A HUGE Club with a massive fanbase!!

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

Several spokesmen seem to be referring to City in similar terms to my topic title just lately. One of the bookies'' spokesmen gave the size of our crowds as one of the reasons they had made us second favourites for promotion. Still, I suppose we are huge by Third Division standards. A club that really impresses me with the size of their crowds, however, is Derby County. They average well over 30,000 attendances in all games. Why??

[Michael Bates 9]

Derbys history

[JJJJ 0]

Did they really use crowd size as a reason for us getting promotion?? I guess the added income from large crowds always helps, but surely the actual crowd size itself doesn''t really affect much =P

Dunno about Derby, but they seem to get a decent amount of uni students as fans. My cousin is at derby university and despite having no previous interest in footy, he and the guys in his accommodation all bought season tickets at Derby, supposedly its something that lots of students do.

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

Derby give out lots of free tickets as well as phones with season tickets etc.

[drunkunmunkey 0]

Derby have only had large crowds (30,000+) since their Premiership year. I remember going to their new stadium the year they went up, and there was about 22,000.

[Libbra Lives in Dubai 0]

That said,  we arent the biggest in this division.  Leeds, Charlton, Southampton...

[Puzzy magnet 0]

[quote user="Libbra Lives"]That said,  we arent the biggest in this division.  Leeds, Charlton, Southampton...[/quote]

On what planet are Charlton or Southampton "bigger" than us?

[7rew 0]

[quote user="johnjohnjohnnyjohn"]Did they really use crowd size as a reason for us getting promotion?? [/quote]Not quite.  It is a reason to give us shorter odds on promotion, which is not quite the same thing.Bigger crowds = more fans = more people betting on promotion = more the bookies have to pay out if we go up = shorter odds in order to keep this amount about the same no matter who wins the league.Add to that the fact that others (not necc. fans) will bet on the likes of us, Leeds and Charlton because we are "too big for this league", especially as Leicester made the league look easy last season, will lower the odds as well.

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

[quote user="Libbra Lives"]That said,  we arent the biggest in this division.  Leeds, Charlton, Southampton...[/quote]

Leeds are without doubt a bigger club than City, but I would say Southampton and Charlton are pretty much a similar size. This year I would expect us to beat Southampton and Charlton on average attendances and not be too far behind Leeds.

[Lambo 0]

I duno i think Southampton have a slight edge on us in all honesty.

[Matt Juler 155]

[quote user="Lambo"]I duno i think Southampton have a slight edge on us in all honesty.[/quote]

Maybe on the pitch, but I think they''ll struggle to get 20k for most games this season.

[Libbra Lives in Dubai 0]

[quote user="Big Dog "]

[quote user="Libbra Lives"]That said,  we arent the biggest in this division.  Leeds, Charlton, Southampton...[/quote]

On what planet are Charlton or Southampton "bigger" than us?

[/quote]

I think they are similar, and yes probably a little bigger.  Recent history and reputation are important and those two have had more recent success than us.  I dont think there''s a lot in it, but I think we''d be foolish to cling to the big club security blanket when there are several other big fish in the pond too.

[Puzzy magnet 0]

[quote user="Libbra Lives"][quote user="Big Dog "]

[quote user="Libbra Lives"]That said,  we arent the biggest in this division.  Leeds, Charlton, Southampton...[/quote]

On what planet are Charlton or Southampton "bigger" than us?

[/quote]

I think they are similar, and yes probably a little bigger.  Recent history and reputation are important and those two have had more recent success than us.  I dont think there''s a lot in it, but I think we''d be foolish to cling to the big club security blanket when there are several other big fish in the pond too.

[/quote]

Southampton, just, maybe. But Charlton? Not in a million years.

[Excited Canary 19]

I think we might actually beat Leeds in attendances unless they are virtually top through-out. I went to two of there games last season and both times there attendance was less than 20,000 and that is when they were 3rd.

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

 

You may well be right. I have a feeling their mean average attendance for last season was about 23,000 - fluctuating between a low of about 18,000 up to about 36,000 fans at the peak. Of course, we can''t hope to match the big figure due to the limitations of our stadium, but we might beat their average attendance figures. I tried to find League One attendance averages for last season with the help of the mighty google yesterday, without success.

[Guest]

According to [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_United_A.F.C._season_2008-09]Wiki[/url] their average last season was 22,849. If things go well this season we are quite likely to beat that I''d say.

[Mr.Carrow 378]

I think people forget that with a bigger ground there is far more scope for ticket offers/promotions etc. which we don`t even have to bother with as we fill the ground anyway- it stands to reason that if we can regularly sell out 25k when we`re doing crap and with no scope for ticket offers, we`d be pushing 30k if we were doing better and had more seats to utilise (even in this league).  Charlton and Saints have a "bigger" profile at the moment but historically, no chance.

[Mr.Carrow 378]

Also, wouldn`t it be great if we had a higher average attendance in this league than the scum in the Champs.....?[:D]

I was amazed i couldn`t get two seats together for the Colchester game on Monday so we`ve made a good start.

[Snoots 0]

Wait until we have been languishing in League One for a season or two (hopefully not of course) and watch our attendances plummet - then you will have a fair comparison with leeds average attendance last season.

[Excited Canary 19]

First season in league 1, they still got reasonably low attendances.

[Mr.Carrow 378]

[quote user="Bob Franklin"]Wait until we have been languishing in League One for a season or two (hopefully not of course) and watch our attendances plummet - then you will have a fair comparison with leeds average attendance last season.[/quote]

People said that about the Champs when we were relegated from the Prem.  Four years of unmitigated misery and we still sell out pretty much every week.  The fact is we draw from a population of 1 million plus and we have no real competition, so our level of support shouldn`t be a surprise IMO.

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

It''s resurrection time! I''m very impressed with the fact that we''ve sold out our first 3rd Division encounter in 50 years (match v Col U on Saturday). I''m pretty sure we didn''t sell out the first home match of last season - one division higher! What ever is going on!