Eng-2nd Level/Champ’ship « billsportsmaps.com

July 24, 2013

England, 2nd division: Football League Championship – 2013-14 Location-map, with attendance data & 2013-14 home kit badges.

Filed under: 2013-14 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,England & Scotland-Map/Crowds/Kit Badges — admin @ 10:29 pm

League Championship – 2013-14 Location-map, with attendance data & 2013-14 kit badges
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Note: to see my latest map-&-post of the English 2nd division, click on the following, category: Eng-2nd Level/Champ’ship.
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Football League Championship – Fixtures, Results, Table (soccerway.com).

From bbc.co.uk, from 19 June 2013, ‘Championship fixtures 2013-14: QPR start against Sheff Wed‘ (bbc.co.uk/sport/football).

From bbc.co.uk, from 31 July 2013, by Phil Maiden, ‘Championship 2013-14 season: Club-by-club guide‘ (bbc.co.uk/sport/football

From Historical Football Kits site, ‘Sky Bet Championship 2013 – 2014 [Kits of all 24 Championship clubs in the 2013-14 season]‘ (historicalkits.co.uk).

From The Two Unfortunates, from 24 July 2013, by Lanterne Rouge, ‘TTU GO PREDICTING: A CLUB-BY-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW‘ (thetwounfortunates.com).

From Guardian.com/football, from 27 July 2013, by Sachin Nakrani, ‘Twenty things to look out for in the Football League this season
How will Brighton fare without Gus Poyet, can Yeovil’s incredible rise go on and can Gianfranco Zola stir up the Hornets again?‘. (guardian.co.uk/football).

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League Championship – 2013-14 Location-map, with attendance data & 2013-14 home kit badges.

Facsimiles of each clubs’ home jersey badges for the 2013-14 season are shown, in alphabetical order, across the the top of the map page. Below that, at the lower left, is a location-map of the clubs in the 2013-14 League Championship. Included on the map, this time, I have listed which historic county or metropolitan-area each club comes from. At the lower right of the map page is attendance data from the 2 previous seasons. Last season, of these 24 clubs which comprise the 13/14 Championship, Brighton & Hove Albion drew best at 26,236 per game (and with an impressive 85 percent-capacity at their excellent new two-year-old venue, the Amex at Falmer).

Meanwhile, the lowest-drawing club that is in the 2013-14 Championship is, of course, second-tier-debutantes Yeovil Town, of Yeovil, Someset (population of around 52,000 {2002 figure}). Yeovil Town drew 4,071 per game last season in League One. 72 other clubs in the Premier League or the Football League (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th divisions) or the Conference (the 5th Level) drew higher than Yeovil Town drew last season {note: you can see each club’s 12/13 attendance-rank at the center of the attendance-data-chart on the map page]. Yeovil Town, nicknamed the Glovers, tried for years and years to get elected to the Football League back when you couldn’t play your way in (pre-1986-87). They found other ways to get their foot in, by turning into a Cup-specialist club (once beating Sunderland in the 4th Round of the FA Cup [in 1949]). 11 seasons ago, in 2002-03, Yeovil Town finally got into the League, winning the Conference National, led by a young Gary Johnson during his first spell (2001-05) as Yeovil’s manager. Then when Gary Johnson got them promoted to the 3rd tier, in 2004-05, folks were saying this little club from the West Country were punching above their weight. Now, a season after Johnson’s return and another promotion, the Glovers are REALLY punching above their weight. One usually does not see such a small club in the English second division…certainly not in the last 25 years. We haven’t seen such a small club from such a small town as Yeovil in the 2nd tier since current-4th-division-side Scunthorpe United were relegated from the Championship in 2011 (and Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire is a bit bigger – it has a population about 20,000 larger than Yeovil, at around 72,000 {2010 figure}). Before that, Crew Alexandra of Crewe, Cheshire were in the second division from 2003-04 to 2005-06 (Crew has a population of around 65,000 {2011 figure}). Before that, Bury FC of Bury, Greater Manchester were in the second division for a 2-year-spell from 1997 to ’99 (Bury has a borough population of around 60,000 {2001 figure}). Before that, Shrewsbury Town, of Shrewsbury, Shropshire were in the second division for a couple of spells, last in 1988-89 (Shrewsbury has a population of around 70,000 {2011 figure}. Before that, Carlisle United, of Carlisle, Cumbria were in the second division for a 4-season-spell from 1982 to ’86 (Carlisle has a population of around 71,000 {2001 figure}. So that is going back 30 years, and all these towns just listed above are all bigger than Yeovil. You have to go all the way back to 1982-83 (31 years ago) to find a second division club from a city smaller than Yeovil – and that is Wrexham, North Wales, home of the current-Non-League-side Wrexham FC (Wrexham, Wales has a population of around 42,000 {2001 figure}).
[sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_League_Championship ;
http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Second_Division_Tables_1946-47_to_1991-92.html; http://www.footymad.net.]

For Yeovil Town FC and their supporters this season, there will be good times in store at the 9,565-capacity Huish Park, there in south Somerset… even if the green-and-white hooped Glovers, led-by ex-Latvia and ex-Bristol City gaffer Gary Johnson, go straight back down (please don’t).

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As to the kit badge facsimiles I have assembled, one club – Bolton Wanderers – have a new design for their official crest and their kit badge. It is actually a re-working of an older design, with those silly streaming red-and-blue ribbons now gone, and a more traditional horizontal-red-ribbon-with-red-rose-of-Lancashire device added, see this, ‘The Rose returns: Bolton Wanderers’ brand new badge is real‘ (lionofviennasuite.com [SB Nation]). Another club, the just-promoted AFC Bournemouth, have re-vamped their official crest {see it here at their Wikipedias page, but have kept the old one on their 13/14 kits. With the Cherries’ new crest, gone is the ribbon-banner that contained the club’s name, and gone are the red/white vertical-stripes. With the new crest, the shield is larger and contains the club’s name, which is now at the top of the shield and in a modern gold sans-serif font; also there are now some red/black vertical-stripes (to reflect the home jersey-style of recent years). Bournemouth’s main crest element – the player’s-head-with-stylized-motion-streaked-hair-who-is-heading-a-ball – remains, but now the red in the crest is darker and very slightly more raspberry-reddish – to reflect the shade of red that the Dorset-based club has been wearing the past few years {see this, http://www.afcb.co.uk/news/article/2013-06-01-cherries-launch-championship-kits-851694.aspx}.

