billsportsmaps.com

February 25, 2022

Scotland: 2021-22 Premiership – Location-map, with: Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 12 clubs, Scottish titles list, and 25 largest Metro-areas and Localities in Scotland listed.

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 4:02 pm

scotland_premiership-2021-22_map_with-seasons-in-1st-div-chart_scottish-titles-list_post_f_.gif
Scotland: 2021-22 Premiership – Location-map, with Seasons-in-1st-Division for the current 12 clubs & Scottish titles list




By Bill Turianski on the 25th of February 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2021–22 Scottish Premiership (en.wikipedia.org).
-Premiership table, fixtures, results, attendance, teams, etc…Premiership [2021-22] (soccerway.com).
-BBC/Sport, bbc.com/Scottish Football.
-BBC Radio Scotland podcast, Off the Ball. ['The most petty and ill-informed football show on radio!', hosted by Stuart Cosgrove (journalist & St Johnstone supporter) and Tam Cowan (journalist & Motherwell supporter).]

The map shows the locations of the 12 Scottish football clubs which are currently in the Premiership [2021-22].
The map itself is a topographical map with built-up areas shown (shown in a pale-pink colour). Included on the map are the locations of the two recently-relegated sides (Hamilton Academical & Kilmarnock), and the two recently-promoted sides (Dundee FC & Heart of Midlothian). The 25 largest metro-areas and localities in Scotland are shown on the map, and populations are listed (see Part C, below). There is one current Scottish first-division club that is from a locality that is definitely not on the list of the 25 largest, and that is Ross County FC, of Dingwall, Ross and Cromarty, Highlands. Dingwall has a population of around 5,400. I noted that on the map.

The 3 accompanying charts on the map page show…
A). Seasons spent in Scottish 1st Level for the twelve current top-flight clubs. 2021-22 is the 125 season of the Scottish top flight (1890-91 to 1938-39; 1946-47 to 2021-22). With consecutive seasons in the Scottish top-flight noted. {Source: Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2012-13] (rsssf.com).}
B). Scottish football titles list (1890-91 to 1938-39; 1946-47 to 2020-21). {Source: List of Scottish football champions/Total titles won (en.wikipedia.org).}
C). Scotland (UK): Population Figures – Largest 25 Metropolitan Areas & Localities (with SPFL Football Clubs in those locations shown). In Scotland, a Locality is defined as a populated area composed of contiguous postcodes with populations of at least 500 {see third link below}. The chart is on the map-page, and also shown below…
scotland_25-largest_metro-areas_localities_populations_2011_2016_w-football-clubs-shown_k_.gif
Credits above – Chart by billsportsmaps.com; data sources: Scotland; List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom (ipfs.io); List of towns and cities in Scotland by population [by Locality] (en.wikipedia.org).




As of the 25th of Friday, February 2022…{Premiership table.}
This season is shaping up to be the first real Old Firm title race in over a decade (since 2010-11). After 27 matches, Celtic leads reigning champions Rangers by 3 points. Celtic have won 7 straight league matches, and overtook Rangers on the 2nd of February, when they beat them 3-0 at Celtic Park.

Right now, most clubs have 6 matches to go, before the split-season 2nd Phase begins in mid-April, following the 33rd matchday. Other clubs vying for a spot in Europe next season are the recently-promoted Hearts, who are in 3rd place, and a whole bunch of teams competing for the 4th-place spot. Six different teams could reasonably finish in 4th (Hibernian, Dundee United, Motherwell, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Livingston).

If the season were to end right now, the relegated team would be the recently-promoted Dundee FC, while the second-from-last-place team would be St Johnstone. If St Johnstone remains in that position, they would have to play in the promotion/relegation play-off, versus a 2nd tier side. Which is quite a come-down for the club, after their achievements in 2020-21, when St Johnstone became the first team outside of the Old Firm to win a Cup Double since Aberdeen, in 1990.

Currently in first place in the 2nd tier (the Scottish Championship), is Arbroath FC, who are located in Arbroath, just up the coast from Dundee (about 17 miles by road). Arbroath have not been in the Scottish first division in 47 years (not since 1975), and have played 9 top-flight seasons. This post I made two years ago has a feature on Arbroath…{Scotland 2019-20 map & chart, featuring 3 Scottish clubs that have recently started drawing above 1,000-per-game (Arbroath, Alloa Athletic, Airdrieonians).}.




___
Credits:
Sources for charts:
-Seasons in Scottish 1st Level, Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2012-13] (rsssf.com).
-List of Scottish football champions;
-Population figures:
-Scotland;
-List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom;
-List of towns and cities in Scotland by population (en.wikipedia.org).

-Thanks to Demis.nl, for images which allowed me to stitch together the blank topographic map of Scotland, at {via Demis Web Map Server}.
-Thanks to maiz at File:Scotland in the UK and Europe.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Thanks to RSSSF.com, rsssf.com/tabless/scotalltime.html.
-Thanks to the contributors at Scottish Premiership (en.wikipedia.org).

December 24, 2020

Scotland national team – starting line-up from match which clinched their qualification for the UEFA Euro 2020 competition – from 12 November 2020: Serbia 1-1 Scotland (Scotland wins 5-4 on penalties). Scotland lineup & substitutions profiled.

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 4:15 pm

By Bill Turianski on 24 December 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Scottishfa.co.uk.
-Scotland national football team (en.wikipedia.org).
-Marshall save ends Scotland’s long wait as they pip Serbia to Euro 2020 finals (by Louise Taylor on 12 November 2020 at theguardian.com/football).





UEFA Euro 2020 qualification, 12 November 2020: Play-offs Path C, Final.
Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade, Serbia.
Serbia 1-1 Scotland (Scotland wins 5-4 on penalties)…
uefa-euro-qualifying2020_scotland-beats-serbia_on-penalties_12-nov-2020_ryan-christie_david-marshall_r-christie_l-griffiths_c-mcgregor_s-mctominay_o-mcburnie_k-mclean_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – 2 screenshots from video uploaded by Scotland National Team at
youtube.com. David Marshall makes game-winning penalty save, photo by Novak Djurovic/PA via theguardian.com/football. Screenshot of image of box-score of match, from en.wikipedia.org//UEFA_Euro_2020_qualifying_play-offs#Serbia_v_Scotland. David Marshall making the match-winning save, photo from twitter.com/[@clydebankfc]. Close-up shot of David Marshall’s game-winning penalty save, from twitter.com/[@clydebankfc]. Scotland players celebrate, photo by SNS Group via dailymail.co.uk/sport. Ryan Christie, photo by Ken Macpherson at inverness-courier.co.uk. Leigh Griffiths, screenshot of video from dailyrecord.co.uk/sport. Callum McGregor, photo by Getty Images via dailymail.co.um/sport. Scott McTominay, photo by @ScottishFA via scottishsupporters.net. Oli McBurnie, photo by Getty Images via thescottishsun.co.uk/sport. Kenny McLean, photo by SNS Group via dailyrecord.co.uk/sport.



Please note: by clicking on the illustration below, you can place it in an enlargeable separate page.

    Scotland national team – Squad that won qualification for UEFA Euro 2020
    Starting line-up (plus substitutions) from match which clinched their qualification for the UEFA Euro 2020 competition….
    12 November 2020, in Belgrade, Serbia: Serbia 1-1 Scotland, aet (5-4 to Scotland on penalties).

scotland_national-team_uefa-euro-2020-qualifying_steve-clark_squad-that-qualified_12-nov-2020_serbia-1_1-scotland_scotland-wins-on-penalties-5-4_s_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Illustration of Scotland kits (2020), from en.wikipedia.org/Scotland_national_football_team. 2020 Scotland jersey, photo from soccerpro.com. Blank map of United Kingdom, by Daniel Dalet at d-maps.com. Blank map of Scotland, by: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest, Uwe Dedering at File:Scotland relief location map.jpg. Steve Clarke talking to the Scotland squad prior to extra time during the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier between Serbia and Scotland at the Stadion Rajko Mitic on November 12, 2020, in Belgrade, Serbia, photo by Nikola Krstic/SNS Group via scotsman.com/sport/football. Steve Clarke, photo by Craig Williamson/SNS via thetimes.co.uk.
Squad…
Goalkeeper…David Marshall (Derby County), photo unattributed at derbycounty.news.
Defenders…Scott McTominay (Manchester Utd), photo by Getty Images via manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport. Declan Gallagher (Motherwell), photo unattributed at scotsman.com/sport. Kieran Tierney (Arsenal), photo from premierleague.com/news.
Midfielders/Defensive Midfielders…Stephen O’Donnell (Motherwell), photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group / Getty Images via gettyimages.co.uk. Ryan Jack (Rangers), photo unattributed at heraldscotland.com/sport. Callum McGregor (Celtic), photo from SNS Group via glasgowlive.co.uk/sport/football. Andrew Robertson (Liverpool), photo from AFP via sports.ndtv.com.
Attacking Midfielders and Forwards…Lyndon Banks (QPR), photo by Andy Rowland / PRiME Media Images/Alamy Live News at alamy.com. John McGinn (Aston Villa), photo by Getty Images via leeds-live.co.uk/sport. Ryan Christie (Celtic), photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images via 90min.com. Andrew Robertson, photo from premierleague.com/news.
Substitutions...Callum Paterson (Sheffield Wednesday), photo from examinerlive.co.uk/sport. Leigh Griffiths (Celtic), photo by PA via thescottishsun.co.uk/sport. Kenny McLean (Norwich City), photo from twitter.com/[@NorwichCityFC]. Oli McBurnie (Sheffield United), photo unattributed at theathletic.com.



February 12, 2020

Scotland: map of all clubs that are drawing above 1 K (25 clubs/2019-20 figures up to the 13th of February 2020), with seasons in 1st Level and Scottish titles listed./ + Profiles of the 3 lower-division clubs in Scotland that are now drawing above 1-K-per-game (Arbroath, Alloa Athletic, Aidrieonians).

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 7:37 pm

scotland_attendance-map_2020_all-clubs-drawing-above-1-k_w-seasons-in-1st-div_scottish-titles_post_c_.gif
Scotland: map of all clubs that are drawing above 1 K (25 clubs/2019-20 figures up to the 13th of February 2020), with seasons in 1st Level and Scottish titles listed




By Bill Turianski on 12 February 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-Premiership table, fixtures, results, attendance, teams, etc…Premiership [2019-20] (soccerway.com).
-BBC/Sport, bbc.com/Scottish Football.
-BBC Radio Scotland, Off the Ball ['The most petty and ill-informed football show on radio!', hosted by Stuart Cosgrove (journalist & St Johnstone supporter) and Tam Cowan (journalist & Motherwell supporter).]

The map shows all Scottish football clubs which are currently drawing over 1,000 per game (2019-20 season up to 13 Feb. 2020/ 11-to-13 home matches).
Also listed on the map page’s charts are the following, with A through E listed in chart form at the right of the map, and F (populations) shown in a small chart on the left-side of the map…
A). Current Average attendance in 2019-20 domestic leagues, up to 13 Feb 2020 (11 to 13 home matches).
B). Seasons spent in Scottish 1st Level (123 seasons of the Scottish top flight (1890-91 to 1938-39; 1946-47 to 2019-20). With 2019-20 Level, and promotion/relegation noted.
C). Either: Consecutive seasons in the Scottish 1st level (since X season)…
D). Or: last season the club was in the Scottish 1st level.
E). Major titles, with last title listed (Scottish titles, Scottish FA Cup titles, Scottish League Cup titles, UEFA titles).
F). City and Town populations in Scotland (Metro-area and Locality populations of the 25 largest cities and towns in Scotland [2011 and 2016 figures]).

    The 3 Scottish clubs that have improved their average attendance to above 1,000-per-game, since since 2017-18…

-Arbroath (2nd division; currently in 6th/ and were promoted from the 3rd tier in 2018-19)…currently drawing 1,551 per game.
-Alloa Athletic (2nd division; currently in 9th [the relegation-playoff spot]…currently drawing 1,153 per game.
-Airdrieonions (3rd division; currently in 3rd [a promotion-playoff spot])…currently drawing 1,061 per game.

Arbroath FC are from Arbroath, Angus, located on the North Sea coast, by road, 18 miles (28 km) NW of Dundee. Arbroath has a population of around 23,000. Arbroath FC, est. 1878, wear Claret-and-White kits (and have been wearing that since 1882). Arbroath’s nickname is the Red Lichties, a reference to the red light that used to guide the town’s fishing boats back to harbour. Arbroath play at Gayfield Park (capacity 6,600 with 861 seated). Gayfield Park (opened in 1888; renovated in 1925) is situated right on the coast. Gayfield Park is prone to fierce North Sea winds, and is decidedly old school, being comprised mainly of terracing {see photos below}.

