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All-time attendance table


Nordic Saint
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The Newcastle table doesn't say which years are covered within each teams figures, presumably from the date each team entered the Football League which in the case of Pompey & Saints, was 1921

 

The interesting thing here is that over the past 50 years or so, ie within recent history of both club's fanbase, our average crowd is 21,000 whereas Pompey's is just over 14,000, despite them having a ground with a bigger capacity for most of this period.

 

Pompey may have won more trophies and have a larger geographical population to draw on but Saints have been able to get more paying customers through the gates

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The Newcastle table doesn't say which years are covered within each teams figures, presumably from the date each team entered the Football League which in the case of Pompey & Saints, was 1921

 

The interesting thing here is that over the past 50 years or so, ie within recent history of both club's fanbase, our average crowd is 21,000 whereas Pompey's is just over 14,000, despite them having a ground with a bigger capacity for most of this period.

 

Pompey may have won more trophies and have a larger geographical population to draw on but Saints have been able to get more paying customers through the gates

Portsmouth doesn't have a larger geographical area to draw on. Southampton has a population 50k greater than Portsmouth.

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Shame this has focused on our relative position vs Pompey. The position won't change between us for many many years. The interesting point is that we have recently overhauled former European Champions, Nottm Forest, and our next target is former European semi-finalists, Derby County. This table won't change much (in terms of positions) from season to season, but we could overhaul Derby in the next year or so. Our home average currently is about 1800 more than theirs, and the difference between us in the table stands at 45. It would be nice to see us in the Top 20, and given all the years when we were restricted by the small size of The Dell this will be some achievement.

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Portsmouth doesn't have a larger geographical area to draw on. Southampton has a population 50k greater than Portsmouth.

 

Depends on what information you work on as there is quite a bit of differing information available

 

According to the 2011 census Southampton has a population of 236,882 which is the figure used by the council although there is a figure of 253,651 also recorded on other sites as to the population within city boundaries (don't really understand the difference).

In comparison Portsmouth Council records a figure of 205,056 from the 2011 census with the 'within city boundary' figure of 238,137

 

I based my initial comparison on the urban area population basically covered by Post Code area. Unfortunately I cant locate the most recent figure but there is a figure from 1995 which shows Portsmouth at 476k and Southampton at 322k.

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I based my initial comparison on the urban area population basically covered by Post Code area. Unfortunately I cant locate the most recent figure but there is a figure from 1995 which shows Portsmouth at 476k and Southampton at 322k.

 

The "PO" postcode covers more larger urban areas, it includes Fareham, Grostspot, Chavant, Bognor, Chi and the entire IOW for a start. "SO" includes Eastleigh & Winch, plus smaller towns such as Romsey & Lymmo for example. Postcode is no indicator of size of population in this instance.

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We've overtaken Forest and are close to Derby seemingly on the basis that they are 20 years older than us historically (ie Forest formed in 1865 not 1885) so have more "all time" to divide their total attendance between.

 

Both those clubs have an absolute/total attendance of some 9-10m more than us. If it is really true that this is driven by solid attendances in the 1870s, fair enough, but I'm not sure.

 

Basically I think we should go back 50 years for this kind of thing.

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The "PO" postcode covers more larger urban areas, it includes Fareham, Grostspot, Chavant, Bognor, Chi and the entire IOW for a start. "SO" includes Eastleigh & Winch, plus smaller towns such as Romsey & Lymmo for example. Postcode is no indicator of size of population in this instance.

 

I appreciate the point you make.

 

There is no scientific way of measuring 'captive' areas for football team support but relevant post code provides a reasonable indication I think

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Seems to me we are well down the pecking order and the gap to Pompey isnt that much...

 

Cant argue with the facts as presented

 

However Saints have never possessed a ground with a capacity of more than 32,000 whereas all the clubs above us in the average attendance league and a fair few below had much bigger capacities especially post WW2 when attendances rocketed

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NB: Pre-war attendance figures based on media estimates

and club records - both sources notoriously inaccurate

 

Indeed

 

However if the table is designed to show 'attendance' (as opposed to tickets sold, including season ticket holders etc) I guess you could query the more recent crowd figures

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Raw data has only superficial interest, there are so many variables at play that serious interpretation is meaningless. That's before you factor in political dishonesty like counting ST sales as attendance irrespective of whether a ST holder is present or not which has probably always happened. I remember several sold-out matches at the Dell in bygone years when locked gates were forced open and people dived in for free by the hundreds... say no more. In fact on any one day at a match, it is doubtful anybody has a clue how many people are inside a ground.

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NB: Pre-war attendance figures based on media estimates

and club records - both sources notoriously inaccurate

 

Yes, Saints would be a lot higher up that table if pre-war estimates weren't included and Pompey would be a lot further down it. Our post-war-average is over 20,000 while Pompey's is less than 17,000.

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