Not counting background color or colors, this season, the League Championship has 9 clubs which sport home kit badges that are different from their official crest – here they are…
-Barnsley: a dark-red-bordered shield device frames the distinctive crest of the Tykes of South Yorkshire.
-Blackpool: the usual color-reverse for the text elements on the outer-rim of the Seasiders’ crest.
-Derby County: like last year, the Rams sport just the minimalist-ram-in-profile, shown larger and without the framing disc or the text elements. With black collars on their traditional whites, its a great look.
-Huddersfield Town: as with the last couple of seasons, the Terriers of West Yorkshire have a shield framing their crest, plus a three-star device at the top (the stars are for the cub’s 1923, 1924, and 1925 English titles); this year the shield has a dark blue border and the stars are gold (last season both were black).
-Ipswich Town: like last year, the Tractor Boys of Suffolk, East Anglia have a white three-star device at the top of their work-horse-in-crenellated-shield crest (the stars are for the cub’s 1962 English title, their 1978 FA Cup title, and their 1981 UEFA Cup title).
-Millwall: celebrating 20 years at their Bermondsey, South London home of the New Den, the Lions have a disc encircling their rampant-lion-crest, with the words [in all-caps] ‘Twenty Years At The New Den – 1993 -2013′; plus the home jersey features a nice double-thick-pinstripe effect in white-on-navy-blue.
-Nottingham Forest: as the club did last year, atop their singular modernist-tree-on-river crest [which is a color reverse of their official crest], there are 2 white stars for Forest’s two European titles (won in 1979 & 1980 when the legendary Brian Clough was their manager).
-Watford: here is the club’s announcement on their new kits: ‘Watford’s new kits for 2013/14 will feature stylish monochrome club crests – although the official club crest will remain absolutely unchanged’. So, this season, for the Hornets of Hertfordshire, in their home kit there is no red trim (besides sponsor logo), and in the club’s head-of-Hart-of-Hertfordshire-in-a-polygon crest their home kit badge has no red – only black-and-yellow. Why? Maybe their Italian owners think the stag on their crest looks more stylish this way.
-Wigan Athletic: this is the second straight year Wigan have featured a gold-disc-outline on their Wigan-Tree-in-crown badge. The disc-outline of the Latics’ official crest is in their ‘electric blue’ color; but actually, Wigan are sporting a darker shade of light royal blue this season, and have a thinner-vertical-stripe-pattern on their nice-looking home jersey {see this from (laticsshop.net) – old school style, harking back to Wigan’s late ’70s/early ’80s-first-years-in-the-Football-League era.

The just-relegated Wigan Athletic, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, have now become the only club in the history of association football to have won the FA Cup title and to have been relegated in the same season. Manager Roberto Martinez has moved on to a bigger club nearby (Everton), and ex-St. Johnstone, ex-Burnley, and ex-Bolton manager Owen Coyle is at the helm. Maybe another new arrival, burly-but-deft-touch-striker Grant Holt, will power Wigan right back to the Premier League so they can reclaim their 4-out-of-8-seasons’-status as the lowest-drawing top-flight club (QPR were the lowest-drawing club in the Premier League last season and in 2011-12, while in 2005-6 it was Portsmouth, and in 2010-11 it was Blackpool).

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From en.wikipedia.org, ‘2013–14 Football League Championship‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
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Thanks to Football League site for 2012-13 attendance figures, football-league.co.uk//DivisionalAttendance. Thanks to European-Football-Statistics.co.uk, for the 2012-13 attendance figures of the 3 relegated teams (QPR, Reading, Wigan), european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.

Thanks to Derby County online store for the photo segment of the 2013-14 home kit, dcfcmegastore.co.uk/item/mens-replicakit-homekit_1314-home-shirt.

Thanks to garibaldired for uploading a photo of the 2013-14 Nottingham Forest home kit at forestforum.co.uk/thread [image later scrapped, see comment #1 & 2 below]. / Thanks to nottinghamforestdirect.com for the Nottingham Forest 13/14 home kit badge photo, http://nottinghamforestdirect.com/stores/forest/products/kit_selector.aspx?selectorid=302&CMP=KNC-Google2&portal=nottppc&cur=USD..

Thanks to bogdan at lufctalk.com/forums for uploading a photo of the Leeds United kit badge at lufctalk.com/forums/index.php?topic=5589.

Thanks to FootyHeadlines.com for this gallery of the new Middlesbrough kits, http://www.footyheadlines.com/2013/05/middlesbrough-13-14-2013-14-home-and.html.
Thanks to FootyHeadlines.com for the photo of the Millwall 2013-14 badge, http://www.footyheadlines.com/2013/06/millwall-13-14-2013-14-home-and-away.html

Thanks to QPR shop, http://www.shop.qpr.co.uk/gb/item/adult-pre-match-jacket-102508.

Thanks to Footballkitnews.com, for photo of Watford 2013-14 kit badge, http://www.footballkitnews.com/9112/new-watford-kit-2013-2014-puma-watford-fc-home-shirt-13-14-138-com-sponsor/.

Thanks to htafcmegastore.com at htafc.com for 2013-14 Huddersfield Town kit badge.

Comments (3)

September 13, 2012

England: League Championship – 2012-13 Location-map, with attendance data, and 2012-13 home kit badges.

Filed under: 2012-13 English football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,England & Scotland-Map/Crowds/Kit Badges — admin @ 7:09 am

2012-13 League Championship – Location-map, w/ attendance data
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From Historical Football Kits site, ‘Npower Championship 2012 – 2013 [Kits of all 24 Championship clubs in the 2012-13 season]‘.

Facsimilies of each clubs’ home jersey badges (2012-13) are shown at the top of the map. I assembled them using photos as reference – photos obtained either from each club’s website, or at footballfashion.org/wordpress or at footballkitnews.com/Championship kits. Using my drawing program I sampled the colors of the jerseys to make the background rectangles that the crests (at the top of the page) are sitting in.

First off, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the biggest news this season in Football League Championship kits – the PR disaster that is Cardiff City’s switch from blue to red home jerseys. Here are 2 articles on the subject…
From buzzfeed.com, from 25 August 2012, by Mark Hudson, ‘The Biggest Insult Owners Can Inflict Upon Their Team’s Fans‘.
From mindofmaus.wordpress.com, from 7 June 2012, ‘Cardiff City Jersey Debacle: A Taste of the Future Far Beyond Football‘.