Arbroath have not been in the Scottish top flight in 45 years: their last season in the 1st division was in 1974-75 (which was the last season the Scottish 1st division was comprised of 18 clubs). Arbroath have played 9 seasons of 1st division football. Arbroath first played in the Scottish top flight in 1935-36, after winning promotion in 1935. Arbroath had a four-year spell in the 1st division back then, from 1935-36 up to the break in play caused by the onset of World War II in late 1939. When the War ended and Scottish league football resumed 7 years later, in 1946-47, Arbroath’s position in the 1st division was rescinded thanks to the cynical machinations of Scottish league football. I say that because Arbroath never were relegated, but simply re-assigned to the newly re-organized 2nd division in 1946-47. This was done on the following basis…{excerpt from the Historical Kits site}… ‘ ”Division A” (the top level) now consisted of 16 rather than 20 teams. Places were allocated on the basis of crowd potential and facilities so Queen’s Park, who had been relegated in 1939, returned to the top flight while several former Division One sides [like Arbroath and like Alloa/see below] found themselves in Division “B”.’ {excerpt from historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/season/1946-1947.} After that, Arbroath played 5 more seasons of 1st division football…in 1959-60, in 1968-69, and a 3-season spell from 1972 to ’75 {source: via Wayback Machine to the pre-dumbed-down Football Mad sites, here}.

Since last season, Arbroath have seen an average attendance increase of 600 per game {see caption at top-centre of illustration below}. Arbroath are now drawing above 1-K-per-game mainly thanks to being promoted last season (when they won the 2018-19 Scottish League One by 7 points). But Arbroath’s decent form this season is also helping their turnstile-count. Their last two home matches saw crowds of 1.7 K and 1.4 K. And Arbroath recently beat 2nd-division-leaders Dundee United away (by 0-1 on the 1st of February). Arbroath will qualify for the 2nd tier play-offs if they can move up from their current 6th place, to 4th place (they are only a couple of points back from 4th). {2019-20 Scottish Championship table, here.}

Below: Gayfield Park, home of Arbroath FC since 1880…
arbroath-fc_gayfield-park_scottish-2nd-div-club_d_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – 2019-20 Arbroath jersey, photo from arbroath.footballkit.co.uk. Aerial shot of Gayfield Park [ca. 2019], photo from arbroathfc.co.uk. Interior shot of Gayfield Park [2018], photo by WB Tukker at extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com.

Alloa Athletic FC are from Alloa, Clackmannanshire. The town of Alloa has a population of around 20,000. Alloa is located on the eastern edge of the Central Belt [aka the Central Lowlands], on the north side of the River Forth, at the point where the Forth turns into an estuary, 35 miles north-west of Edinburgh (by road), and 8 miles north of Falkirk. Alloa Athletic wear Old-Gold-and-Black hoops, but in the past, including their first 17 seasons, Alloa wore Orange-and-Black hoops {see Alloa’s kit history here at the Historical Kits site}. Alloa Athletic play at the 3,100-capacity Recreation Park, a ground that opened in 1895, and which has a real non-League feel to it. In the background there loom the magnificent Ochil Hills {see photos below}.

Alloa have played just one season of 1st division football, and that was over 90 years ago, in the 1922-23 Scottish League Division One. Alloa finished in 20th that season [last place], and were relegated. 15 years later, Alloa won promotion back to the first tier, in 1939. But this was on the eve of the Second World War, and the 1939-40 season was curtailed after just five games. However, 7 years later, after World War II was over and the Scottish league football resumed, in 1946-47, the Scottish leagues were re-organized. The 1st division was shrunk from 20 clubs to 16, and top flight clubs that were deemed to have insufficient facilities or large enough crowd-sizes were sent to the 2nd division…and according to the Scottish football authorities, Alloa Athletic fell into this category. [See the middle paragraph in the Arbroath section, above, for more on this.] So the two clubs that had won promotion to the 1st division in 1939 – Cowdenbeath and Alloa Athletic – were dealt a cruel blow by being (unfairly) placed back in the 2nd division…as if their promotion in the Spring of 1939 had never happened. Alloa Athletic have never made it back to the top flight.

Before 2018-19, Alloa Athletic were drawing in the 500-to-650-per-game range as a 3rd division team. Then they won promotion via the 2nd division/3rd division Championship Play-offs finals, winning over Dumbarton (2-1 aggregate), in May 2018. And so Alloa joined the 2nd division for 2018-19. And as a 2nd tier side, Alloa increased their average crowd-size by a bit over 500 per game, to 1.1-K-per-game {see caption at top-centre in the illustration below}. Alloa are still drawing in the 1,100-per-game range, now in their second season in the Scottish Championship. But they must improve their form if they are to avoid the drop, because Alloa currently sit 9th, which is the relegation-play-off spot. {2019-20 Scottish Championship table, here.}

Below: Recreation Park, home of Alloa Athletic since 1895…
alloa-athletic-fc_recreation-park_scottish-2nd-div-club_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – 2019-20 Alloa jersey, illustration from alloa-athletic.footballkit.co.uk. Recreation Park, interior shot [2019] with Main Stand, photo by Andrew Hendo at commons.wikimedia.org. Recreation Park, (action shot) with Ochil Hills in background [2017], photo by Colin McPherson for WSC Photography at wsc.co.uk. Recreation Park, fans on the terracing [2017], photo by Shaun E. Smith at 100groundsclub.blogspot.com/2017/08/577-recreation-ground.

Airdrieonians FC are from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire. The town of Airdrie has a population of around 37,000. Airdrie is right in the middle of the populous Central Belt of Scotland. Aidrie is located, by road, 16 miles (25 km) east of Glasgow city centre. Airdrieonians FC are more commonly known simply as Airdrie. Airdrie wear All-White-with-Red. Airdrie play at the Excelsior Stadium (opened 1998), a 10,100-capacity all-seated venue. Airdrie regularly play at home in front of 9 thousand empty seats.

Airdrieonians (II) (2002) are the Phoenix-club of Airdrieonians (I) (1878-2002). The first Airdrieonians club played 60 seasons of Scottish 1st division football, winning the 1923-24 Scottish Cup, as well as finishing 4 straight times the runners-up (from 1922-23 to 1925-26). But problems developed in in the 1990s… here is an excerpt from the defunct club’s Wikipedia page… ‘Airdrie sold their Broomfield home to Safeway in 1994, but had to groundshare with Clyde at Broadwood Stadium for four years until the Excelsior Stadium was opened. It is arguably this stadium re-location and the difficulties generated by it that was Airdrie’s first step towards oblivion. The mismanagement of the entire situation by the club’s board, as well as North Lanarkshire Council’s lengthy delay in granting planning permission caused Airdrieonians financial situation to reach critical level. This was not helped by the low attendances at Excelsior Stadium following the completion of the move, which was connected to the quality of football on display due to the lack of funds available to be spent on the team.’ {excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airdrieonians_F.C._(1878)#Stadium_problems.} The club became defunct at the end of the 2001–02 season, despite the team finishing in 2nd place in the 2nd division that season, narrowly missing out on promotion to the Scottish Premier League.

A month after the original Aidrie’s demise, a new club was formed in June 2002, as Airdie United. But it was not as simple as that. The new club in Airdrie was actually the re-located 3rd division side Clydebank FC, a club that was insolvent and homeless (the town of Clydebank is just north of Glasgow and is located, by road, 24 miles west of Airdrie). Here is an excerpt from the Historical Kits site… ‘With the approval of the Scottish Football League the Clydeside club relocated to Airdrie and became Airdrie United, taking over Clydebank’s place in [the Scottish 3rd division]. Thus league football was preserved in the town [of Airdrie] but only at the expense of another club, an event without precedent in the UK.’ {excerpt from historicalkits.co.uk/[Airdrieonians (II)].} The new club in Airdrie honored the old Airdrie club’s debts. Airdrie United played 11 seasons under that moniker (with 3 promotions up to the 2nd tier, and 3 relegations back down to the 3rd tier). Then in 2013, the club was allowed to re-claim the Airdrieonians name and crest. The club has remained in the 3rd tier since then.

The 3rd division in Scotland is a place where the vast majority of clubs draw below 1,000-per-game. Last season, the only club that drew above 1-K per game in the 3rd tier were Raith Rovers. Airdrie had not averaged above 1,000 per game since the season their name was re-claimed, in 2013-14, when they drew an all-time-best (for the new club) 1,592 (despite having been relegated from the 2nd tier the previous season of 2012-13, when they drew 0.9 K). In the next 6 seasons, Airdrie averaged between 768 and 861 per game. In none of those seasons did they finish higher than 3rd or lower than 8th. So why, in 2019-20, are Airdrieonians suddenly averaging 1,061 per game? Well, they are playing better than the last two seasons (they currently sit 3rd, while finishing in 7th place in 17/18 and in 5th place in 18/19). But there is also this…one of their rivals, Falkirk, are now stuck in the 3rd tier. And on the 28th of December 2019, Airdrie hosted Falkirk at the Excelsior and drew 2,530…which is a rather large crowd for the Scottish 3rd division, where the only clubs that regularly draw above 1 K are down-on-their-luck clubs that traditionally belong at least in the 2nd division…like Falkirk and Raith Rovers. This season, the only times Airdrie have drawn over 1 K at home is when they have hosted Falkirk (who currently average 3.7 K), or Raith Rovers (who average 1.7 K), or their local rivals Clyde (who average 0.9 K). That being said, were Airdrie to win promotion this season, they most likely would draw above 1 K next season as a 2nd division side. {2019-20 Scottish League One table, here.}

Below: Excelsior Stadium, home of Airdrieonians…
airdrieonians-fc_excelsior-stadium_scottish-3rd-div-club_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – 2019-20 Airdie jersey, photo from thefootballnation.co.uk/airdrieonians-home-shirt-2019-20. Excelsior Stadium, aerial photo from excelsiorstadium.co.uk.

___
Credits:
Sources for charts:
-Attendance figures: us.soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league.
-Seasons in Scottish 1st Level, Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2012-13] (rsssf.com).
-List of Scottish football champions;
-List of Scottish Cup finals/Performance by club;
-List of Scottish League Cup finals/Performance by club;
-Population figures: Scotland;
-List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom;
-List of towns and cities in Scotland by population (en.wikipedia.org).

-Thanks to Demis.nl, for images which allowed me to stitch together the blank topographic map of Scotland {via Demis Web Map Server}.
-Thanks to maiz at File:Scotland in the UK and Europe.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Thanks to Soccerway.com for attendances, from us.soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league.
-Thanks to European-Football-Statistics site for old attendances, european-football-statistics.co.uk.
-Thanks to RSSSF.com, rsssf.com/tabless/scotalltime.html.
-Thanks to the contributors at Scottish Premiership (en.wikipedia.org).

November 17, 2018

Scotland: map of all clubs that drew above 1 K (22 clubs/2017-18 figures), with seasons in 1st Level and Scottish titles listed./+ The two clubs promoted to the Premiership for 2018-19 (St Mirren, Livingston).

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 1:03 pm

scotland_attendance-map_2018_all-clubs-drawing-above-1-k_w-seasons-in-1st-div_scottish-titles_post_e_.gif
Scotland: map of all clubs that drew above 1 K (22 clubs/2017-18 figures), with seasons in 1st division and Scottish titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 12 November 2018; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-Premiership table, fixtures, results, attendance, teams, etc…Premiership [2018-19] (soccerway.com).
-BBC/Sport, bbc.com/Scottish Football.
-BBC Radio Scotland, Off the Ball ['The most petty and ill-informed football show on radio!', hosted by Stuart Cosgrove (journalist & St Johnstone supporter) and Tam Cowan (journalist & Motherwell supporter).]

Sources for chart:
-Attendance figures: us.soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league.
-Seasons in Scottish 1st Level, Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2012-13] (rsssf.com).
-List of Scottish football champions;
-List of Scottish Cup finals/Performance by club;
-List of Scottish League Cup finals/Performance by club;
-Population figures: Scotland;
-List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom;
-List of towns and cities in Scotland by population (en.wikipedia.org).

