - it's 63 miles from Newcastle to Berwick and I hardly think we would see Immingham (64 miles from Sheffield) as natural Blades territory

Possibly right, but then again, if United were the only club for 63 miles in all directions of Immingham, we may well do.

Having lived up there for a number of years in my 30s I think it's a pretty safe assumption that talking to the average football following Northumbrian, he'd tell you he'd support NUFC.

Almost everyone I ever met in Cramlington, Ashington, Blyth, Bedlington, etc was a Magpie - and get closer to the border the association stays strong because of the belligerent mentality of border communities. Northumberland and North East generally has a much greater sense of cohesion and unity than the greater Sheffield area, and unlike Barnsley and Rotherham folk's disdain for all things Sheffield, the same mentality does not exist in Gateshead or Wallsend, or Tynemouth towards Newcastle. I'd suggest north of the Tyne is a "Newcastle centred" community all the way to Scotland in a way South Yorkshire would never be.


I also think that if you compare the attendances when both clubs were last at the same level, it reinforces my conclusion even more.

 

[Revolution]

One thing to note about the North east is that there were other teams in the league: South Shields/Gateshead, Durham City, Ashington, and Darlington. All dropped out of the league. None were any good. None were well supported.

 

[Darren]

Possibly right, but then again, if United were the only club for 63 miles in all directions of Immingham, we may well do.

Having lived up there for a number of years in my 30s I think it's a pretty safe assumption that talking to the average football following Northumbrian, he'd tell you he'd support NUFC.

Almost everyone I ever met in Cramlington, Ashington, Blyth, Bedlington, etc was a Magpie - and get closer to the border the association stays strong because of the belligerent mentality of border communities. Northumberland and North East generally has a much greater sense of cohesion and unity than the greater Sheffield area, and unlike Barnsley and Rotherham folk's disdain for all things Sheffield, the same mentality does not exist in Gateshead or Wallsend, or Tynemouth towards Newcastle. I'd suggest north of the Tyne is a "Newcastle centred" community all the way to Scotland in a way South Yorkshire would never be.


I also think that if you compare the attendances when both clubs were last at the same level, it reinforces my conclusion even more.

Indeed, but the further you are away from a club, the less likely you are to turn up. Hence if people are travelling from Berwick and so on to Newcastle, that rather shows the strength of their support does it not?

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Ah, quite
But how far can he project his urine?

Clough can do it a long way as he managed to piss on my chips and I am in Cyprus.

 

[Blade for Sale]

Another point worth making about the attendance figures, the average for the division, with our results taken out, is 6482.

The average attendance for our away games this season was 7332 which reflects well on our away support and attractiveness as a fixture.

 

[grafikhaus]

Shame we turned up but didn't do our part in getting us promoted

Now that reminds me of a bloke sat behind me at the home Swindon leg. When he finally stopped moaning, the kop were singing 'Shoreham Boys'. He even had a go at the 'lack of repertoire.' Maybe we should have broken into 'Addio, fiorito asil' from Madame Butterfly. He have still fucking moaned....

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Indeed, but the further you are away from a club, the less likely you are to turn up. Hence if people are travelling from Berwick and so on to Newcastle, that rather shows the strength of their support does it not?

It shows the "strength" of the support amongst those travelling long distances, yes, if we're measuring some sort of median distance to a game as a measure of support (and if you can define what "strength" actually means there as it sounds like a measure of obsession, emotional attachment and forebearance, or similar?).

I wouldn't denigrate that kind of support, by the way - they clearly are a club with a unique kind of reach. But, I think we were talking about a measure of support purely in terms of numbers, which is the factor oft-quoted to tell us they're somehow more fanatical supporters than everyone else - when clearly they're not.

Maybe the further away from Newcastle you get, the higher proportion of "obsessives" there are compared with Newcastle city centre, and possibly compared with SUFC supporters. Maybe the distances involved mean Newcastle fans do have a different profile to SUFC fans - or even Liverpool, Rangers, Celtic, Man U who get people filling ferries from Ireland every weekend, something we will never compare with.

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Now that reminds me of a bloke sat behind me at the home Swindon leg. When he finally stopped moaning, the kop were singing 'Shoreham Boys'. He even had a go at the 'lack of repertoire.' Maybe we should have broken into 'Addio, fiorito asil' from Madame Butterfly. He have still fucking moaned....

Have you heard the Juventus anthem?

It's a bit of a poppy club song, but everyone joins in - which is great .
It gets to a chorus which promises to be really spine-tinglingly emotional as it starts with everyone in the stadium singing "Juve....." then flips back to a kind of TV advert type ditty!.

It's good but it's really disappointing that it's not better.

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Another point on the NUFC support, distance thing... (sorry, if this is tedious to some). Over the last few years I've spent a lot of time travelling up to Edinburgh by train which includes trips that coincide with Newcastle games. There's a remarkable number of people travel from Edinburgh and Glasgow to NUFC matches for the simple purpose of watching premiership football.

 

[Blade for Sale]

Predictions for next year?

I think we will start off around the 17k mark. If we start well and remain in contention for automatic throughout, we will end with a average similar to this season.

 

[Darren]

Another way of looking at it is to take the population of S Yorks and all the adjacent counties (E. Yorks, Lincs, W Yorks,, N Yorks, Derbys and Notts) and divide that by the number of clubs in those counties - that sum gives the notional fan base for SUFC.

Total county population is 8,386,800 and I make 16 league clubs in those counties = 524,175 per club. United's average of 19,800 is 3.8% of that.

The same exercise for the NE would add together Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Durham for a population of 2,318,800 - 2 clubs = 1,159,400 per club. An average of 48,000 is 4.1% of that.

Little in it really....

 

[bristolboy]

Fleetwood's crowds are pretty impressive, if we are going by percentage of population. Although I only met/spoke to Blackpool fans when there last September.