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On the top of the map page are facsimile images of the 24 home jersey badges of the clubs in the current iteration of the English second division – the 2012-13 Football League Championship. The crests are displayed in alphabetical order from left to right. In case you are wondering why Bristol City’s crest is sitting in a charcoal-black-colored rectangle instead of a red one, well, the Robins are sporting home jerseys this season that have a black band that covers the top third of the jersey. The same thing is the case with Hull City (same Adidas template). Burnley has a pale blue horizontal band at the level of the badge, so that explains why there is not a claret-colored rectangle there. Derby County’s kit badge has gone back to the classic angry-ram-in-profile-done-in-minimalist–thick-line-style, with no inscription or surrounding disc or ribbon flourish, just the ram, and it looks pretty sharp (the ram looks pretty cool on the away kit, too – it is in white on the black jersey, {see it here (footballfashion.org)}. Speaking of Derby, a couple of images at the top of the map page are actually photos (that I then drew on, or did a bit of cut and paste on, to make the image sharper)…the Derby County 2012-13 home jersey badge is from footballfashion.org/wordpress/derby-county-home-kit/, and the Nottingham Forest 2012-13 home jersey badge is from nottinghamforestdirect.com. The only place I could find an image of the Barnsley 125th anniversaey crest (sorry it’s a bit fuzzy) was at historicalkits.co.uk/Barnsley/, so thanks to historicalkits.co.uk. With Ipswich Town’s jersey badge, this photo by KrisLissimore at flickr.com was very useful. You can see all the clubs’ kits at the link at the top of this post, or at the following link, at Historical Football Kits’ 2012-13 League Championship page.

Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance data and stadium capacities, http://www.soccerway.com/national/england/championship/20122013/regular-season/.

Comments (2)

August 5, 2011

English Football League Championship – attendance map and data for clubs in the 2011-12 League Championship season.

Filed under: 2011-12 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship — admin @ 7:18 pm

League Championship attendance map
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‘2011-12 Football League Championship‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
England – Championship, Resuits, Fixtures, Table (Soccerway.com).
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From Guardian.co.uk/Football League Blog, ‘Championship 2011-12 season preview: the bloggers’ view‘.
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On the map page, the map shows the locations of the clubs in the 2011-12 Football League Championship, which is the 2nd Level of English football. Flanking the map are the club crests of the 24 clubs in this season’s League Championship. The crests are sized to reflect the clubs’ 2010-11 average attendance (from home league matches). The larger the club’s average attendance, the larger the crest. On the left of the map page is a chart showing attendance data including 2010-11 average attendance, 2009-10 average attendance, percent-change from 09/10, stadium capacity, and percent-capacity. Each club’s movement (if any) in the past two seasons (up or down via promotion or relegation) is also shown on the chart.

Percent-capacity can be found on the chart in the column furthest to the right.
[Percent Capacity is arrived at this way...Average Attendance divided by Stadium Capacity equals Percent-Capacity.]

Below are the 10 clubs in the 2011-12 League Championship season that had a 70-percent-capacity or higher last season -

94.8%-capacity – West Ham United. Last spell in the second division lasted 2 seasons, from 2003 to 2005. The Hammers drew 31,167 per game in 03/04 in the second tier, then 27,403 per game in 04/05 when they got promoted out of the 2nd Level. That shows you that it is crucial for West Ham to get back to the Premier League this season, or see a 20 percent or so drop-off in fan support…not the best scenario if West Ham fails in their promotion-bid this season, then start playing in the White Elephant-with-running-track in 2012-13, with a dwindling fan support. What atmosphere will 27,000 generate in the 60,000 London Olympic Stadium ?
94.1%-capacity – Blackpool. Promoted in 2010 and relegated back to the Championship last season. Their now-fully renovated, 16,750-capacity Bloomfield Road was close to being completely full most of the time last season. Blackpool averaged 15,775 per game. It remains to be seen if the club can draw near that figure now that they are back in the second tier, and now that a large part of the starting squad from last year’s almost-fairy-tale season is gone. Ian Holloway has added striker Kevin Phillips to the team.
86.5%-capacity – Cardiff City. Played their first full season in the City of Cardiff Stadium (capacity 26,828), and being near the top of the table certainly contributed to their high attendance (23,194 per game). Now the squad has sputtered out at the end in two straight seasons, and new manager Malky Mackay has his work cut out for him.
84.8%-capacity – Birmingham City. A +0.9 percent increase from 2009-10 in average attendance (25,462 per game) as the West Midlands side began with the momentum of 09/10 [when they finished in 9th place in the Premier League]. En route to winning their second-only ‘major’ title by beating Arsenal 2-1 in the League Cup final in February, their form started dipping, and the Blues ended up on the wrong side of the log-jam at the bottom of the table. Maybe they would have avoided the drop if they shed their defensive shell once in a while. On the bright side, their new manager is Chris Hughton.
83.3%-capacity – Hull City AFC. It looks like Hull City has managed to maintain a considerable portion of their fan base after their 2-season stint in the Premier League, which ended in May 2010. Even though average attendance dropped minus-13.2% back in the Championship last year, the Tigers are still getting over 21,000 per game. This is how far the East Riding of Yorkshire club has come in a decade…10 seasons ago (2000-01), Hull City were a fourth division club drawing 6,684 per game. Now, after finally getting to the top flight, Hull are a mid-table second division club that gets over 20K a game.
83.1%-capacity – Brighton & Hove Albion. Gus Poyet has energized the squad and the 6 to 7 thousand Seagulls supporters who put up with the football purgatory that was the Withdean Stadium. And now their new stadium has energized the sleeping-giant fan base, and it looks like there will be close to sell-outs most every fortnight at Amex Stadium (capacity 22,500 for league matches). If they can avoid going straight back down, this south coast club will probably start drawing in the 18 to 20,000 range year-in, year-out. The club has made a couple good transfers: prolific striker Craig Mackail-Smith was bought from Peterborough for a club-record 2.5 million pounds; and MF Will Buckley was bought from Watford for 1 m. pounds {see this article from The Two Unfortunates from June 2011, by Lloyd, ‘The Monday Profile: Will Buckley‘.
77.5%-capacity – Derby County. Despite the decent percent-capacity number, average attendance (26,023 per game) was down over 3,000 per game from 2009-10, after another lackluster year for the Rams, who finished in 19th place. Derby supporters have got to be wondering about the ambition of the American ownership group.
76.1%-capacity – Nottingham Forest. Even though the club was in the promotion race all season, average attendance was still down minus-2.3 percent, to 23,275 per game. Maybe Forest fans could sense the impending post-season collapse, where, just like the season before, they looked bereft of ideas. The club’s new manager is Steve McClaren.
75.9%-capacity – Portsmouth. With a thread-bare squad after their near-financial meltdown, manager Steve Cotteril found a way to keep Pompey out of the relegation battle, with a 16th place finish, and the club drew 15,707 per game at the 20,700-capacity Fratton Park. Things like signing Luke Varney (for 1 m. pounds) are good signs from management.
73.1%-capacity – Reading. Their solid academy produces the talent to keep the Berkshire club living within their means and staying near the top of the table. It feels like one of these seasons, Reading will find a way to get back to the Premier League. They just fell short of promotion last season, losing 4-2 to Swansea City in an extremely entertaining play-off final at Wembley in May. Reading’s !7,682 per game average attendance at the 24,200-capacity Madejski Stadium was a 1.6 percent increase.

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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011–12 Football League Championship‘.
Thanks to European-Football-Statistics site, for attendance figures.
Thanks to FootballGroundGuide.com, for stadium capacities.

