20 biggest teams in English league....

[Reggie Strayshun 0]

A pointless article about a meaningless phrase and an undefinable subject.

 

One point that has not really been made is that "size" surely has something to do with available market and competition . For instance, the City of Leeds may, on the face of it have just one large (possibly underperforming) football club, but , to be fair, it does also have a top Rugby League and Union club . Ditto Wigan , which comes in for a bit of snide comment on this forum. Norwich, on the other hand may be a bit smaller population  -wise, but  NCFC has no real competition from either football or rugby. Sheff U and Sheff Wed are cited as "big " clubs, but, in fact, they do, and have for a long time, underperformed, as Sheffield is a huge city, and there is no serious Rugby present there of either code.

[Aggy 752]

On that point, Eric, surely our catchment area is not a small one? The city itself is nowhere near as big as Sheffield, say, but the population of Norfolk is about the same. Sheffield has obviously got many other league teams in Yorkshire to compete with, whereas we''ve got all of Norfolk really.

Do we not fall into a similar category as them?

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

Well, this little gem mined from Wikipedia should give us a good leg up:

 

Prior to the union with Scotland in 1707, from the English Civil War until the 18th century, Norwich was the

 second-largest city of England, being a major trading centre, Britain''s richest provincial city and county town of

 Norfolk, at that time the most populous county of England.

 

Only thing is that association football wasn''t invented then!

 

OTBC

[SWP = Poor Mans Ruel Fox!! 0]

How about ranking how big a club is by the avg attendance? Which would go a bit like this:

 

1.   Man Utd

2.   Arsenal

3.   Newcastle

4.   Man City

5.   Liverpool

6.   Chelsea

7.   Sunderland

8.   Spurs

9.   Aston Villa

10.   Everton

11.   West Ham

12.   Stoke

13.   Norwich

14.   Derby

15.   Wolves

16.   Southampton

17.   Fulham

18.   West Brom

19.   Bolton

20.   Leeds

 

 

[K Lo 221]

How would one determine the size of any other company? Revenue? When looking at Sony, EMI, Apple, Ford size is always quoted in revenue and, I guess, ultimately, profit. Why not just order clubs with respect to the amount of revenue they generate?

[Reggie Strayshun 0]

[quote user="Aggy"]. Sheffield has obviously got many other league teams in Yorkshire to compete with, whereas we''ve got all of Norfolk really. Do we not fall into a similar category as them?[/quote]

 

Yes, Aggy, I suppose that is in essence what I''m getting at. And why this "size" stuff is so meaningless . I still find it astounding that the whole of Yorks and the East Mids with its vast population cannot muster a single Prem team amongst them, whereas the North West currently have 8 (if you count Stoke as part of it )

[Aggy 752]

And there are what I would call some "big" teams in the East Midlands and Yorkshire. Derby, Forest, Leeds, the Sheffield clubs. Barnsley and Bradford have been in the Premiership (although I wouldn''t call them big clubs), and Leicester are by no means a small club either!

Proving your point even more has surely got to be Plymouth - probably slightly larger in population then Norwich according to Wikipedia, but when you consider they are likely to be attracting support from Cornwall as well as most of Devon (only Exeter, and then no other league clubs until you go as far east as Bristol or Southampton?) they are massive underachievers by that criteria.

[N city till I die 0]

Is this a way of defining who is a big club or have been? The teams who have managed to accumulate the most points in the top flight?

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/all-time-table/full

[Aggy 752]

Nice find London. However, Glossop North End would be the 64th biggest club in the country by that rating; I think we can all agree that probably isn''t quite right! Also fails to take into account European stats and domestic cup stats which I do think have some bearing on things.

But it''s an interesting website to chuck into the debate.

[Mr.Carrow 376]

The comparison with South Yorkshire is an interesting one.  A population of 1.3million but the two Sheffield clubs,Barnsley,Doncaster and Rotherham all competing for the same pool of support (and some rugby...).  Norfolk and Waveney have a population of nearly 1million with 1 club and no other major sport.

[star_manic 0]

[quote user="Mr.Carrow"]The comparison with South Yorkshire is an interesting one.  A population of 1.3million but the two Sheffield clubs,Barnsley,Doncaster and Rotherham all competing for the same pool of support (and some rugby...).  Norfolk and Waveney have a population of nearly 1million with 1 club and no other major sport.[/quote]...throw in grimsby and scunthorpe who are both close by, and the two notts teams, chesterfield, derby and leicester. less than fifty miles between any two of them. i know, this is my area and had many "local" games when we were in div.1 and the championship. now manchester is probably my nearest premier ground at about 96 miles. canaries at 125 are about 4th nearest.[*]

[Mr.Carrow 376]

Star, it never ceases to amaze me how many people bang on about the "low population density" of east anglia, and use that as an excuse for a little norwich attitude. As you`ve helped point out, areas with higher populations have higher numbers of footy clubs and often other high-profile sports competing for the same pool of people. Another example- greater Birmingham has a pop.of 3.1m but has Brum,Villa,Coventry,W.Brom,Wolves and Walsall. Again, our catchment area looks much better in comparison.

[grantroederdisaster 0]

I always go on about the National stereotype of Norwich, ie, the "Little ole Norwich" one and this guy is just subscribing to this!

 

Its amazing how lowly, many fans outside of East Anglia rate us!

 

Even more sad is how many Norwich fans also think the same way!

 

A prime example is whenever a thread pops up on here about expanding Carrow Road. Theres a few who add their opinions, who disagree with increasing the capacity despite the stats showing clearly that our ATT''s over the last 10 seasons and the clubs acknowledgement they could sell many more tickets indicating that its very justifiable. Some of the doubters go all negative about adding to the capacity make out we are struggling to get 20,000, instead of the regular home sell outs!

 

I''ve long said we''re capable of of being one of the top 10-15 clubs in the Country!

 

Heres a list of clubs I think are bigger than us -

 

ManU, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle, Sunderland and if they ever got back into the Premiership - dirty old Leeds!

 

Other clubs I''d consider of a similar size to us if in the Premiership- West Ham, Wolves, Southampton, both Sheffield clubs, Forest, Leicester and Derby!

 

A whole cluster of clubs including the S*um, Middlesbrough, Cardiff, Charlton, Brighton and others wouldn''t be too far away either!

[grantroederdisaster 0]

["Mr.Carrow"]Star, it never ceases to amaze me how many people bang on about the "low population density" of east anglia, and use that as an excuse for a little norwich attitude. As you`ve helped point out, areas with higher populations have higher numbers of footy clubs and often other high-profile sports competing for the same pool of people. Another example- greater Birmingham has a pop.of 3.1m but has Brum,Villa,Coventry,W.Brom,Wolves and Walsall. Again, our catchment area looks much better in comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well said!

 

Many people don''t realise that our catchment area includes all of Suffolk, parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire and scatterings from Essex and London!