Scotland: map of all clubs that drew above 1 K (22 clubs/2017-18 figures), with seasons in 1st division and Scottish titles listed
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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)}.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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-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).