Comments (3)

May 12, 2011

League Championship, 2010-11 season: the 2 automatically-promoted clubs, and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Football Stadia — admin @ 7:00 am

2010-11 Football League Championship, Top of the Table

2011 Football League Championship Play-off Final – at Wembley Stadium in London, on Monday 30 May, Swansea City v. Reading, 3pm GMT/10am ET.
From Guardian.co.uk, on Wed. 18 May 2011, by Smon Burnton,’Reading possess the crucial ingredient for play-off final – form…Brendan Rodgers’ Swansea have enjoyed the double over Reading this season but the best stat belongs to his rivals‘.

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Other 2011 English football promoted club(s)/play-off clubs maps …
6th Level/2011 Conference North – map posted Thursday, 28 April, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. – {click for post on Conference North}.
6th Level/2011 Conference South – map posted Sunday, 30 April, at 12noon GMT/7am ET. – { click for post on Conference South }.
5th Level/2011 Conference National – map posted Tuesday, 3 May, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. -{ click for post on Conference National }.
4th Level/2011 Football League Two – map posted Saturday, 7 May, at 7pm GMT/2pm ET. – { click for post on Football League Two }.
3rd Level/2011 Football League One – map posted Monday, 8 May, at 12midnight GMT/7pm ET. – ( a click for post on Football League One }.
2nd Level/2011 Football League Championship – map posted Thursday, 10 May, at 12noon GMT/7am ET.

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From Guardian.co.uk/football, from Press Association on Saturday, 7 May, ‘
QPR crowned champions and promoted after escaping points deduction
• FA punish QPR with £875,000 fine
• London club escape points deduction‘.

From Guardian.co.uk/football, from 3 May 2011, by Barney Ronay, ‘Paul Lambert one step ahead as he steers Norwich to Premier League‘.

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Final 2010-11 Football League Championship table (Soccerway.com).

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Top Scorers -Leading scorers in 2010-11 Football League Championship -

Photo credits – Danny Graham photo from London Evening standard site (thisislondon.co.uk), ‘here‘. Shane Long photo from GetReading.co.uk. Grant Holt photo from Football365.com, here. Lucciano Becchio photo by PA via DailyMail.co.uk, here. Scott Sinclair photo by John Walton/EMPICS Sport/guardian.co.uk, here. Max Gradel photo from uk.eurosport.yahoo.com, here. Adel Taarabt photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Europe/zimbio.com, here. Jay Bothroyd photo by Action Images from telegraph.co.uk, here [from article 'The 10 best footballers in the Coca Cola Championship in pictures'].
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Photo credits on map page -
QPR/Loftus Road…Exterior photo of Loftus Road from FussballInLondon.de, here. Interior photo by ynysforgan_jack at Flickr.com, here. Interior photo of main stand from AwayGrounds.com, here. Aerial image of Loftus Road from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Norwich City/Carrow Road…Mskau at Panoramio.com, here. AwayGrounds.com/Championship Grounds. ColonelBlinker.blogspot.com.

Swansea City AFC/Liberty Stadium…Exterior photo of Liberty Stadium from 100 Football Grounds Club, http://100groundsclub.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-matchday-242-liberty-stadium.html. Tims92, ‘Swansea City – Liberty Stadium‘. InterestingPhoto.com. Aeral image of liberty stadium from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Cardiff City/Cardiff City Stadium…Interior photo with crowd by Phil Tucker at Flickr.com, Phil Tucker’s photostream @ flickr.com. Interior photo of empty stadium from Cardiff Blues.com, Cardiff Blues and Cardiff City FC sign stadium contract. Exterior photo from Cardiff City FC.co.uk, Cardiff City Stadium. Aerial photo from Colorcoat-online, Cardiff City Stadium, project summary/gallery.

Reading/Madejski Stadium… Exterior photo by LeamDavid at Fickr.com, here. East Stand photo by Shaun at 100GroundsClub.blogspot.com, ‘My Matcday – 150 Madejski Stadium‘, via Picasaweb.google.com, here. North Stand photo [from final home match in promotion season of 2005-06] by Jason Platt at Panoramio.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye S\satellite view, here.

Nottingham Forest/City Ground… Aerial photo of Notts County and Nottingham Forest grounds from BBC/Nottingham, Aerial photographs of Nottingham. Photo of irregular-shaped roof of Main Stand from Inderendent Yeovil Town fansite Ciderspace.co.uk, Ciderspace-the independant Yeovil Town FC website. Photo of City Ground exterior from across the Trent River by NffcChris at en.wikipedia.org, City Ground by NffcChris. Aerial image of City ground from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.

Thanks to Historical Football kits for the kit illustrations, http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Football League Championship‘.
Thanks to FootballGroundGuide.com, for stadium capacities.
Thanks to Soccerway.com, for attendance figures.

Comments (5)

December 20, 2010

England: Football League Championship, 2010-11 – Stadia map.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Engl. Promotion Candidates,Football Stadia — admin @ 3:05 pm

Please note: to see my most recent map-and-post of the English 2nd division, click on the following: category: Eng-2nd level/Championship.
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League Championship Stadia map

Football League Championship table, here (Soccerway.com).
The map page, as is usual with this category of map, shows an aerial or exterior shot of each club’s stadium. Included in each club’s profile box are club info…the year the club was established, location, name of their football ground and it’s capacity, major domestic titles, and seasons spent at this level. ['This level', in this case of course means the 2nd Level of English Football.] At the far right on the map page are the clubs’ locations on the map, and below that are 2009-10 attendance figures (average attendance of home league matches). Also listed is percent change in attendance from 2008-09.
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Queens Park Rangers have held the lead since late August, but have now lost two straight matches. They were QPR’s first two defeats of the season, and came a week ago against mid-table Watford, and last weekend, versus Leeds United. There were 29,426 at Elland Road Saturday to see Leeds beat QPR 2-0 (on a brace by 23-year old Ivorian MF Max Gradel), which is a darn good turnout for United, especially when one considers the horrible weather that had descended upon Britain that day. Leeds are now unbeaten in 9 league matches (6 wins and 3 draws), their last defeat was at home versus Cardiff City. Few would have thought Leeds would be in such a good position come Christmas, after that 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Bluebirds in mid-October. The following article explains what has happened since (basically manager Simon Grayson has got the midfielders and forwards to better support the defenders)…from The Guardian.co.uk/Football League blog, 20 December, 2010, by Richard Rae, ‘Great expectations as Leeds begin to see good times‘.