The map shows all Scottish football clubs which drew over 1,000 per game in 2017-18.
Also listed on the map page are the following, with A through E listed in chart form at the right of the map, and F (populations) shown in a small chart on the left-side of the map…
A). Average attendance in 2017-18 (from 2017-18 domestic leagues – for 1st Level: 1st phase [16 or 17 home matches]; for 2nd and 3rd Levels: 18 home matches.)
B). Seasons spent in Scottish 1st Level (122 seasons of the Scottish top flight (1890-91 to 1938-39; 1946-47 to 2018-19). 2018-19 Level, and promotion/relegation noted.
C). Either: Consecutive seasons in the Scottish 1st level (since X season)…
D). Or, last season the club was in the Scottish 1st level.
E). Major titles, with last title listed (Scottish titles, Scottish FA Cup titles, Scottish League Cup titles, UEFA titles).
F). City and Town populations in Scotland (Metro-area and Locality populations of the 25 largest cities and towns in Scotland [2011 and 2012 figures]).

There were 22 Scottish clubs that drew above 1,000 per game in 2017-18, comprising all 12 clubs in the Premiership [1st level], 8 of the 10 clubs in the 2nd level (Scottish Championship), and 2 of the 10 clubs in the 3rd level (Scottish League One).

There were two 3rd-tier clubs which drew above 1 K last year. One was Raith Rovers, from Kirkaldy in Fife, on the north shore of the Firth of Forth (Raith are still in the 3rd division this season). The other was Ayr United, who are from the west coast of Scotland in Ayrshire. Ayr United won promotion to the Scottish Championship last season. Although it’s still rather early in the season, Ayr United could actually now win back-to-back promotions. As of 12 Nov 2018, Ayr are in first place in the 2nd division, 4 points ahead of the Highlands-based/just-relegated Ross County. Ayr United’s attendance is currently up about a thousand per game, from 1.5 K to 2.5 K. Although Ayr United have played in 35 seasons of the Scottish 1st level, they have not been in the top flight in 40 years (last in 1978-79).

If this map here had current [12 Nov 2018] attendance figures, all 22 of these clubs would still be on the map, plus one more club – Alloa Athletic, who were also promoted to the 2nd division in 2017-18. Alloa is located on the eastern edge of the Central Belt [aka the Central Lowlands], on the north side of the River Forth, at the point where the Forth turns into an estuary, 25 miles north-west of Edinburgh (by road), and 8 miles north of Falkirk. Alloa play at the 3,200-capacity Recreation Park, a ground which has a real Non-League feel to it {here’s an article about Alloa’s Recreation Park, Alloa Athletic, Recreation Park (scottishfootballgroundswordpresscom.wordpress.com)}.

    The two clubs promoted from the 2nd level to the Premiership for 2018-19: St Mirren and Livingston…

St Mirren FC.
St Mirren won the 2017-18 Scottish Championship by 8 points over Livingston. So, in 2018-19, St Mirren are playing their 98th season of Scottish top-flight football.

St Mirren are from Paisley, just west of Glasgow. (Paisley has a population of around 76,000; it is also considered part of Greater Glasgow. Paisley does not have City status, and is often called the largest town in Scotland.) Established way back in 1877, St Mirren were one of the 10 founding members of the Scottish Football League in 1890-91. (Note: only 4 of the founding clubs of Scottish top flight football are in the 2018-19 Scottish Premiership: Celtic, Rangers, Heart of Midlothian, and St Mirren.)

St Mirren have been wearing their Black-and-White vertical stripes since 1884. St Mirren have been regularly featuring red trim in their kits since the late 1980s {historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/St_Mirren}. Origin of the club’s name, ‘They are named after Saint Mirin, the founder of a church at the site of Paisley Abbey and Patron Saint of Paisley. There is also a street in Paisley named St Mirren Street.’ {-excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/St_Mirren_F.C.}.

Back in 2007, St Mirren sold its old ground, Love Street, to the Tesco retail chain, and with those proceeds, they were able to pay off their debts and then build their new ground, St Mirren Park. It is on a site about a mile west of where Love Street was, adjacent to a National Rail link. St Mirren Park opened in January 2009, with a capacity 8,023 (all seated). (The ground is also home of the Scotland U-21 team.) The stadium was built to have a capacity of around 2,700 less than Love Street. St Mirren were drawing in the 4.4 K range for a number of years, in their new home, before relegation in 2015.

From 2015 to 2018, St Mirren spent three seasons down in the Championship. St Mirren were drawing 3.5 K the first two seasons stuck in the 2nd tier, then saw crowds rebound back to 4.4 K in their promotion-run last season. Now back in the top tier, they are drawing about 1.1 K more, at 5.5 K. Thanks to not playing in a cavernous ground, St Mirren have the 5th-best percent-capacity in the Premiership right now…(Best Percent-Capacity figures in Scotland [12 Nov 2018]:
Rangers at 49 K and 97%-cap.
Celtic at 58.3 K and 96%-cap.
Hearts at 18.1 K and 90%-cap.
Hibs at 17.5 K and 86%-cap.
St Mirren at 5.5 K and 70%-cap. Source, soccerway.com.)

But St Mirren are having a tough time of it back in the Premiership, and currently sit second-to-last, in 11th place, one point above Dundee FC (with whom they drew 1-1, away, on Saturday the 11th of November). So it looks like the Saints will be facing a relegation battle this season. And the worrying thing for St Mirren fans is that their only win in the league came in their season opener versus Dundee.

st-mirren-fc_promoted-to-scottish-premiership-2018_st-mirren-park_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Coat of Arms of the Town of Paisley, from ngw.nl/heraldrywiki. 18/19 St Mirren jersey, photo unattributed at footballshirtculture.com. Shot of Paisley Town Hall and surrounding neighborhood, photo Jeremy Watson at spanglefish.com/Watsononarchitecture. Aerial shot of St Mirren Park, photo by Thomas Nugent at geograph.org.uk. St Mirren fan’s pitch invasion [14 April 2018], photo unattributed at dailyrecord.co.uk.

Livingston FC.
Counting 2018-19, Livingston have played 6 seasons of top flight football. Livingston, West Lothian is located 18 miles west of central Edinburgh, and has a population of around 56,000. Livingston wear Amber-with-Black-trim {historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/Livingston}. Livingston are a club which was formed much more recently than most clubs in Scotland’s top few divisions. Livingston FC were established in 1943, as Ferranti Amateurs, a works team of the Ferranti engineering company, initially playing in the Edinburgh FA’s Amateur Second Division.

The club changed their name to Ferranti Thistle in 1948. The club did not get into the Scottish Football League until there was an opening in 1974. This came about due both to the demise of Third Lanark 7 years earlier, and the institution of a new three-tier format of the Scottish Football League, and so a place opened up in the 3rd tier. Ferranti Thistle joined the SFL by a vote of 21–16 over Inverness Thistle. At the same time (1974), the club changed its name to Meadowbank Thistle. 14 years later, in 1987-88, Meadowbank Thistle would have won promotion to the Scottish top flight, had there not being re-organization that season (the 1st level was reduced from 12 to 10 teams). The club changed its name to Livingston FC in 1995. This was the same year that Livingston’s Almondvale Stadium, capacity 9.5 K, opened.

In May 2001, the club was into their sixth year with their present-day name of Livingston, when they finally won promotion to the top flight, by winning the [2nd level] SFL First Division. Livingston then spent 5 seasons in the top tier (2001-06). Livingston’s crowd-size peaked in their first season up in the top level, with 7.4 K in 2001-02 {source: european-football-statistics.co.uk}. Then they drew in the 5-K-range for the next 4 years. But the club’s rise had come along with overspending, which led to financial turmoil, and Livingston were plunged into administration in February 2004. Two years later, Livingston were relegated (in 2005-06), when they finished last, 15 points from safety. That was one of the worst records by a SPL club, later eclipsed only by Gretna.

It got worse: in 2008-09 Livingston finished in 7th, 8 points above the drop, but were relegated to the [4th level] SFL 3, for breaking rules on insolvency. (The club had missed a deadline to pay debts to West Lothian Council, who owned Almondvale Stadium by this time.) Some felt this was the death-knell of the club. But the opposite happened. The following year, Livingston won the SFL 4th tier title by 15 points (in 2009-10). Then Livingston won the SFL 3rd tier title by 23 points in 2010-11. Then followed 4 second-tier-seasons of mostly mid-table finishes, before winning promotion back to the top flight in 2017-18, when Livingston won the Premiership play-offs. Livingston beat Dundee United 4-3 aggregate in the semifinals, and then Livingston beat Partick Thistle 3-1 aggregate in the finals.

So now Livingston have returned to the Scottish top flight for the first time in 13 years. As of 12 Nov 2018, Livingston are in 7th place (5 W, 4 D, 3 L), and have seen their crowds swell from 1.3 K to 4.4 K, back to what they were drawing in their original spell in the top tier. That current average attendance figure was enlarged by the 9.0 K attendance they had in a nil-nil draw versus Celtic, on Sunday the 11th. That the recently-promoted Livingston were able to hold the reigning Scottish champs to a scoreless draw is a sign that the club looks capable of establishing a foothold in the Scottish Premiership.

livingston-fc_promoted-to-scottish-premiership-2018_almondvale-stadium_b_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Illustration of 18/19 Livingston jersey by historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/Livingston. Aerial shot of Almondvale Stadium by Mike Pennington at geograph.org.uk. Drone shot of Almondvale Stadium by David Laurie at youtube.com. Interior shot of Avondale Stadium, photo by Andrew Chapman at footballgroundguide.com.
___
-Thanks to Demis.nl, for images which allowed me to stitch together the blank topographic map of Scotland {via Demis Web Map Server}.
-Thanks to maiz at File:Scotland in the UK and Europe.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Thanks to Soccerway.com for attendances, from us.soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league.
-Thanks to European-Football-Statistics site for old attendances, european-football-statistics.co.uk.
-Thanks to RSSSF.com, rsssf.com/tabless/scotalltime.html.
-Thanks to the contributors at Scottish Premiership (en.wikipedia.org).

December 14, 2016

2016–17 Scottish Premiership (Scotland/1st division) location-map, with: 15/16 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed.

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 8:45 am

scotland_premiership_2016-17_map_w-crowds_seasons-in-1st-div_titles_post_f_.gif
2016–17 Scottish Premiership (Scotland/1st division) location-map, with: 15/16 attendance data, seasons-in-1st-division-by-club & major titles listed




By Bill Turianski on 14 December 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-Teams, etc…2016–17 Scottish Premiership (en.wikipedia.org).
-Fixtures, results, table, stats…Premiership [Summary] (soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league).
-Kits…Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership 2016 – 2017 [Scottish 1st division kits] (historicalkits.co.uk).


List of all-time seasons in the Scottish 1st division by club (1890-91 to 2016-17)…
I could not find any media outlet that had a list for Scotland – All-time 1st division seasons by club. That is including RSSSF and Wikipedia (well, I couldn’t find one, anyway). Although RSSSF does have a very confusing season-by-season list that only goes up to 2011-12, and regardless, that page at RSSSF does not tally the Scottish clubs’ seasons-in-the-1st-division into any form of readable list {see it here, Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2011-12]}. So I made a list myself.

First off, counting 2016-17, there have been 120 seasons of top-flight (aka 1st division) football in Scotland.
The first season of Scottish top-flight football was in 1890-91, and the first Scottish national title was won jointly by Rangers FC and Dumbarton FC. Rangers and Dumbarton were declared joint champions after both teams finished even on points and then a play-off between the two – for the title – finished in a 2–2 draw. (Note: Dumbarton is 13 miles west of central Glasgow; Dumbarton FC are currently a 2nd division side, after having won promotion last season.) Dumbarton were champions outright in the second season of organized Scottish top-flight football (in 1891-92), and Celtic FC won their first Scottish title in the third season (in 1892-93). Then came re-organization into the Scottish League First Division (1893–1975). [Note: there were 6 seasons stricken due to World War II (1939-40 through 1945-46).]

By the 1950s, the Old Firm (Celtic and Rangers) had become the entrenched mega-clubs they are today, but even so, in the early post-War period there were several instances of clubs challenging the Old Firm’s dominance. First it was Hibernian, who won 3 titles in a 5-season-stretch (in 1948, in 1951, and in 1952). Then Aberdeen won the first of their 4 titles, when they were champions in 1955. Then Hearts were champions twice in 3 years (in 1958 and in 1960). And then, two much-smaller clubs were unlikely champions in the 1960s…with Dundee FC winning their only national title in 1962, then Kilmarnock winning their only national title in 1965.

Then came another re-organization with the Scottish Football League Premier Division (1975–98). The next 17 seasons – from 1966 to 1982 – saw the Old Firm more dominant than ever, and claim every title. But then in the 1980s, for a brief time, it looked like clubs were going to finally challenge the nigh-insurmountable Old Firm duopoly. That occurred in a 6-season spell in the first half of the 1980s, with Aberdeen winning their second title in 1980, then 3 years later Dundee United won their only national title in 1983. And then that was followed by the Alex Ferguson-led Aberdeen winning the next two national titles (in 1984 and ’85). But that was the last time neither Rangers or Celtic were champions.

