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We are the best supported club in the Championship
- Thread starter Big Jeff
- Start date
I’d frame it as the biggest support in the Championship. I struggle to class the masses that walk out ridiculously early instead of getting behind the lads as the “best”.
Eric gates hair
Striker
If we have built the new harbour by then it can double up as an outdoor water theme park.
Norfolk'n'chance
Winger
Think it was 5th all time (them) and 10th (us) W Ham were 11th and I think maybe Leeds 12th?
CaptainRed
Midfield
Norfolk'n'chance
Winger
Interesting. What's the source for that?
This has them 7th and us 12th (based on one season average a couple of years back I think)
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But this one has them 5th and us 10th. Which is the all time average (at least I think it is). I know when I looked in the past, we were 10th and I've always assumed that was the case. Although West Ham are catching up (maybe they have overtaken us since this article?)
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CaptainRed
Midfield
Norfolk'n'chance
Winger
Fair enough.
We were always 10th when I was growing up, and I think the mags were 7th. Looks like they've jumped two places and we've dropped two in the last 10/ 15 years or so. West Ham and Leeds were behind us (just though) even just a few years back.
CaptainRed
Midfield
Fair enough.
We were always 10th when I was growing up, and I think the mags were 7th. Looks like they've jumped two places and we've dropped two in the last 10/ 15 years or so. West Ham and Leeds were behind us (just though) even just a few years back.
West Ham have averaged 60k for tbe last few years so that'll have steadily increased theirs and gone above us. They're on 26,352 now to our 25,893 so clearly they'll have overtaken us fairly recently.
Mags showing as 33,003. Ahead of Chelsea on 32,578 and Everton on 31,839 so they've probably only overtaken those in the last Decade.
SpiritofBurnden
Striker
Top five best supported clubs in L1 have higher average attendances than at least half the teams in the Championship.
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I would say outside of one, there are no clubs in the Championship that are obviously bigger than Sheff Wed, Derby, Bolton, Ipswich. It would at least be an argument.
What does bigger actually mean?
Is it support? current support, historical support, trophies, seasons in the top flight etc.
Check the stats Sheffield United are bigger than Bolton, Ipswich (much bigger support) and historically bigger than Derby too.
Sunderland have always had fantastic support but I don't think it receive enough press attention.
If Bolton get a crowd of 22K everyone in the media raves about it being a huge crowd or Ipswich might get 25K and it's wow.
The same week Sheff Utd have 30K and Sunderland have 40K and it's meh because it's normal, no big deal.
The current Sheff United capacity has been restricted by the safety committee to 30,100, no tickets are allowed to be sold on the Kop, it's season tickets holders only on there
so most of our last few matches have been almost sold out even though we have one the dearest match tickets in the Championship, it was £34 cheapest against Stoke on Saturday.
Another point is our current average is 28,720, which is decent but nothing special.
However in the last 53 years (many people's living memory) Sheff Wednesday have only averaged more in ONE season
and that was only 29K when challenging for the title in the top flight.
The last time Sheff Wed averaged more than 28,720 in the 2nd tier (Championship level) was in 1952. (that's 71 years ago).
Sheff Wed have always had a good hard core but apart from the odd one off big games and never had regular big crowds in living memory.
However of course Sheff Wed have challenged for the title in the early 60's and early 90's.
Ipswich and Derby were both great teams in the 70's, with Ipswich doing well in Europe.
Much better than Sheff Utd and Sunderland (exc 1950 when you finished 3rd) who have both done very little on the pitch since the war.
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It isn't any one thing, which is why it's a bad definition really and it's why I say those clubs in L1 aren't "obviously" smaller than say Sheffield United to use your example.
You can pick your argument depending on who it's against, in my opinion fan base is the one thing which suggests size, because team performance and trophies are barely related and not as constant.
To use your example Sheffield United averaged around 20,000 in L1 (17.5k-21k). Which is similar to Ipswich until this season, and slightly less than Sheffield Wednesday (similar to their previous L1 stint). So it's not obvious to me who the better supported club is.
The recent outlier is us, not wanting to be arrogant, but we had better support than any other "big club" in L1, including Leeds and Man City, and now have the best support in the Championship since Newcastle pissed it. So I would say that is obvious.
SAFCOldie
Striker
Doyle
You are in a small group just below us. Take that as a compliment.Very much agree.
If you have a pre-set agenda then you can choose certain statistics to prove almost whatever you want.
Also even support isn't straight forward, you can use home support when doing well, home support when struggling badly (loyalty)
Then there's away support when doing well and when struggling in the lower divisions, then there's that impossible to argue against concept called "potential support"
My uncle is from Plymouth and he always used to go on about Plymouth having the potential if in the PL to be a massive club with 40K average attendances
but then I could say if Sheff Utd won the PL, then won the Champions league the year after then if we expanded our stadium we could average 45K, it's a pointless argument that can't be proven or disproven. Then there's the effect of ticket pricing (Bradford, Huddersfield and West Ham all get great support but their season tickets are dirt cheap).
then there's support based on nearby population, the number of other clubs in the area. Historical attendances or current attendances etc etc.
However one thing is clear....you can try as best you can....but it's virtually impossible to disprove that Sunderland have great support.
Like Sheffield United but even better...your club has a brillant history but it's pre war.....and like Sheff Utd your glory days were pre 1st world war not 2nd world war.
So your club must be one the biggest underachievers of the game based on support. At least that's evidence of your loyalty and something to feel proud about.
Historically Wednesday have always had better support but it's closer than people think. I suppose it's like comparing Newcastle United to Sunderland.
I used to work with an old guy who was a passionate Sunderland and he really hated Newcastle, this was when Keegan was their manager. He used to tell me about how the media build up and always seem to love Newcastle United but he challenged me to check the stats and said that Newcastle and Sunderland were actually similar sized clubs.
He said that everyone goes on about their great support but when they are struggling it dips right down.
United and Wednesday have had quite similar support...in Sheffield it's pretty much 50/50, which makes it more special as one club can't seem to dominate for long.
However Wednesdays claim to fame which their fans love is that whenever there's a really big match then an extra 10K+ turn up from no where.
Traditionally SW have alot of supporters outside Sheffield that don't go to matches very often....but will sometimes turn up for the big match.
It shows their big potential and kind of frustrates the regulars who ask why there's only 22K home fans for normal matches but then there's a 45K demand for a one-off play-off final?
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Superbadross
Midfield
True story
JohnKay
Striker
Boro have away support as good as anyone, all three clubs up here are the same.
Sunderland fans take the piss out of Boro the same way Newcastle do to us, it's sad as feck and small time imo. Support through mediocrity is what make NE supporters the best imo. When you think of the miles the fans have to put in compared to loads of clubs we're all mad as a box of frogs number wise.
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