Clubs have played from 20 to 22 matches at this point in the season. QPR leads with 41 points (and a league-best +22 goal difference) and have a game in hand on second-place Leeds, who are at 38 points. Third are Cardiff City (also with a game in hand) at 37 points/+13 goal difference. The Bluebird’s fellow Welsh club and hated rivals Swansea City sit fourth at 37 points/+9 goal difference. Rounding out the playoff spots are the Canaries of Norwich City in 5th place, at 36 points; and the Sky Blues of Coventry City, who sit sixth and who are at 34 points. Coventry City are perhaps the biggest surprise of the top 6. Coventry are managed by Aidy Boothroyd, who got the job after his strong performance managing League One’s Colchester United to 5th place last season. His reputation was as a purveyor of ugly Route 1 football…hoof it up and smash and grab a goal. That’s how he got Watford into the Premier League 6 seasons ago. This reputation seems to be changing a bit, as he has Coventry City playing a more flowing game.

Back to Leeds United. The squad is playing with assurance under Simon Grayson, and features 3 players that look to have bright futures: Argentinian FW Luciano Becchio, hometown talent MF Jonny Howson, and Glasgow-born (but strangely overlooked as a Scotland international) MF/FW Robert Snodgrass. I think Leeds are going up. If you asked me a week ago, I must confess that my one lock for promotion would be Neil Warnock’s QPR, but that midweek, 3-nil home loss to Watford puts the Hoops in a less flattering light. The criticism about QPR is that if their mercurial wunderkind Adel Taarabt is not ‘on’, the team is not nearly the threat as when the Moroccan midfielder is on all cylinders. At any rate, QPR are a lot easier for the neutral observer to pull for, now that the egregious Flavio Briatore is gone from the QPR ownership ranks. Do you think it’s any coincidence that the now-three-years-on-’richest club in the world’-QPR finally got it’s on-field act together only once that imperious, bimbo groping, micro managing, blue-tinted-sunglasses-wearing, Formula 1 race-fixing sack of lard was forced to step down as chairman and drop his share in the club? There were ten managerial changes in less than 2 1/2 years at Loftus Road when Briatore was running the show.
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Here are current average attendances…note: click on ‘Attendance’ which is above the league table, on the far right click here {Soccerway.com}. Cardiff City are the one club in the second tier this season that has seen a significant, more-than-two-thousand-per-game attendance increase…the Bluebirds are pulling in 23,150 this season, which is 2,433 better than last season, when they finished 4th. Of course this increase can be attributed mostly to the fact that this is the first full season that the Bluebirds are playing in their new ground. But Cardiff are doing well, and might finally have it in them to become the first Welsh club to play in the Premier League. Those capacity crowds will certainly energize the Bluebirds in their promotion campaign. The second-best numerical attendance increase is by QPR, who are drawing 1,547 more per game this season than last season. They still are only filling the bandbox that is Loftus Road to just 78% capacity, though, at 14,896 per game.

Last season only one second level club drew higher than Derby County – the en route-to-promotion Newcastle United. Currently, Derby County are the highest-drawing club in the Championship, only this season they are actually decent. They feature one of the league’s top scorers in Kris Commons, a Mansfield, Nottinghamshire-born Scottish international, who has 12 league goals. [That tally is currently second best, behind Cardiff's Jay Bothroyd...photos of the top 8 goal leaders can be seen below.] The funny thing is attendance is down by 3,059 per game at Pride Park, despite the fact that the Rams were in the playoff places prior to their current 4-game losing slump (yet are still just 4 points off the playoff places). The Derby v. Nottingham Forest match has yet to be played, though, so that will fill the place up and push up that average gate.

As Yorkshire’s biggest club, the just-promoted Leeds United would be expected to see attendance increases, and Leeds has the third biggest numerical attendance increase in the league this season, up 1,139 per game. They are drawing the second best in the league this season, currently seeing an average of 25,957 pass their turnstiles. Third best drawing club are perennial capacity-fillers Norwich City. I think they could add 5,000 seats to Carrow Road and the Canaries would still be playing to an above 90% capacity. Rounding out the top five best drawing clubs this season are the aforementioned Cardiff City, then Leicester City. No, I am not going to talk about the charmed Swedish lothario who runs the Foxes these days (well I guess I just did). Incidentally, Leicester’s gates are down, but that can be explained by the fact that their gates were up last season because they had just won promotion, and this season they started out horribly.
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Leading scorers in the League Championship…
[Note: Below are leading scorers as of 25th December, 2010/Current leading scorers can be seen here (BBC)]

Photo credits for leading scorers- Yahoo Sport/PA images; Ross Kinniard/Getty Images at zimbio.com; SkySports.com; BBC/Getty Images. PA at DailyMail.co.uk; unattributed; ThisIsNottinghamshire.co.uk; Independant.co.uk.

Photo credits for map page…
Thanks to the Daily Mail.co.uk (Bristol City/Ashton Gate photo, here).

Thanks to Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view [set at Swansea City/Liberty Stadium, here].

Thanks to Colorcoat-online.com (Cardiff city/Cardiff city Stadium photo, here ).

Thanks to Noostairz at Skyscrapercity.com, in the Preston/Deepdale Redvelopment Thread ~May, 2008, for the Preston North End/Deepdale photo, here.

Thanks to Rob Dannatt at WorldStadia.com, for the Doncaster Rovers/Keepmoat Stadium photo, here.

Thanks to Premier Football Books.co.uk (Scunthorpe United/Glanford Park photo, here).

Thanks to the Norwich online newspaper The Pinkun.com (Norwich City/Carrow Road photo [wallpaper, second from bottom, here].

Thanks to SouthBank at the Skyscrapercity.com thread ‘Favorite Small Stadium (-20,000)’, here (Millwall/The Den photo, here).
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Thanks to the E-F-S site, for attendance figures.
Thanks to Historical Football Kits site for the kits, historicalkits.co.uk.

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November 22, 2010

The English 2nd Level (currently known as the Football League Championship) – All-time 2nd Level…the clubs that have spent the most seasons in the 2nd Level, which has been called…the Second Division (1892-93 to 1991-92) / Football League Division One (1992-93 to 2003-04) / Football League Championship (2004-05 to 2010-11). Also included is a chart of All-time 1st Level.

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Engl. Promotion Candidates — admin @ 5:54 pm

[Note: to see my latest map-&-post on the English 2nd division (the Football League Championship), click on the following, category: Eng-2nd level cham'ship.

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Please note: All information below is accurate up to the close of the 2010-11 Football League season [June 2011].

The English 2nd Level (aka the Football League Championship) – All-time 2nd Level…

The clubs that have spent the most seasons in the 2nd Level, which has been called…the Second Division (1892-93 to 1991-92) / Football League Division One (1992-93 to 2003-04) / Football League Championship (2004-05 to 2010-11)…
By Bill Turianski on 22 November 2010; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.