The next re-organization saw the creation of the Scottish Premier League (1998–2013). And then the most recent re-organization brings us to the present-day, with the institution of the Scottish Premiership in 2013-14. Rangers were relegated down 4 divisions due to financial improprieties in May 2012. Rangers regained top-flight status in 2016-17, after one season in the 4th division, one season in the 3rd division, and two seasons in the 2nd division. So the Old Firm is back, and the last time another club has been the champions of Scotland has been 31 years ago…and counting.

The chart below shows the clubs in the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish Championship (2016-17 season)…
scotland_all-time-1st-division_seasons-by-club_titles_1890-91-to-2016-17_i_.gif
Sources for chart:
-Scotland – All-Time Table (since 1890/91) [and ending at 2011-12] (rssst.com).
-List of Scottish football champions (en.wikipedia.org).
-Scottish Premiership/Clubs (en.wikipedia.org).

___
Thanks to all at…
-Blank map of Scotland, by NordNordWest at File:Scotland location map.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Blank map of Greater Glasgow [segment], by Nilfanion at File:Glasgow UK location map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Rangers’ kit badge, from photo at fruugo.us.
-Partick Thistle kit badge, from photo at teamwearscotland.com.
-St Johnstone kit badge, segment from photo at St Johnstone FC shop.
-Kilmarnock kit badge, segment from unattributed photo at footballkitnews.com/jpg

August 24, 2013

2013–14 Scottish Premiership: location-map with 2012-13 attendance data and 2013-14 home jersey badges.

Filed under: England & Scotland-Map/Crowds/Kit Badges,Scotland — admin @ 7:54 pm

2013-14_scotland_scottish-premiership_map_kit-badges_post_.gif
2013–14 Scottish Premiership: location-map with 2012-13 attendance data & 2013-14 home kit badges



Scotland – Premiership: fixtures, results, table (soccerway.com).

From 1 August 2013, ‘SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP 2013-2014 PREVIEW: Can anyone challenge Celtic?‘ (dailymail.co.uk/sport/football).

From When Saturday Comes.co.uk, from 14 August, by Alan Anderson, ‘Scotland’s dislike of England masks bigger problems
Enjoy chance to embarrass larger neighbours
‘ (wsc.co.uk).

Teams from Scotland playing in Europe for 2013-14 (with 12/13 Scottish Premier League finish noted):
Scotland’s very poor current UEFA coefficient holds at 24th {see this ‘UEFA coefficient/Current ranking‘ (en.wikipedia.org)}. And unless Celtic rallies from a 2-goal deficit (see next paragraph), that 24th-place coefficient will probably plummet further.

#1 – Celtic, of course, won the league title yet again in 12/13, and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, where Celtic defeated Cliftonville (of Northern Ireland) 5-0. In the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, Celtic then defeated Elfsborg (of Sweden) 1-0 aggregate. Then in the final qualifying round before the CL Group Stage – the CL Play-off Round – Celtic were drawn to face Shakhter Karagandy (of Kazakhstan). Because their stadium in Karaganda holds only 19,000, Shakhter opted to host Celtic in the Kazakh capital-city of Astana, at the 30,000-capacity Astana Arena. The long journey, deep into central Asia, that the Celtic squad had to take to get there, seems to have taken its toll (the distance between Glasgow, Scotland and Astana, Kazakhstan is 4782 km. or 2,970 miles). In the first leg on 20 Aug. 2013, Celtic fell 2-0 to the back-to-back Kazakhstan Premier League champions, in front of a sell-out crowd of 29,950 – see this, ‘Celtic succumb to a shock defeat by Kazakhstan’s Shakhter Karagandy‘ (PA via theguardian.com/football). There has never been a Kazakhstan-based club in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, and unless Celtic manager Neil Lennon can rally his troops, Shakhter Karagandy will become the first Kazakh side in the CL Group Stage (ie, since 92/93), as well as becoming the furthest-easternmost club to to play in the competition (Rubin Kazan of Tatarstan, Russia, who were in both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 UEFA CL Group Stages, hold that distinction, currently). Here is another article about Celtic’s CL-qualifier predicament, ‘Celtic have chance of redemption in Champions League qualifier – The board of directors have been criticised for failing to reinvest but need Neil Lennon’s current squad to deliver‘ (by Ewan Murray at theguardian.com/football/blog). [Note: Celtic did qualify for the UEFA CL Group Stage by beating Shakhter Karagandy 3-0 at Parkhead on 28 Aug.]
#2 – Motherwell finished second in 12/13 (following a 3rd place finish in 2011-12), and the Steelmen qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round. However, Motherwell fell to Kuban Krasnodar (of Russia), 0-3 aggregate.
#3 – St. Johnstone finished third in 12/13, despite having the lowest crowds in the league, and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. There, St. Johnstone defeated Rosenborg (of Norway) 2-1 aggregate. In the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, St. Johnstone faced FC Minsk (of Belarus), and lost 2-3 aggregate, in penalties, to the Belarussian side.
#7 – Hibernian finished seventh in 12/13, but they qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round by virtue of being runners-up in the 2012-13 Scottish Cup (which was won by Celtic, who had already qualified for Europe), thus Hibernian took the spot. Hibernian then lost to Malmö (of Sweden) by the appalling score of 0-9 aggregate.

The only other club in Scotland besides Celtic that won silverware in 2012-13
St Mirren FC, of Paisley, Renfrewshire (which is on the western-edge of Greater Glasgow), won the 2013 Scottish League Cup, defeating Heart of Midlothian 3-2, before 44,000 at Hampden Park. Congratulations to St Mirren.

Promoted and relegated in 2012-13…
Relegated: Dundee FC were relegated straight back to the second division in 12/13. No other club (such as St Mirren or Hearts) were really troubled by relegation worries as Dundee finished bottom, 13 points from safety. [Dundee had gained promotion back to the Scottish top tier for the 2012-13 season only because of Rangers' implosion in the Spring of 2012, and the Glasgow giants' subsequent banishment to the fourth division as Rangers (Newco).]
Promoted: Glasgow-based Partick Thistle won promotion to the Scottish top flight (see below).

Promoted to the Scottish Premiership for the 2013-14 season – Partick Thistle FC (their first appearance in the Scottish top flight in 9 seasons).
Partick Thistle are from NW Glasgow and are nicknamed the Jags. They wear red-and-yellow-jerseys (this season in a vertical-stripe pattern), the over-exuberance of that color-scheme being off-set by a rather dignified black-thistle-in-disc crest. Partick Thistle have won 0 Scottish titles, 1 Scottish FA Cup title (in 1921), and 1 Scottish League Cup title (in 1972). Their highest league finish was in 3rd place, which Partick Thistle did 3 times – in 1947-48, in 1953-54, and in 1962-63. From 1902-03 all the way to 1974-75, Partick Thistle were a top flight club. The modern era of Old Firm dominance in Scottish football in general and in Glaswegian football in particular has been really bad for Partick Thistle. Since the mid 1970s, Partick have played much more seasons outside the Scottish top flight, with their nadir being the 2 seasons they spent in the 3rd tier from 1998 to 2000. During the last, brief spell that Partick Thistle were in the top flight, which was a 2-season spell from 2002 to ’04, the club averaged 5,553 that initial season back in the SPL, and then 4,710 when they fell back to the second tier in 2004. Partick Thistle averaged 3,614 per game last season [2012-13], as they won the Scottish First Division comfortably (in the end), by 11 points over nearby rivals Greenock Morton. Back in the top tier for 2013-14, Partick Thistle have drawn 7,822 in their home opener versus Dundee United; then they drew 6,540 on a Friday night v. Hearts – which makes a 7,181 average gate so far. Partick Thistle will probably draw between 6 K to maybe 7.5 K per game, depending on how they do this season. They won’t have near the relegation worries one might normally expect, because Hearts have been docked 15 points for entering administration (plus being slapped with a transfer ban). If Partick Thistle do stay up this first year back, they stand a chance to possibly grow their fan base a bit, seeing as how the blue half of the Old Firm – Rangers (Newco) – still have 2 more seasons to get promoted back to the Scottish Premiership.
Below, Firhill, home of Partick Thistle, in the northwest of Glasgow in the Maryhill area (Maryhill is a former borough with a population of approximately 52,000)
partick-thistle_firhill-stadium_e.gif
Photo and Image credits above –
Photo of small badge from http://www.teamwearscotland.com/partick-thistle-replica-store/402-partick-thistle-open-t-shirt-.html.
Photo of fans arriving at Firhill fromptfc.co.uk/media/photo_galleries/match_galleries/2012-2013/partick_thistle_v_greenock_morton_10_04_13.
Aerial image [via satellite] from bing.com/maps (Bird’s Eye view).
Interior photo of Firhill by Robert Poole at flickr.com/photos/robertpool.
Exterior photo of Firhill by LordHorst at en.wikipedia.org, ‘File:Partick Thistle Firhill Stadium.JPG‘.
13/14 PTFC home kit illustration from ‘Partick Thistle F.C.‘ (en.wikipedia.org).

___

Thanks to E-F-S site, for Scottish attendance figures, http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Scottish Premiership (association football)‘.

Thanks to Celtic official site for the photo of the 2013-15 Celtic home kit badge, http://celticsuperstore.co.uk/stores/celtic/products/kit_selector.aspx?selector=288.

Thanks to Partick Thistle official site for photo of image of black-thistle-on-yellow-badge-segment, from video of 13/14 kit PTFC release, http://ptfc.co.uk/media/video/miscellaneous/2013-2014/new_strip_launch.

Thanks to Jag-mad site for League history info on Partick Thistle, http://www.partickthistle-mad.co.uk/league_history/partick_thistle/index.shtml .

December 15, 2012

2012-13 Scottish Premier League: location-map with 2011-12 attendance data and 2012-13 home jersey badges / With photos of the 12 clubs’ grounds / Plus top 3 scoring leaders.

2012-13_scotland_scottish-premier-league_segment_13e.gif
2012-13 Scottish Premier League: location-map with 2011-12 attendance data and 2012-13 home kit badges




This post is a continuation of my recent new category, ‘Eng-Map/Attendance/Kit Badges’, which is now called ‘England & Scotland – Map/Crowds/Kit Badges’. I decided to open up the category to include Scottish clubs because in my first post in this category, {which was on the 2012-13 Premier League here}, I mentioned Celtic and Rangers right off the bat (in the third paragraph in the above link). And I don’t have any other category which includes both English and Scottish clubs, so I thought I should have at least one.

The essence of this style of map is the depiction of facsimiles of each club’s current home jersey badges, and those badge-facsimiles can be seen at the top of the map page (with the clubs placed in alphabetical order).

From Historical Football Kits, ‘Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League 2012 – 2013 [the kits of all 12 Scottish Premier League clubs]‘ (historicalkits.co.uk).

    The top 3 scoring leaders in the 2012-13 SPL (from matches up to 15 Dec.2012) -
    Leigh Griffiths (of Hibs)
    Billy McKay (of Inverness CT)
    Michael Higdon (of Motherwell)

spl_scoring-leafers_to15-dec-2012_leigh-griffiths_michael-higdon_billy-mckay_d.gif
Photo credits above –
sportsmole.co.uk.
dailyrecord.co.uk.
Andrew Milligan/PA via guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/24 [Celtic 0-1 inverness].

The landscape of the Scottish Premier League changed drastically and overnight when Rangers FC imploded in April 2012 and Rangers Newco took their place. Rangers Newco might have taken over Rangers FC’s venue at Ibrox, and the re-constituted club might have taken over Rangers FC’s fan base. But Rangers Newco were most emphatically not allowed to take Rangers FC’s league place (no matter how hard certain elements tried). Rangers were forced to start at the foot of the Scottish football pyramid, in the 4th Level, in the Scottish Third Division, among clubs that averaged between 321 and 672 per game last season. So now Rangers Newco must work their way up the league ladder, and will not be back in the Scottish Premier League until 2015-16 at the earliest. In other words, Rangers have about a 99.9% certainty of being back in the SPL in 2015-16.