The first chart is shown in partial form further above, with just the top 10 all-time 2nd Level clubs. Click on it and the full first chart will show the 35-club All-time 2nd Level list. Clubs which have the tan horizontal bar running across are the 16 clubs that are on the All-time 2nd Level list and are currently in the 2nd Level (2010-11 season).
Those 16 Clubs on the all-time 2nd Level list that are currently [2010-11] in the 2nd Level are…
Barnsley, Leicester City, Hull City, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Derby County, Burnley, Sheffield United, Preston North End, Cardiff City, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Swansea City, Crystal Palace, and Norwich City.
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Below is the full, 5-level chart. It is also for 35 clubs, and has full League history…5 columns (1st Level, 2nd Level, 3rd Level, 4th Level, and Non-League). So when you click to go to the full chart, if you focus on the greyish-blue vertical stripe in the center, you will see the seasons spent in the 2nd Level. I will explain why the chart goes to 35 clubs, below, 2 paragraphs down.

The second tier began as the English Football League Second Division, in 1892-93. That name held for exactly 100 years (89 seasons, minus the war years [ with 4 seasons stricken due to WW I; and then 7 seasons stricken due to WW II ]). When the Premier League was formed, in the summer of 1992, the second tier became known as Division One. This lasted just 12 seasons, from 1992-93 to 2003-04. Then the current name of the Football League Championship began. With sponsor name, the 2010-11 season of the 2nd Level of English Football is known as the N-Power League Championship.
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As I began compiling the 2nd Level All-time list, while keeping one eye on the much-easier to compile First Level All-time list [ data sources at bottom of this post ], it became apparent that there would be overlap. 9 clubs are on the 1st Level All-time top 20 list, and are also in the top of the All-time 2nd Level list. Clubs which fall into this category are Nottingham Forest (56 seasons in 1st Level/47 seasons in 2nd Level), Birmingham City (57 seasons in 1st Level/47 seasons in 2nd Level), Wolverhampton Wanderers (62 seasons in 1st Level/45 seasons in 2nd Level), Derby County (65 seasons in 1st Level/43 seasons in 2nd Level), Sheffield United (60 seasons in 1st Level/42 seasons in 2nd Level), Middlesbrough (60 seasons in 1st Level/39 seasons in 2nd Level), West Bromwich Albion (73 seasons in 1st Level/37 seasons in 2nd Level), Blackburn Rovers (71 seasons in 1st Level/36 seasons in 2nd Level), and Sheffield Wednesday (66 seasons in 1st Level/34 seasons in 2nd Level). All of these clubs have spent 60 or more seasons in the 1st Level, and are among the top 20 in that category, and are also among the top of the All-time 2nd Level list.

So I am going to stick to the Physics 101 principle that you can’t be in two places at one time. So those aforementioned 9 clubs that are near to the top of the all-time 1st AND 2nd Level lists…they go to the 1st Level All-time list of 20 clubs. That opened up 9 more spaces in the All-time Second Division. Then this All-time 2nd Level, which would logically be a 24 club-theoretical league…became a temporary 26-team league due to a three-way tie for the 24th spot, between Norwich City, Lincoln City, and Luton Town…all with 34 seasons spent in the second tier.
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All-time 1st Level (20 football clubs)…
First, we will start with the 20 English football clubs with the most seasons spent in the 1st Level (aka the top flight, aka the first division), which is currently known as the Premier League -
All-time 1st Level…

Here are the 20 clubs with the most seasons spent in the 1st Level…
1. Everton, 108 seasons.
2. Aston Villa, 100.
3. Liverpool, 96.
4. Arsenal, 94
5. Manchester United, 86.
6. Manchester City, 82.
7. Newcastle United, 80.
7. Sunderland AFC, 80.
9. Tottenham Hotspur, 76.
9. Chelsea, 76.
11.West Bromwich Albion, 73.
12.Bolton Wanderers, 72.
13.Blackburn Rovers, 71.
14.Sheffield Wednesday, 66.
15.Derby County, 65.
16.Wolverhampton Wanderers, 62.
17.Middlesbrough, 60.
17.Sheffield United, 60.
19.Nottingham Forest, 57.
20.Birmingham City, 56.

just missing out on the All-time 1st Level list…Stoke City, 55 seasons; West Ham United, 54; Burnley, 52; Leeds United, 50; Leicester City and Preston North End, 46.
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That makes this the all-time 2nd Level…
(ideally 24 football clubs, but currently with a 3-way tie for 24th-most seasons, making it a temporary 26-club list)…
1. Barnsley, 74 seasons.
2. Leicester City, 59.
3. Hull City, 54.
4. Grimsby Town, 52.
5. Fulham, 50.
6. Blackpool, 46.
7. Bristol City, 45.
8. Burnley, 42.
8. Preston North End, 42.
10.Stoke City, 41.
10.Charlton Athletic, 41.
10. Leyton Orient, 41
10.Port Vale, 41.
14.Cardiff City, 40.
14.Plymouth Argyle, 40.
16.Portsmouth, 39.
16.Bury, 39.
18.Southampton, 38.
19.Notts County, 37.
19.Swansea City, 37.
21.Millwall, 36.
21.Oldham Athletic, 36.
23.Crystal Palace, 35.
24.Lincoln City, 34.
24.Luton Town, 34.
24.Norwich City, 34.

Just missing out on the All-time 2nd Level list…Huddersfield Town, 33 seasons; Leeds United and West Ham United, 31; Ipswich Town and Bradford City, 29.

The club that has spent the longest time in the 2nd Level is the South Yorkshire-based Barnsley FC. Barnsley have spent 74 seasons in the second tier, yet only one season in the top flight…in the sixth season of the Premiership, in 1997-98.
{Barnsley League History, from one of the 116 Footy Mad sites…www.barnsley-mad.co.uk, here}. That’s gotta be a tough thing to swallow for longtime Tykes fans, but at least the club, and it’s supporters, got that one season in the sun. Unlike Port Vale, who are the football club in England which has spent the most seasons, 41 seasons, in the 2nd Level without ever winning promotion to the top flight. Or Plymouth Argyle, who have spent 40 seasons in the 2nd Level without ever winning promotion to the top flight.

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Thanks to Lanterne Rouge, who writes for the excellent Football League site, The Two Unfortunates.
Lanterne Rouge coined the phrase ‘The Greater Championship’ earlier this year. In the following article, from 9th January, 2010, he talks about the idea of which teams belong in ‘The Greater Championship‘

Since then, I had been thinking about compiling the stats. Before I got too deep into this, I contacted Lanterne Rouge, and he responded with the caveat that…’I must admit [the article] was shamelessly speculative and designed partly to wind up friends who support other clubs!’
Btw, Leeds is talked about in the article, but Leeds United are not on the All-time 1st or 2nd Level lists, due to Leeds United AFC’s somewhat late formation. Leeds United were established in 1919, and were elected to the Football League Second Division in 1920-21, and first won promotion to the First Division in 1924-25. So Yorkshire’s biggest club is not in the top 20 of the All-time 1st Level list (Leeds have spent 50 seasons in the 1st Level, 6 seasons shy of being in the top 20), nor are Leeds United in the top 24 of the All-time 2nd Level list (Leeds has spent 31 seasons in the 2nd Level).
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Here are the lists and the data source I used. The best I could find for all-time / all clubs was from 9 seasons ago, at the Football365 site, here (http://stats.football365.com/hist/tier2/attable.html).

First Division seasons list, at RSSSF.com, under ‘Historical Domestic League History – Countrywise’ / then at ‘England – First Level All-Time Tables’, here.

For all-time season-by-season histories by club, I referred to the ‘League History’ section at each club’s Footy-Mad.net page… http://www.footy-mad.net/championship-news/ .

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August 4, 2010

England: The Football League Championship, 2010-11 season – attendance map, with average attendances and percent capacities (from 2009-10).

Filed under: 2010-11 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship — admin @ 2:35 pm

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From The Two Unfortunates site,
Previews of League Championship clubs…
{Part 1 – Barnsley through Leicester City}
{Part 2 – Middlesbrough through Watford}
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You can find each club’s 2009-10 percentage capacity on the far right of the chart on the map page. The figures are hard to pin down, because a stadium’s total seat-capacity is always going to be slightly larger than the stadium’s capacity for a Football League Championship match, because rows or columns of seats are left empty, in order to separate home and away fans The same procedure, of course, also applies in the Premier League [as well as in Football Leagues One and Two, but there are rarely sell-outs in the two lower leagues of the Football League]. I used the Football Grounds Guide.com for stadium capacity figures {www.footballgroundsguide.com}.
I like percentage capacity because it sort of provides a bit of a picture…it’s one thing to say that a club draws 17,308 per game, but to also say that that club is playing to just a 53.3% capacity, well that sounds like the club has real problems. I’m talking about you, Coventry City…who own the worst 2009-10 percentage capacity figure for clubs in the League Championship this season. How does a relatively big club like Coventry City manage such a dismal capacity rate? 1. Prolonged stay in the 2nd Level without a reasonable hope of promotion. 2. Lackluster play and a manager on his way out. 3. A charmless stadium built outside the city center and in the middle of nowhere. 4. The generally poor economy.
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The fact that the Championship is the 2nd Level of English football means that the clubs’ percentage capacity numbers will be, almost by definition, sort of low…more in the high 50% to low 70% range, for a majority of the clubs. That’s because usually most of the supporters of the lion’s share of clubs in the Championship believe their club to be worthy of the Premier League, and when they are not in the top flight, or do not seem to be progressing towards that goal, attendances go down. And the Championship clubs that had the ultimately most successful seasons the previous year are now in the top flight (certainly in 2 of the 3 cases of the promoted clubs each season). So high capacity-percentage clubs in the Championship are very often just-relegated clubs from the Premier League, and just-promoted clubs from the Football League One, In other words, a club that had never been in the Premier League and that only stays a season or two there before relegation back to the Championship (like both Burnley and Hull City); and conversely, a club with a devoted fan base that was immediately promoted back from the 3rd Level (like Norwich City). Another instance of a healthy percentage-capacity number would be a small club with a small stadium, punching above their weight in a division few thought they could survive in… like both Doncaster Rovers and Scunthorpe United, but actually, both these clubs were not in the top half of the percentage-capacity ranking…a better example would be Colchester United, who in one of their two seasons of second division football, in 2007-08, played to 87.2% capacity in their tiny, former ground, Layer Road. Another example of a high percentage-capacity club in the second tier is one that basically has excellent and virtually unwavering fan support, even if the club did not fare so well the previous season. Sheffield United and Ipswich Town have been in this category in recent seasons, but the best example of this from last season is Derby County, who had the second-best average attendance at 29,230 per game last season, even though they were pretty bad. [The best-drawing club in the Championship last season was, of course, Newcastle United, who drew 43,388 per game in their promotion-winning campaign.] That Derby County average attendance figure translates to a solid 87% capacity last season, even though the Rams won less than a third of their matches and finished in 14th place.
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3 of the clubs mentioned above, Norwich, Hull, and Burnley, had percentage-capacity figures of over 90% last season. But you just know that lots and lots of those people who attended matches at Burnley’s Turf Moor last season did it believing that it could very well be the only season in their lifetimes that they could see Burnley play in the Premier League. After all, Burnley were drawing in the 11,000 to 13,000 per game range for over a decade before their shock promotion season of 2008-09. The crowds at Burnley will probably dwindle unless they remain competitive and mount another promotion campaign.

Hull is very different, because as they climbed the league pyramid from 2004 to 2008, their average crowds rose in tandem. It’s astounding to realize that in 2003-04, Hull City drew 16,847 in the fourth division (which was called the Nationwide Division Three). So I am sure that Hull will keep more of their paying customers this season than does Burnley. The other relegated club, Portsmouth, I am not sure what to expect. Pompey (and their supporters, including old Bill, here) had the season-from-hell in 2009-10 [FA Cup run notwithstanding], but Portsmouth still played to a respectable 88.4% capacity. Maybe some of those Pompey fans were attending games last winter and spring thinking they better go now because there might not be a next time, what with the real threat of Portsmouth being wound up early in 2010. Well, Portsmouth dodged that HMRC bullet, and they’re still around. I can see Portsmouth getting simillar-sized, 18,000 per game crowds this season. But really, who knows. They may end up unable to field a competitive squad. Administrator Andonikou says the club can’t pay above 10,000 pounds per week for players {see this (specifically the last sentance in the article), by Neil Allen, from the News (portsmouth.co.uk), from 4 August, 2010, ‘Recruitment drive begins despite uncertain future‘.). Pompey may end up being unable to field a competitive squad. If this happens, I fear plummeting crowds, and another relegation for Portsmouth.
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Thanks to the contributors at en.wikipedia.org, 2010-11 Football League Championship.
Thanks to Mike Avery’s site at http://www.mikeavery.co.uk.
Thanks to The Football Ground Guide (for capacities of grounds), http://www.footballgroundguide.co.uk

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May 2, 2010

League Championship, 2009-10 season. The 2 promoted clubs and the 4 play-off clubs.