There was one immediate beneficiary of Rangers’ expulsion from the Scottish Premier League, and that of course was the extra promoted club. Dundee’s second-largest club, Dundee FC, were second place finishers in the 2011-12 Scottish First Division and were thus granted promotion to fill the spot in the league vacated by Rangers. It is Dundee’s first appearance in the top flight since 2004-05. Dundee FC and Dundee United are the two clubs in league football in Britain whose grounds are the closest together. Separated by just 100 meters (or 109 yards), Dundee’s Dens Park and Dundee United’s Tannadice Park are so close to each other they share the same road, about one city block apart.
dundee-scotland_dundee-fc_dens-park_dundee-united_tannadice_.gif
Photo credit above -
thecourier.co.uk.

Here is the Bing.com Bird’s Eye satellite view of the two grounds, zoom via contols at top right, here, ‘bing.com/maps [Dens Park & Tannadice aerial view (satellite)]‘.

But aside from temporary attendance inflation in the lower leagues from games which involve Rangers playing away, and aside from the fact that Dundee FC will probably go straight back down to the second division (thereby benefiting Ross County and anyone else near the drop-zone come May 2013), there is a good chance pretty much no other club in Scotland will really benefit from Rangers’ expulsion. Because while it is true that Rangers’ banishment to the wilderness of lower-league Scottish football leaves a window of opportunity for some of the clubs in the Scottish Premier League, unfortunately for them the days when 2 Scottish clubs could make it to the UEFA Champions League group stage are now gone (for next season, anyway) . Due to the recent poor showing by Scottish clubs in Europe, Scotland’s UEFA coefficient has been dropping at an alarming rate. It went down 8 places last year, to 26th in Europe, between Serbia and Norway, and behind countries with little history of pro success in Europe such as Israel, Belarus, and Slovakia {see this, ‘UEFA_coefficient/Current_ranking‘ (en.wikipedia.org). Granted, Celtic has had recent Champions League success – they beat Barcelona en route to squeezing past Benfica to claim 2nd place in their group and make it to the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League Round of 16. So hopefully that 26th ranking will end up being Scotland’s nadir, and now Scottish clubs will start once again being competitive in Europe, and maybe in one or 2 years’ time Scotland will have re-claimed that second Champions League qualifying spot.

So really, the best that Motherwell or Hibs or Hearts or Kilmarnock or Aberdeen or Dundee United can hope for is second place and a chance to play in the UEFA Europa League, which they would qualify for anyway if they finished in 3rd place. Having said that, I should point out one scenario that could be developing, and that is the fact that manager Terry Butcher’s Inverness Caledonian Thistle, having recently beaten Celtic at Celtic Park in a league match for the first time ever, are currently in 3rd place. And if the plucky Highlands-based club (who have only played 8 seasons in the top flight) can hold on to third place, then a Highlands-based club will be playing in Europe for the first time ever next season.

Of course, there is the slight chance that Celtic could screw up at some point in the next two-and-a-half seasons and someone other than Celtic or Rangers could finally win the Scottish title (it last happened in 1985, when Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen were champions). But don’t hold your breath. For the sake of Scottish football I really hope otherwise, but chances are Celtic will coast to 3 straight titles and Celtic manager Neil Lennon will become even more of an arrogant blowhard. Rangers Newco will get promoted for 3 straight seasons, and in 2015-16 it will be back to the boring pre-ordained two-horse race and the pointlessly sectarian status quo that is Old Firm-dominated Scottish football.

Here are the current league standings for the 4 divisions of Scottish league football.
Scottish Premier League, table, fixtures, results‘ (soccerway.com).
Scottish First Division, table, fixtures, results‘ (soccerway.com).
Scottish Second Division, table, fixtures, results‘ (soccerway.com).
Scottish Third Division, table, fixtures, results‘ (soccerway.com).

    2012-13 Scottish Premier League: the 12 clubs’ home grounds, and the cities or towns the clubs are from

Note: Clubs are arranged below in order of their league place as of 15 December 2012.

As of 15 December 2012, 1st place, Celtic FC.
Celtic FC est. 1877. Celtic Park, capacity 60,355, opened in 1892; last renovated in 1994-98. Located in Parkhead (East End of Glasgow). Glasgow city population is around 509,000 {2011 estimate}. Glasgow Urban area population is around 1.1 million {2008 figure}. Glasgow metro area population is around 2.3 million {2004 estimate}. Scotland itself has a population of around 5.2 million [2011 estimate}, so around 41% of the entire Scottish population lives in the Glasgow metropolitan area (aka the Glasgow conurbation).
Below, a night-time view of Glasgow city center on the River Clyde. Photo by Jason Hawkes, here (photo gallery at telegraph.co.uk).

    glasgow_the-clyde_at-night_aerial-photo_by-jason-hawkes_.gif
    Photo credit above -
    Jason Hawkes/Barcroft Media at telegraph.co.uk .

    Celtic FC domestic honors:
    43 Scottish titles (first in 1893; last in 2012).
    29 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1892; last in 2011).
    Celtic FC European honors: 1 European Cup title (1967).
    Celtic are currently averaging 44,821 per game (from home league matches to 15 December 2012).

    Below, Celtic Park (aka Parkhead), Parkhead, East End of Glasgow.

celtic-fc_celtic-park_parkhead_glasgow_b.gif

Photo credits above -
Aerial photo of Glasgow looking east to Parkhead, by Robert Pool’s Glasgow collection at flickr.com.
Aerial photo of Celtic Park from scotlandsplaces.gov.uk.
Exterior panoramic photo of Celtic Park by catt231 at flickr.com.
Exterior photo of Jock Stein Stand with a threatening sky above by xxx zos xxx at flickr.com
Photo of Celtic supporters and giant banners at a Celtic Park-hosted Champions League match (circa 2007-08) uploaded by Sportingwing at forum.greenwebfans.com.

As of 15 December 2012, 2nd place, Motherwell FC.
Motherwell FC were established in 1886. Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. Opened in 1895, last renovated in 1995. Capacity: 13,732. Motherwell is just 11 miles (or 18 km.) south-east of Glasgow. Motherwell is 33 miles (or 54 km.) south-west of Edinburgh.
Motherwell FC domestic honors: 1 Scottish title (in 1932). 2 Scottish Cup titles (in 1952 and in 1991).
Motherwell FC current average attendance: 5,002 (from home league matches to 15 Dec.2012).

Motherewell finished in 3rd place last season, and look like they have a solid shot at qualifying for Europe for the second straight season. Since 30 Dec. 2010, Motherwell’s manager has been ex-Bradford City manager and Rangers MF Stuart McCall, who had left Bradford in May 2010 on mutual consent and on a down note to be sure, failing to get the most-supported-4th-division club in England promoted for 3 straight seasons. But McCall has since then resurrected his standing as a manager by leading Motherwell to a solid 3rd place finish in 2011-12, and Motherwell now sit second. To be fair, McCall walked into a decent set-up, because the amber-and-claret clad Motherwell have a recent history of punching above their weight, with 3 consecutive top-half finishes and two 3rd place finishes in 5 years (since 2007-08). The Steelmen manage to do this on crowds of around just 5 to 6 thousand, and despite being hampered by the fact that they are stuck deep in the shadow of the Old Firm – Motherwell is just 11 miles (or 19 km.) southeast of Glasgow city center.
motherwell-fc-_fir-park_c.gif
Photo credits above -
Aerial photo of Motherwell uploaded by Jamie Bassnet at picasaweb.google.com, originally from trekkingbritain.com.
Aerial photo of Fir Park from scotlandsplaces.gov.uk.

As of 15 December 2012, 3rd place, Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC.
Caledonian Thistle FC were established in 1994, from a merger between Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle FC (both clubs were members of the Highland Football League). The merger came about because of a vacancy and a re-structuring in Scottish football, and in 1994 Caledonian Thistle FC were elected to the Scottish Third Division along with Highland derby rivals Ross County FC. Caledonian Thistle FC’s name was changed 2 years later in 1996 to Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC, at the request of Inverness District Council, who had contributed £900,000 to the development of the club’s ground. Inverness CT play at Caledonian Stadium, capacity 7,753. Opened in 1996, the stadium was renovated in 2004-05, when Inverness CT played in the Scottish Premier League for the first time. The club had a 5 season spell in the Scottish top flight from 2004-05 to 2008-09, were relegated in May 2009, then won promotion back at the first try in 2009-10, and now are in their 8th season of top flight football. Inverness Caley Thistle’s highest league finish was 7th place, twice, in 2005-06 and 2010-11. Inverness CT’s highest average attendance was 5,061 per game in 2005-06.
Inverness CT current average home attendance: 4,032 per game {from home league matches to 15 Dec. 2012}.

Inverness is one of Europe’s fastest-growing cities. In the 2000 to 2010 time period, it had a 14.1% increase in population, to 58,963. Since 2010, about 3,000 more people have moved to Inverness…in mid-2011, the Highland Council Area released this data, which estimates Inverness’ population at 62,093 {2011 estimate}. In the larger administrative area surrounding Inverness, there are around 74,000 people {2011 estimate}. That 74,000 in the Greater Inverness metro area is one-third of the entire population of the Highland Council Area. Highland Council Area is the largest of the 32 Council Areas in Scotland, at 11,838 square miles (or 30,659 kilometers squared) and has a very low population-density, with only around 221,000 in the whole Highlands district {2010 estimate}. [{Here is the Highland Council Area's page on en.wikipedia.org, 'Highland (council area)' (en.wikipedia.org). To give you an idea of how thin on the ground folks are up there in the Highlands, the Highland Council Area, with around 220,000 people, is a little smaller than the state of Maryland in the USA; and a little larger than the nation of Lebanon - but Maryland has around 5.8 million people {2011 estimate}; and Lebanon has around 4 million people {2008 figure}.]
inverness-caledonian-thistle_caledonian-stadium_inverness_the-highlands_scotland_h.gif
Photo credits above -
catswhiskerstours.com/inverness-scotland.
Caledonia Dreaming or Ian38018 Football Travels/ Inverness CT – Caledonian Stadium, ian38018.blogspot.com/2011/05/inverness-ct-caledonian-stadium.html.
groundhopping.de/inverness.htm.

As of 15 December 2012,4th place, Hibernian FC.
Hibernian FC est. 1875. Easter Road, capacity 20,421, opened in 1893; last renovated from 1995-2010. Located in the Leith area of Edinburgh (north of the city center).
Edinburgh is 42 miles (or 68 km.) east of Glasgow.
Situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, Leith is the port of Edinburgh, and has been, officially, since 1329. The port of Leith handles over 1.5 million metric tonnes per year. In recent years redevelopment has seen some of the seedier parts of the Leith area gussied up, but the area still retains a rough blue collar edge. Leith is about 3 miles or 5 km. north of central Edinburgh [Edinburgh is 42 miles (68 km.) east of Glasgow]. Leith’s population is no longer recorded as it was merged with Edinburgh in 1920 (despite local residents back then voting overwhelmingly against the consolidation). Edinburgh city population is around 495,000 {2011 estimate}, making it the second largest city in Scotland. Edinburgh’s metro area population is around 783,000 {2007 estimate}.
Hibernian FC domestic honors: 4 Scottish titles (first in 1903; last in 1952). 2 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1882; last in 1902).
Hibernian are currently averaging 10,455 per game (from home league matches to 15 December 2012).
hibernian-fc_easter-road_leith-edinburgh_h.gif
Photo credits above -
Photo of Easter Road in Leith taken from Arthur’s Seat [the plateaued hill of solid rock in Edinburgh] by TorryBattery at flickr.com.
Black & white photo of Easter Road in the 1950s uploaded by Fraser P at flickr.com
Cira 1980s photo of theEast Stand also uploade by Jmorrison230582 at en.wikipedia.org.
Circa 2005 aerial photo of Easter Road by Dave_Barlow at flickriver.com.
New aerial photo of Easter Road from scotlandsplaces.gov.uk.

As of 15 December 2012, 5th place, St. Johnstone FC.
St. Johnstone FC est. 1875. McDiarmid Park, capacity 10,673, opened in 1989. Located in Perth, Perth & Kinross and situated on the River Tay. Perth is 48 miles (77 km.) north-east of Glasgow. Perth is about 38 miles by road (or about 62km. by road) north-west of Edinburgh. Perth city population is around 44,000 {2008 estimate}.
St. Johnstone are currently averaging 3,922 per game (from home league matches to 15 December 2012).
St. Johnstone FC’s name is a reference to the old way of referring to the town of Perth. From the official St. Johnstone site (perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk), here is an excerpt from the club’s ‘History‘…{excerpt}…’St Johnstone Football Club derives its name from Saint John’s Toun (town) which was the ancient name for the City of Perth and was founded by a group of young men from the cricket team of the same name who were looking for a winter pastime.’…{end of excerpt}.

The name Perth comes from the Pictish word for a wooded area or copse. There has been settlement in Perth since prehistoric times, starting on a raised mound on the River Tay that could be forded at low tides. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived there can be dated back to 8,000 years ago. Neolithic standing stones in the area can be dated back to 6,000 years ago. Perth was home to the Stone of Destiny, also called the Stone of Scone, which was, around 900 years ago, situated in Scone Abbey, and was where the King of Scots was crowned. The Stone of Destiny was captured by Edward I of England in 1296, as spoils of war, and was taken back to Westminster Abbey where it is situated to this day. The Stone of Destiny had given the town early importance, and even after the English stole the Stone away, Perth retained regal status – Perth was often referred to as the capital of Scotland in medieval times because of the frequent residence of the royal court there. William the Lion (Scottish king from 1165 to 1214) gave the town Royal Burgh status in the 12th century. The town became one of the richest burghs in the country, doing trade with France, the Low Countries and with the Germanic, Scandinavian, and Baltic ports of the Hanseatic League. Circa 1559-60, the town had a vital role in the Scottish Reformation, with a sermon given by John Knox at St. John’s Kirk in Perth contributing to the social unrest that culminated with Scotland’s break with the Vatican and with Scotland’s escape from being a vassal-state of France. Owing to it’s central location, Perth became a key transport center with the coming of the railways in the mid-19th century. Industries the town had then included linen production, leathermaking, and whiskey distilling. Today, some of the town’s largest employers after the Perth & Kinross Council (which employs 6,000) include the UK’s largest renewable-energy producer SSE and the insurance multi-national Aviva.
st-johnstone-fc_mcdiarmid-park_perth-scotland_f.gif
Photo credits –
Photo of Perth on the River Tay by Boston Runner at flickr.com.
Aerial photo of north-west outskirts of Perth including McDiarmid Park by Vic Sharp at flickr.com.
Photo of The Main (West) Stand. at McDiarmid Park by Bas at myfootballtravels.com/2009/12/mcdiarmid-park-st-johnstone-v-st-mirren.

As of 15 December 2012, 6th place, Dundee United FC.
Dundee United FC est. 1903. Tannadice Stadium, capacity 14,209, opened in 1883; last renovated from 1992-97. Dundee is in the eastern central Scottish Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay (the Firth of Tay is a sea bay that feeds into the North Sea). Dundee is around 46 miles by road (or around 76 km. by road) north of Edinburgh. Dundee City population is around 152,000 {2008 estimate}, making it the fourth largest city in Scotland.
Dundee United FC domestic honors: 1 Scottish title (in 1983). 2 Scottish Cup titles (in 1994 and in 2010).
Dundee United are currently averaging 7,970 per game (from home league matches to 15 December 2012).
dundee-united_tannadice_dundee-scotland_e.gif
Photo credits above -
Val Vannet at geograph.org.uk.
tcbuzz at flickr.com.
heartsfc.co.uk.

7th place, Aberdeen FC.
Aberdeen FC est. 1903. Pittodrie Stadium, capacity 22,199, opened in 1899; last renovated in 1992-93. Located in Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, on the north east coast of Scotland on the North Sea, around 110 miles by road (or around 175 km. by road) north-east of Edinburgh. Aberdeen is around 145 miles (or around 235 km.) north-east of Glasgow. Aberdeen city population is around 220,000 {2011 estimate}, making it the third largest city in Scotland.
Aberdeen FC domestic honors: 4 Scottish titles (first in 1950; last in 1985). 7 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1947; last in 1990).
Aberdeen FC European honors: 1 European Cup Winners Cup title (1983).
Aberdeen are currently averaging 10,948 per game (from home league matches to 15 December 2012).

Aberdeen is located on the north-east coast of Scotland on the North Sea. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the late 20th century has largely fueled the economic boom of the city. Aberdeen is Scotland’s 3rd most populous city, and the United Kingdom’s 29th most populous city, with an official population estimate of 220,420 {2011 figure}.
aberdeen-fc_aberdeen-scotland_the-granite-city_pittodrie_n.gif
Photo credits above – visitscotland.com.
Ian Thomson at goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/aberdeen-looks-to-new-stadium-to-reignite-old-firm-challenge/.
Exterior photo of Pittodrie by Godfather of Science at flickriver.com [scro;; nine-tenths of the way down the page for this photo].
Aerial photo from cbre.co.uk.

As of 15 December 2012, 8th place, Kilmarnock FC.
Kilmarnock FC were established in 1869, and are the oldest Scottish football club. Kilmarnock play at Rugby Park, which was opened in 1899, and was last renovated in 1994-95. Capacity: 18,128. Kilmarnock is 20 miles (or 32 km.) south-west of Glasgow. Kilmarnock is 57 miles (or 92 km.) west-south-west of Edinburgh.
Kilmarnock FC domestic honors: 1 Scottish title (in 1965). 2 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1920; last in 1997).
Kilmarnock FC current average attendance: 5,077 (from home league matches to 15 Dec. 2012).
Kilmarnock had the worst percent-capacity figure in the Scottish Premier League in 2011-12, drawing 5,537 per game in their 18,128-capacity stadium which resulted in an embarrassing 30.5 percent-capacity. A 30 percent-capacity figure is the sort of percent-capacity figure you find with medium-sized down-on-their-luck third or fourth division clubs in England (such as, currently, Notts County, Coventry City, Port Vale, and Plymouth Argyle). But those are medium sized clubs that are stuck in the lower leagues. A 30 percent-capacity is not the sort of figure you should be finding at a first division club that has played in the top flight for over 8 decades, like Kilmarnock (2012-13 is the 85th season that Kilmarnock have been in the first division). Back in the late 1940s and up to the mid-1950s, Kilmarnock had pretty decent drawing power and drew as high as 15,5044 per game (in 1954-55). But historically, many British clubs’ highest-ever average attendance figures come from the 1946-57 to mid-1950s post-War surge in football attendance. And you can see the general downward trend after that, because when they won their only Scottish First Division title in 1964-65, Kilmarnock’s average attendance was 5,000 per game less – just 10,476. So seventeen years ago, the people within the club who made the decision to put Kilmarnock’s current capacity at 18,000 should have noted this. Namely, that their highest-drawing days were in the past and that even winning the Scottish title couldn’t push the club’s drawing-capacity above 10,000 per game. Kilmarnock have only drawn higher than that once since that title winning season of 64/64 – in 1998-99 when they drew 10,981 per game and finished in 4th place. And since then you can see an example of the most recent downward trend in Scottish top-flight attendance because when Kilmarnock had their most-recent top-half-of-the-table finish, in 5th place in 2010-11, they only drew 6,427 per game. Twelve seasons go by and there was a drop off of 3,500 per game for comparable league finishes. The absolute best Kilmarnock have ever done in their rebuilt stadium (since 1995-96) is to play to a 60.5%-capacity, in that 1998-99 season when they averaged just under 11K per game. But most seasons they have played to considerably less than 9,000 per game and well below just a 50 percent-capacity. Kilmarnock last averaged above 7,000 per game in 2006-07, when they finished in 5th place and drew 7,567 per game (for a 41.7 percent-capacity). Since then, attendances have steadily dwindled to the 5,000 to 6,000 range. So these days, unless they are playing Celtic or Rangers, Kilmarnock regularly play to around 4 or 5 thousand supporters and to around 13,000 or 14,000 empty seats. That’s pretty bleak. And it’s a drain on resources because it costs lots of money to provide upkeep on stadiums that end up being mostly empty most of the time.True, Kilmarnock can count on big crowds when the nearby Old Firm clubs visit, and Kilmarnock drew 15,926 when Celtic visited in April 2012; and they drew 16,173 when Rangers visited in April 2011 (however, they only drew 6,501 for their match versus Celtic on Saturday 8 Dec. 2012). So by building an 18,000-seat stadium that plays to less than 30 percent-capacity for around 75% of their home matches, the club has been sacrificing a good home atmosphere all these years just to squeeze some more ticket revenue from the few Old Firm matches they end up hosting (especially in seasons when they don’t finish in the top half before the season-split, and thus get stuck hosting poor-drawing minnows all spring). Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park is simply too large in it’s present configuration and it has probably caused the club to under-perform for many years now. What kind of energy and home support can be generated within a ground that is regularly 75% empty? And who wants to play first division football for a club that usually has 13,000 empty seats and one-third of that number of actual fans in attendance? The low-percent-capacity issue in Scotland among the smaller top flight clubs is a real issue. St. Mirren has already addressed this issue by reducing the capacity of their recently-built new ground by around 2,700. Their old ground, Love Street, had a 10,800-capacity in it’s last configuration. Their new ground, St. Mirren Stadium, which opened in 2009, has a capacity of 8,023. So now St. Mirren usually plays to above 50 to 65 percent-capacity as opposed the 25 to 40 percent-capacity they were often playing to a decade ago. And meanwhile, St. Johnstone are seriously considering a redevelopment of McDiarmid Park that would see a reduction in capacity. Here is an excerpt from the St. Johnstone FC page at en.wikipedia.org (en.wikipedia.org/St._Johnstone_F.C./The_new_millennium)…
{excerpt}… ‘In 2011, plans to demolish the 2,000 capacity North Stand were publicised. This would allow Perth and Kinross Council to build a commuter link road from the neighbouring A9 road into Perth. St. Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown justified the proposal on the grounds that comparable clubs, such as Inverness and St. Mirren, have since built grounds with smaller capacities.’…{end of excerpt}.

kilmarnock-fc_rugby-park_d.gif
Photo credits above –
poity_uk at flickriver.com.
soccerway.com.
scotlandsplaces.gov.uk.

As of 15 December 2012, 9th place, Heart of Midlothian FC.
Heart of Midlothian FC est. 1874. Tynecastle Stadium, capacity 17,420, opened in 1886; last renovated from 1994-97. Located in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh (south-west of the city center).
Heart of Midlothian FC domestic honors: 4 Scottish title (first in 1895; last in 1960). 8 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1891; last in 2012).
Hearts’ current average attendance: 13,184 per game.
Hearts’ current percent-capacity is highest in Scottish Premier League at 76% (figures from home league matches to 15 Dec.2012).

Hearts are the last club to split the Old Firm in the league table, when they finished second to Rangers’ third place in 2005-06, but the team fizzled in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers the next August (falling to AEK Athens 1-5 aggregate in the 2006 UEFA CL 3rd QR).

Hearts’ crest is based on a 16th century paving-stone mosaic in Edinburgh which is by Parliament House and was next to two now-demolished buildings – the old Tollhouse and the old Edinburgh prison. You can see a photo of the Heart of Midlothian stone mosaic in the illustration further below, and the link in the next sentence gives more information on the Heart of Midlothian stone mosaic.
Heart of Midlothian (Royal Mile)‘ (en.wikipedia.org).

Hearts have the third largest support in Scotland – they usually draw between 13 and 15 thousand, and in recent seasons have drawn as high as 16,937 per game (in 2006-07). They also fill their ground pretty well – usually in the 70 to 80 percent-capacity range. Granted, their Tynecastle Stadium is a bit small (17,420 capacity). The club intends to expand but sadly for the preservationists, that plan has them eventually demolishing their oldest and smallest stand, the now-improbably-named Main Stand, which was completed in 1919 and was designed by legendary Scottish football stadium architect Archibald Leitch {‘Archibald Leitch‘ (en.wikipedia.org)}.

Tynecastle once had a capacity of around 50,000. It’s record crowd was 52,000 for a Scottish Cup tie versus Rangers in 1932. Hearts’ peak crowds came in the early 1950s, when they could average in the 28,000-per-game-range, but when Hearts last won Scottish titles in 1956-57 and then again three years later in 1959-60, their crowds had already started diminishing to the 23K to 24K range. In 1954, Tynecastle became Scotland’s first all-concrete stadium. There has been plans, all of them eventually shelved, for Hearts to move to another location within Edinburgh for about 80 years now. The first plan was to move to the then-recently-completed Murrayfield (which is a few km. west of Tynecastle) circa the mid-1930s. Then there was the plan circa 1990 to move to the south-east part of Edinburgh and build a 30,000-capacity stadium as part of a supermarket development deal. And then circa 2004 there was a desperation-plan that would have seen Hearts sell Tynecastle and rent Murrayfield, to stave off bankruptcy. As you can imagine that latter plan was very unpopular with Hearts supporters, but the sad fact of the matter is that in avoiding that plan, the door was opened for the current regime to take over Hears and now thanks to that regime Hearts are staring at the abyss.