Filed under: 2009-10 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Engl. Promotion Candidates,Football Stadia — admin @ 10:39 am

Play-Off dates… Play-Off dates announced (The Football League site).
League Championship Play-Off fixtures, Championship Play-Offs Confirmed.
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On the right of the map are the 2 clubs automatically promoted to the Premier League for the 2010-11 season…Newcastle United, and West Bromwich Albion, both of whom bounce straight back to the top flight. Shown in each club’s profile box are major domestic titles and League history; 2009-10 average attendance; 2009-10 kits; and 4 photos of the club’s ground. Ditto for the 4 Play-Off clubs (on the left of the map). The four play-off clubs will vie for the third promotion spot…with two legged match-ups of Nottingham Forest versus Blackpool; and Cardiff City versus Leicester City. The first legs are Saturday 8th May (Blackpool hosting Forest) and Sunday, 9th May 9 (Leicester hosting Cardiff). Second legs are Tuesday the 11th (at City Ground) and Wednesday the 12th (at the brand new Cardiff City Stadium). The winners will advance to the Play-off final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, 22nd May.
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Attendance figures of the 6 clubs are shown at the upper right on the map page. Here are attendance figures for the whole League Championship this season, Attendance table, League Championship (ITV.com).
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Thanks to Toon Toon Blog, Toon Toon Blog. Thanks to j lord at Flickr.com, j loord’s photosream @ flickr.com. Thanks to Down at thr Mac- the Huddersfield Town fansite, DATM. Thanks to poity_uk at Flickr.com, poiy_uk’s photostream @flickr.com.

Thanks to Bing.com/maps, The Hawthorns (Bird’s Eye view. Thanks to Jameboy at en.wikipedia.org, The West Stand and Smethwick End (exterior) by Jameboy. Thanks to Mattd1991 at en.wikipedia.org, The Hawthorns, by Mattd1991. Thanks to LFC Malta.com, Liverpool Supporters Club Malta.

Thanks to NffcChris at en.wikipedia.org, City Ground by NffcChris. Thanks to Ciderspace.co.uk, Ciderspace-the independant Yeovil Town FC website. Thanks to BBC/Nottingham, Aerial photographs of Nottingham.

Thanks to Colorcoat-online, Cardiff City Stadium, project summary/gallery. Thanks to Cardiff Blues.com, Cardiff Blues and Cardiff City FC sign stadium contract. Thanks to Cardiff City FC.co.uk, Cardiff City Stadium. Thanks to Phil Tucker at Flickr.com, Phil Tucker’s photostream @ flickr.com.

Thanks to The Stadium Guide.com, Walkers Stadium. Thanks to Remarkable People.co.uk, [Football] Grounds [visited]. Thanks to SkySports.com, The Walkers Stadium.

Thanks to leftarmoccasional via Zim Flyer at SkyScraperCity.com, Bloomfield Road Redevelopment/14.000+/Phase Two thread [featuring photos by leftarmoccasional]. Thanks to Blackpool Today, Blackpool Today, South Stand progress/Gallery.

Thanks to Historical Football Kits, for the kit illustrations, Historical football Kits.

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September 25, 2009

England: Attendance map of all football clubs that drew over 4,000 per game in 08/09 (77 clubs).

Filed under: 2009-10 English Football,Eng>Premier League (Eng-1st Level),Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship,Eng-3rd Level/League One,Eng-4th Level/League Two,Engl. 2008-09, 77 clubs — admin @ 8:49 pm

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Please note: I recently made a map & post similar in theme to this one (click on the following),
England & Wales: the highest-drawing football clubs within the English football leagues system (all clubs [74 clubs] that drew above 4 K per game in the 2013-14 season) / Plus a short illustrated article comparing English and German attendances last season, by division.

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England: Attendance map of all football clubs that drew over 4,000 per game in 08/09 (77 clubs)…

The gate figures are from the 2008-09 season. The cut-off for this map was 4,000 per game. Each club’s crest is sized to reflect the club’s average home attendance from their 2008-09 domestic league matches.

At the top of the map, the banner lists the breakdown of clubs which made this map, by league level. Here it is… All 20 Premier League clubs. All 24 League Championship clubs. 21 of the 24 League One clubs (the 3 clubs not making the map being Cheltenham Town, Hartlepool Utd, and Hereford Utd, who all all drew in the 3,000s). 11 of the 24 League Two clubs {to see the 13 League Two clubs that drew lower than 4,000 last season, click on the following title- 2008-09_league_two_attendance.gif }. The sole Non-League club that drew over 4,000 last season was Oxford Utd.

After all the promotions and relegations that occurred in May, 2009, here is the current [2009-10] breakdown of the clubs on the map…All 20 Premier League clubs. All 24 League Championship clubs. 23 of the 24 League One clubs (the exception being plucky little Hartlepool United, who drew only 3,835, and managed to avoid relegation by 1 point). 8 League Two clubs: Bradford City, Shrewsbury Town, Port Vale, Northampton Town, AFC Bournemouth, Crewe Alexandra, Grimsby Town, and Notts County. 2 Non-League clubs: the Blue Square Premier League’s Oxford Utd, and the beleaguered Luton Town.

Thanks to the E-F-S site for the attendance figures {click here}. Thanks to http://www.thelinnets.co.uk (the official site of King’s Lynn FC), for Non-League gate figures {click here}.

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July 22, 2009

England: 2009-10 League Championship, with attendance figures from 08/09 season.

Filed under: 2009-10 English Football,Eng-2nd Level/Champ'ship — admin @ 6:12 pm

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The map shows the 24 clubs in the 2009-10 season of the English Football League Championship, which is the 2nd Level of professional football in England and Wales.

Here are the oddsmaker’s picks for the best promotion candidates in the Championship this season {click here (Statto.com)}. The three clubs that were relegated from the Premier League in May are the three favorites for promotion back to the top flight…Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion, and Middlesabrough. Also highly rated for promotion are Ipswich Town (on the strength of new manager Roy Keane); Sheffield United (who, with their large attendances, have been perennial favorites for the jump three seasons running now); and Reading (despite a horrible second half of last season). It is interesting that even with all the cash at their owners’ disposal, Queens Park Rangers are now less highly rated for promotion. QPR has the 7th best odds for promotion now, versus second-best odds for promotion one year ago. All those managerial changes and the accompanying front office discord have taken the shine off noveuu-riche QPR’s potential, it seems. Also, note how decently-rated the three East Midlands clubs are, at 9th, 10th, and 11th best odds for promotion… Nottingham Forest, Derby County, and Leicester City. Forest had a tough time of it last season in their return to the 2nd Level; Derby County had an abysmal season following their horrendous last-place stint in the Premier League (in 07/08); while Leicester has just bounced straight back to the Championship following their first-ever season in the 3rd Level. All three clubs have solid fan bases and will draw well, and that certainly can’t hurt their chances.

Here is a 2009-2010 League Championship preview, from SportingLife.com, written by Pete Thompson {click here}.

**Here are the kits for the clubs in the 2009-2010 League Championship, from the Historical Football Kits site {click here}.

Thanks to the E-F-S site, for attendance figures {click here}. Thanks to the contributors to the pages at Wikipedia {click here (set at League Championship 09/10 season)}. Thanks to the FootyMad.net sites, for each club’s League history {click here (set at League Championship main page)}.

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