Hearts are in financial turmoil and have been petty much ever since Russian/Lithuanian ‘businessman’ Vladimir Romanov took over the club in 2005 and sold the Hearts’ faithful a bill of goods. This guy is sort of like Chelsea robber baron oligarch owner Roman Abramovich, in that their main hobbies are answering to no one, meddling with the squad, and firing capable managers. But the difference is that Abramovich is discrete and actually is a billionaire (no matter how ill-gotten his gains were via proxy-theft of Russian oil workers’ stock options in the early 1990s – see this ‘He won, Russia lost‘ (guardian.co.uk from 2004). Romanov has a ‘fortune’ built on a financial house of cards and is a snake oil salesman of a banker who is now trying to get Hearts’ supporters to cough up dough to save the club from liquidation. I really hope that Hearts can get through this. The last thing Scottish football needs right now is another well-supported club pulling a Rangers and being forced to start over at the bottom of the league ladder.

From Left Back In The Changing Room, from 10 Nov.2012, ‘Save Our Hearts‘.

heart-of-midlothian_stone-mosaic_tynecastle_gorgie-edinburgh_i.gif
Photo credits above –
Photo of Heart of Midlothian stone mosaic byD168629K at flickr.com.
Wide aerial photo of Gorgie area incl. Tynecastle uploaded by footballforums.net/forums/thread.
Screenshot of satellite view of Tynecastle from bing.com/maps.

As of 15 December 2012, 10th place, Ross County FC / 6 points above last place (ie, relegation).
Ross County FC est. 1929. Victoria Park (aka the Global Energy Stadium for sponsorship reasons), capacity 6,300 (all-seated), opened in 1929; last renovated in 2012. Located in Dingwall, Highlands Council District. Dingwall town population is around 5,500 {2011 estimate}.

Ross County FC had it’s Scottish first division debut in July 2012. The club met SPL ground standards by making the stadium an all-seater. No new capacity was created, however. Victoria Park’s capacity remains 6,300, which is about 800 more than the entire population of the town of Dingwall (!). Attendance has increased by about 1,400 per game to a current average of 4,341 per game (that is a decent 69 percent-capacity). The Jail End (seen below, in the lower photo in the center), was turned from a terraced stand to a seated stand. Also, a new, roofed North Stand was built (see smaller photo below at right), under-soil heating was installed, and parking capacity was increased. Dingwall is 15 miles (or 25 km.) west-north-west of Inverness. The 2012-13 SPL features the first-ever top-fllght-versions of the Highland derby.

ross-county_dingwall-the-highland-scotland_victoria-park_upgrdes_e.gif
Photo credits above –
Màrtainn at flickr.com.
‘Ross County revamp Victoria Park’, bbc.co.uk.
SNS via bbc.co.uk.

As of 15 December 2012, 11th place, St. Mirren FC / 5 points above last place (ie, relegation).
St. Mirren FC est. 1877. St Mirren Park (aka Greenhill Road), capacity 8,106 (all-seated), opened in 2009. Located in Paisley, Renfrewshire Council area. Paisley is 7 miles (or 11 km.) west of Glasgow city center, and is part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Paisley’s population is around 80,000 {2012 estimate}.
St. Mirren FC domestic honors: 3 Scottish Cup titles (first in 1926; last in 1987).
St. Mirren FC current average attendance: 4,501 per game (from home league matches to 15 Dec.2012}.

In 2007, St. Mirren sold it’s old ground, Love Street, to the Tesco retail chain and with those proceeds they were able to pay off their debts and build their new ground on a site about .6 km west, adjacent to a National Rail link. St. Mirren Park opened in January 2009. Capacity 8,023 (all seated). The stadium was built to have a capacity of around 2,700 less than Love Street. Since then, St. Mirren have consistently played to average crowds of around 4,400 to 4,600, at around a 54 to 58 percent-capacity. St. Mirren’s 58 percent-capacity in 2011-12 was 4th best in the SPL.

Here is a nice little article about the St Mirren FC crest through the years…from stmirren.info (‘The original and best historical database of St. Mirren F.C.’), ‘St Mirren Crest‘ (stmirren.info).

st-mirren_fc_paisley-renfrewshire-scottland_st-mirren-park_e.gif
Photo credits above –
saintmirren.net.
bing.com/maps.

12th place, Dundee FC.
Dundee FC est. 1893. Dens Park, capacity 12,085, opened in 1899; last renovated in 1999. Dundee is in the eastern central Scottish Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay (the Firth of Tay is a sea bay that feeds into the North Sea)., 120 miles (193 km.) north-east of Glasgow. Dundee City population is around 152,000 {2011 estimate}, making it the fourth largest city in Scotland.
Dundee FC domestic honord: 1 Scttish title (in 1962). 1 Scottish Cup title (in 1910).
Dundee FC current average attendance: 6,342 (from home league matches to 15 Dec.2012}.
dundee-fc_dens-park_dundee-city-council-area_.gif
Photo credit above -
worldstadia.com/stadium.

___

Thanks to David at www.St.Mirren.info, for information on St. Mirren, http://www.stmirren.info/id46.html.

Thanks to Historical Football Kits site for the photo of the 2012-13 125th anniversary Celtic home jersey badge, http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/Celtic/Celtic.htm.

Thanks to Footballfashion.org for colors of home jerseys such as footballfashion.org/hibernian-201213-home-kit; footballfashion.org/inverness-caledonian-thistle-fc-201213-home-kit.

Thanks to Footballkitnews.com for colors of home jerseys such as footballkitnews.com/kilmarnock-2012-2013-home-and-away-strips.

Thanks to Ross County official site for image of the slightly re-tooled Ross County FC crest (it has a different font now, and the blue parts of the shield are a much darker navy blue, Rosscountyfootballclub.co.uk. Store.rosscountyfootballclub.co.uk/category/8-replica-home-kit.aspx.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 Scottish Premier League‘.

Thanks to soccernet.espn.go.com for Scottish attendance figures from 2011-12, http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance/_/league/sco.1/year/2011/scottish-premier-league?cc=5901. Thanks to soccerway.com for Scottish stadium capacities and for current Scottish attendance figures from 2012-13. Thanks to E-F-S site for historical Scottish attendance figures, http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.

Thanks to these 2 sites for mileage and kilometer distances between locations…
City Distance Tool at http://www.geobytes.com/CityDistanceTool.htm?loadpage [I used this site to obtain 'as-the-crow-flies' distances].
UK Distance Calculator at http://distancecalculator.globefeed.com/uk_distance_calculator.asp [I used this site for road-travel distances - that is, for obtaining a distance when there is water between points A and B)].

December 1, 2010

Scotland, 2010-11 Scottish Premier League – Stadia map.

Filed under: Football Stadia,Scotland — admin @ 10:01 am

scotland_2010-11_stadia-map_post_c.gif
Scotland, 2010-11




Scottish council areas are listed for each club’s home city or town. Scottish Council areas map, here. ‘List of towns and cities in Scotland by population‘ (en.wikipedia.org). This next map shows populations densities in Scotland, here. You can see the heavy concentration of population in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Central Belt that connects the two cities. 8 of the 12 clubs in the 2010-11 Scottish Premier League are from this belt, and around 20 of the 24 highest-drawing clubs in Scotland are in the belt {see my map from last season, here, which shows all clubs (24) that drew over 1,000 per game in 2008-09)

Attendances on the map page are for home league matches, 2009-10 season. Attendance was down at 9 of the 12 clubs last season, with only then-promoted St. Johnstone seeing a significant upswing (from 3,516 to 4,717 per game). Kilmarnock saw a modest +4.6% gate increase (of 245 per game), to 5,972, but that’s still well below their past-decade high of 9,422 per game in 1999-2000. This season {2010-11 attendances at E-F-S site, here}, Celtic is currently seeing around a 4,400 per game turnstile increase, to 49,000 or so per game, but still far below their modern era high of 59,353 per game, in 2000-01. All through the decade of the 2000s, Celtic was outdrawing Rangers, often by a 10,000 per game margin. But in the latter half of the 1990s, Rangers were drawing around 49,000 to Celtic’s 48,000. So last season was the first time since the late 1990s that Rangers outdrew Celtic. The basic reason is Rangers’ 2 straight Scottish titles, and Celtic’s two consecutive seasons without a major title. Hibernian has an exciting and improving squad (but are faltering this season, in the bottom half of the table), and have a new stand (the East Stand), and gates have increased. Hibs are pulling in around 13,000 per game this season, which is around 1,200 higher than their 2009-10 gate figures. Inverness Caley Thistle, promoted back this season, for their sixth season in the Scottish top flight, have seen crowds at 5,000, and that is equal to their best (which was 5,061 per game in their second season in the first tier and their first full season in their renovated stadium). Their Caledonian Stadium is right on the shore of the Moray Firth, and seats just over 7,000. Inverness are one of four clubs in the Scottish Premier League with a ground smaller than 10,000 capacity, and one of 8 clubs in the league with a ground smaller than 20,000. And when you factor in the giant capacities of Celtic Park (cap. 60,832) and Ibrox (cap. 51,082), and the crowds that the two Old Firm clubs pull in, you can see why the Scottish Premier League is one of the most lopsided and competitively unbalanced football leagues in the world. In the 1980s, there was hope that Dundee United (1983 title) and Aberdeen could break the monopoly of the Old Firm (until Alex Ferguson left Aberdeen to manage Manchester United, after he had led Aberdeen to a European Cup Winners’ Cup title in 1983, then back-to-back Scottish titles in 1984 and 1985); and in the early 2000s, Hearts looked like they could muscle in (until their owner went nuts, doing things like firing George Burley after he had Hearts start the 2005-06 season with 8 straight wins). These days no one talks of who could have even a ghost of a chance to wrest the title from Rangers or Celtic. It’s been 25 seasons straight that the title has been in the hands of the Old Firm, and the fact that Rangers or Celtic will win the title is a done deal from the get-go. And crowds are way down compared to a decade ago. Last season, the Scottish Premier League averaged, as a whole, 13,920 per game. In 1999-2000, the Scottish Premier League averaged 17,901 per game. That’s a drop-off of 3,981 per game.
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Thanks to Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, (set at Inverness Caley Thistle’s Caledonian Stadium, here).

Thanks to Perthshire Picture Agency, www.ppapix.co.uk, for St. Johstone/McDiarmid Park photo, here.

Thanks to Hibs fan Disco Dave Barlow for the Hearts/Tynecastle aerial photo, here.
Disco Dave Barlow’s photostream at Flickr.com, here.

Thanks to MJM Architect, for the St. Mirren/St. Mirren Park photo, here.

Thanks to www.Glasgow2014.com, for this stunning, giant photo of Celtic Park [it might take a little while to download], here.

Thanks to Football-Pictures.net, for the photo of Rangers’ Ibrox, here.

The next photo came from a site I couldn’t access (I did a screen shot of the Google Image search page for ‘fir park stadium motherwell’), 24th image, here.

Thanks to RSSSF.com, for all-time table in Scotland, here.

Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance figures, here.

Thanks to Demis.nl, for the base map. Demis Web Map Server.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, 2010-11 Scottish Premier League.

October 21, 2009

Scotland: 2008-09 attendance map (all clubs drawing over 1,000 per game- 24 clubs).

Filed under: Scotland — admin @ 6:29 am

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This is the 113th season of professional football in Scotland.  Reigning champions are Rangers. 

This map shows all football clubs in Scotland that drew over 1,000 per game last season (2008-09 domestic leagues).  The map ends up including all clubs in the top two tiers,  which are the Scottish Premier League (12 clubs);  and the Scottish First Division (10 clubs),  plus 2 clubs who were relegated…Clyde FC,  who are now in the Scottish Second Division (which is the 3rd Level),  and Livingston FC,  who are now in the lowest rung on the pro ladder,  the Scottish Third Division (the 4th Level).   [Note:  Airdrie United were also initially relegated to the 3rd Level,  but were re-installed,  because of the vacancy left by Livingston FC,  who ended up being relegated two leagues down to the Scottish Third Division for financial reasons.]

Currently in the Scottish Premier League,  after 8 matches,  the Old Firm is where they usually are,  in first and second place,  with Rangers one point ahead of Celtic.  There is talk again about Celtic and Rangers leaving the Scottish Premier League.  In one scenario the two Old Firm clubs would be part of a proposed Atlantic League,  featuring clubs from Holland,  Belgium,  Denmark,  and Sweden.  {see this article,  ‘Walter Smith stresses need for Old Firm to join European league’,  by Ewan Murray,  from 15th October, 2009 Guardian.co.uk}.   The question is,  would a move by Rangers and Celtic out of the Scottish Premier League be a “natural progression”,  as Smith says in the article,  or would it be a case of the big shots forsaking their roots,  and leaving the Scottish game to wither?  


Rangers are in the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League Group Stage,  Group G,  but do not look like a team capable of advancing.  They just made a hash of their home match versus Unirea Urziceni,  losing 4-1.  Two own goals were part of three goals conceded in 15 minutes to the Romamian minnows {see this (ESPN Soccernet)}.   Celtic are in the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League Group Stage,  Group C.  The club got off to a poor start in this competition,  losing away to Hapoel Tel Aviv (of Israel) in September.  Celtic will host Hamburg on Thursday, 22nd October.

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In the Scottish First Division,  the northern-most club on this map is currently in first place…Ross County FC,  who hail from the Scottish Highlands town of Dingwall, Ross and Cromarty.  [Note: there is one club in the Scottish Football League that is located futher north than Ross County,  that is 4th Level club Elgin City FC,  who are located about 15km. further north than Dingwall.] 

Dingwall’s population is around 5,000 (2001 census).  Ross County drew 2,164 per game last season to their ground,  Victoria Park,  which is not bad at all,  considering the town’s small size.  If Ross County does buck the odds and win their first ever promotion to the Scottish top flight,  the club has vowed to expand Victoria Park to meet SPL capacity requirements,  which calls for 6,000 seated…Victoria Park currently only has capacity for 3,500 seated {see this,  from the BBC site (24 September, 2009)}.  Last weekend the Staggies returned to the top of the table with a win away v. Airdrie  {see this,  from the Jailender,  a Ross County FC fansite}}.

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Ross County were elected to the Scottish Football League for the 1994-95 season,  along with local rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC.  Inverness were just relegated from the Scottish Premier League after the 2008-09 season,  but maybe there will be Scottish Highlands representation in the top flight again next season,  if Ross County can keep up their good form.  They are playing with a thin squad,  though,  with only 16 senior and 3 junior players on board.  

Scottish groundhopping blog Fitba Daft’s page on Ross County FC’s Victoria Park {click here}.

Ross County FC official site,  set at club history page {here}.

Scottish Football League site (ie,  2nd through 4th Levels)… http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/ .

Scottish Premier League site {click here}.

Thanks to the E-F-S site,  for the attendance figures {click here}.   Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org {click here (set at 2008-09 in Scottish football).   Thanks to www.demis.nl ,  for the base map.

Thanks to Scotavia Images {click here}.   Thanks to Geograph.org.uk {click here}.   Thanks to the Jailender,  the unofficial Ross County FC fansite {click here}. 

September 3, 2009

Super League XIV; Guinness Premiership 2009-10 and the Magners League 2009-10, with maps of each league, and attendance map of all 36 teams in top flight UK/Irish rugby.

Filed under: Ireland,Rugby,Rugby>England,Scotland,Wales — admin @ 6:25 am

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The first map shows all 36 teams in the three top rugby leagues of Great Britain and Ireland.  The maps for Super League XIV,  Guinness Premiership 2009-10,  and Magners League 2009-10 are further down in the post.  

Two of the three leagues shown on the map use the older Rugby Union code.  Super League uses the newer Rugby League rules

The Rugby Union code dates back to 1870 {see this}. The Rugby League code has its roots in the Great Schism, and the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895 {see this: ‘The Great Schism’ (from RugbyFootballHistory.com)};  {see this: ‘History of rugby league’, from en.wikipedia.org}.}.   

In the late nineteenth century, the working class status of the majority of rugby players in the north of England necessitated an establishment of payment for the players (as well as compensation for injuries). The origins of many of the rugby players in the south of England were middle class and upper class, and many learned the game at the Public Schools (which were then and still are essentially private schools for the privileged). So there was less a need for player payment. The Rugby League / Rugby Union split can traced to this Victorian era class divide…in the north, poor working-class men playing the game, in the south, Public School graduates with little pressing need for salary augmentation, playing the game under the principles of amateurism. 

In 1892, charges of professionalism were made against rugby clubs in Yorkshire, specifically in Leeds and Bradford. By 1893, widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players began. In late August, 1895, in a meeting in Manchester, nine Lancashire clubs declared their support for their Yorkshire colleagues. Two days later, 29th August, 1895, representatives of 22 clubs met in Huddersfield, Yorkshire to form the Northern Rugby Football League. Included in these 22 clubs were 7 clubs that are currently in Super League XIV…Huddersfield, Hull FC, Leeds, St Helens, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington, and Wigan.

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Rugby Union is more plodding, and utilizes scrums to restart the run of play {see this, ‘Playing rugby union’}.  Rugby League is faster and more wide-open {see this: ‘Rugby League’}. But Rugby League is the dominant game in just two areas of the world…in a swath of north-central England, and in Australia. 

Rugby League Code: Super League…

rugby-league_region-of-north-central-england.gif

Click on the following title for Super League XIV map:  rugby_super-league-xiv___.gif

The parts of northern England where Rugby League is the dominant code are in a band which stretches from Merseyside, through Cheshire, Greater Manchester, and east across the Pennine Chain to West Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire, centered on Hull. 11 of the 14 current teams in Super League are from this Rugby League-intensive swath of England. In this swath there is 1 team from Merseyside, just east of Liverpool (St Helens); [Editors note ca. 2014: now 2 teams currently from Cheshire incl. the re-instated Widnes Vikings] 1 team from Cheshire (Warrington Wolves); 2 teams from Greater Manchester (Wigan Warriors and Salford City); 5 teams from West Yorkshire (Huddersfield Giants, Bradford Bulls, Leeds Rhinos, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and Castleford Tigers); and 2 teams from Kingston upon Hull (Hull FC, and Hull Kingston Rovers).

There is one other team in Super League from England: Harlequins RL, who are based in west London. Although it had separate origins, since 2005 Harlequins RL has been a branch of the Rugby Union/ Guinness Premiership team Harlequins FC. Harlequins field a team in both rugby codes (as do Super League team Leeds Rhinos, with their Rugby Union team being Leeds Carnegie). 

The other two teams in Super League XIV are the Celtic Crusaders of Bridgend, south Wales, who joined Super League in 2008; and Catalans Dragons, of Perpignon, France (in the Catalonian area of southern France), who joined in 2006. [Note: Celtic Crusaders are now defunct, having been wound up in Sept. 2011.]. Super League was formed with the intention of being Europe’s top league in the Rugby League code, but having one team outside of Great Britain is as far as the league has got in that direction. The French team was originally Paris Saint-Germain RL , but thar poorly supported club went under in 1997.

In 2005, Super League replaced promotion/relegation with Licensing {see this}. There is a brief description of Super League Licenses on the map, in the sidebar.  Super League features a February to September playing season, unlike the traditional late summer/ fall/ winter/ early spring rugby season. 

The highest drawing teams in Super League are Leeds Rhinos, who averaged 15,113 per game in 2008;  Hull FC (14,390 per game);  Wigan Warriors (14,149 per game); and St Helens (12,796 per game). As a whole, Super League XIII averaged 9,082 per game. Here is the list of attendances that I used {click here (FootballGroundGuide.com Message Board thread, posted by frequent contributor Stadiumitis?)}

Super League has a large play-off format, with 8 teams qualifying each season . This system has been in place since 1998 {see this}, and culminates each season in the Grand Final.

Only four teams have won Grand Final Titles…St Helens 4 times; Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls 3 times; and Wigan Warriors once, in the first final in 1998.   Leeds Rhinos were 2008 champions.

For the full list of Rugby League Champions (1895-’96 to 2008), {click here}.

http://www.superleague.co.uk/

For the 2009 Super League table {click here}.

For new expanded Super League play-off structure {click here (Sky Sports broadcast report from March, 2009}.

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Rugby Union Code: Guinness Premiership…

Click on the following title for Guinness Premierhip 2009-10 map: rugby_guinness-premiership2009-10_1.gif

 The Guinness Premiership is strictly an English affair.  Its roots are in the English Rugby Football Union’s decision in the early 1970′s to finally sanction a knock-out cup (which is now known as the Anglo-Welsh Cup {see this}. The pro game in England had been held back by the organizers fear that ‘dirty play’ would ensue if leagues were organized within English Rugby Union. By the mid-1980′s , national merit tables came into being (this being the first time Rugby Union teams’ success was quantifiably measured). In 1987, the Courage Leagues were formed. This was a pyramid system involving 108 leagues and over 1,000 teams. In 1994, Sky Sports started broadcasting games. In 1996, professional status began with the debut of the Rugby Union Premiership. In 2002-03, the champion was now determined by the Playoffs winner, instead of first place in the final league table. That season the title went to London Wasps, while Bath was winner of the now-secondary league table. Those two teams, London Wasps and Bath Rugby, both have won 6 Premiership Titles, they are second only to Leicester Tigers  who boast of 8 Premiership titles. Leicester also draws very well,  averaging around 17,000 per game. The only other teams with titles are Newcastle Falcons and Sale Sharks, both with 1 championship season. Incidentally, Sale Sharks are the lone Rugby Union team in the Rugby League region of north-central England. Gloucester has won the league table 3 times. Reigning champions are Leicester Tigers.

The Guinness Premiership has relegation and promotion, with last place being sent down to the Guinness Championship (formerly National Division One). It is the only one of these 3 leagues that has promotion/relegation in the strict sense. Leeds Carnegie have been promoted for the 2009-10 Guinness Premiership,  upplanting the relegated Bristol Rugby. 

The Guinness Premiership draws the highest crowds of the 3 leagues, averaging 10,876 per game in the 2008-’09 season. Highest drawing teams in 2008-09 were Leicester Tigers (17,210 per game); Gloucester (14,215 per game); Northampton Saints (13,250 per game); Harlequins RFC (11,774 per game); and London Irish, of Reading (11,384 per game). Five teams drew between 9,100 and 10,600 per game…Bath Rugby; Worcester Warriors;  Saracens,of Watford; London Wasps, of Wycombe;  and Sale Sharks, of Stockport, Greater Manchester. 

Guinness Premiership 2009-2010 season starts 4th September,  fixtures {click here (Official site)}

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Rugby Union Code: Magners League…

Click on the following title for Magners League map: rugby_magners-league09-10.gif

The Magners League is the top flight rugby league of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Its roots are in the old Welsh Premier Division. In 1999, Scottish teams joined, and in 2001, Irish and Northern Irish teams joined,  inaugurating the Celtic League. After a shake-up in early 2003, involving the demise of some of the Welsh teams, it was decided that the Celtic League would become the sole professional league in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland. [The Welsh Premier Division is now a developmental league, see this.]. In 2006, for sponsorship reasons, the Celtic League became known officially as the Magners League. 

Munster and Leinster have won the title twice; Ospreys, Llanelli, and Ulster have one title each. Munster Rugby are reigning champions. Munster also drew highest of all teams, not just in the Magners League, but versus teams from the other two leagues as well. Munster plays in two locations: in Cork, and in Limerick. They averaged 17,401 per game in 08/09. Leinster also drew well, second highest in the Magners League and fifth best overall, at 14,728. The next highest drawing Magners League team last season was Ulster, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who drew 9,085 per game. Next in order came the four Welsh teams… Cardiff Blues (8,673 per game); Ospreys, of Swansea (8,405 per game); Scarlets, of Llanelli (7,293); and Newport Gwent Dragons (6,089). The 2 Scottish teams only drew in the 4,000-range; and the lowest drawing club of all was Connacht, of Galway, Ireland,  ho drew only 1,989 per game, lower than 10 teams in lower-division leagues. There is a Magners League sidebar at the lower left of the map.

Magners League 2009-2010 season starts 4th September,  fixtures {click here}.

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Lower Leagues

The highest drawing non-top-flight team in 08/9 was Exeter Chiefs, of National Division 1 (that league will be called the Guinness Championship in September 2009). Exeter drew 4,599 per game in 08/09, higher than 2 Super League and 2 Magners League teams. Next highest, at 4,006 per game, was Widnes Vikings, of Cheshire, a team in the second tier of Rugby League, which is called the Co-Operative Championship {see this map of the teams in the Co-operative Championship…again,  ote the concentration of teams in the Rugby League-oriented north of England} [note: Widnes Vikings joined Super League in 2012.].

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Thanks to Football Grounds Guide Message Board, and contributor ‘Stadiumitis?’  {click here}.   Football Grounds Guide home {click here}.  

Thanks to James at The Rugby Blog {click here}, for input and information.

Thanks to Steven Bond at Plover.net {‘Rugby League vs. Rugby Union’, click here}.  

Thanks to Suite101 site, and this thread {click here: ‘Rugby Union versus Rugby League’,  by Stuart Duncan}.  
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at Wikimedia  {click here for Super League XIV page;  click here for Guinness Premiership pageclick here for Magners League page}.

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