how do londoners choose the team to support?

[dcooper8157]

With so many football clubs in London, how do people determine which club to support? I suspect that it is geographic in nature?

However, it could also be similar to the way it is in the US in cities like NY and LA. Has alot to do with tradition and following the teams that your family has for years.

Thanks,

-d

[Matt Clark]

Depends where you live, just like anywhere. Unless you're an Arsenal fan, in which case it depends on when you got Sky. :D

[Fulham Fan]

I hear a lot about catchment areas, which are like school districts. Are these important in deciding team loyalties? It doesn't seem so for Fulham, since Chelsea are so near, but maybe for other London teams.

Oh, this map fascinates me:

http://footballclubs.dyndns.org/multiclubcities.php?co=england&map=london&showing=all%20clubs%20in%20Levels%201-6

[RichardL]

although catchment areas do play a major role in it, it's certainly not that simple, or Crystal Palace would be about the best supported club in the country with most of South London to call their own.

The bigger London clubs tend to draw support from all over the city, but traditionally, what exactly would make a kid in Bromley support Chelsea over Arsenal or Spurs or West Ham or Palace could be family pressure, or it could be just the way young minds are swayed.

[Colm]

With so many football clubs in London, how do people determine which club to support? I suspect that it is geographic in nature?

However, it could also be similar to the way it is in the US in cities like NY and LA. Has alot to do with tradition and following the teams that your family has for years.

Thanks,

-dDepends what part of London your from, Most of Chelsea support in London comes from South london suprisingly. I was born in North London and i supported Tottenham because of that.

[dredgfan]

i thought it was determined by the loyalties of the pub one frequents the most.

[RichardL]

i thought it was determined by the loyalties of the pub one frequents the most.
the mean streets of London, where four and five year old kiddies frequent pubs, gaining football club loyalties as a result.

[OrlandoSPUR]

....some times the kids will support the rival of a parents team. But most of the time people will support a team due to a connection either through family, location, friends, success, maybe it was the first team they went to see, or saw on TV etc. ...it comes down to a variety of factors.

I'm not a Londoner originally, but started supporting Tottenham in '81 due to the FA Cup, so you could call me a glory hunter;) also my neighbours across the road were yids and came back from from the game at midnight singing Spurs songs and as a 6 yr old my mind was made up and has never changed through the good and the bad. It took me quite a few years to become a regular at the Lane. But had a season ticket for a couple of years, and was a member for 10, and during that time lived in North London for 4 yrs.

And in fact I just got back from Tottenham, and will be going again this Saturday. So it's like anything you adopt a team and it becomes a part of your life.

[mookhead]

Great Post, I have always wondered that myself. I think the football club situation in London is almost one of a kind. I could only imagine if there were 20+ teams in my home town/area. Allegiences to clubs would be a bit more complicated. My family could have The only other city in the planet that could come close to the number of clubs in London, is Buenos Aires. I have herd that Buenos Aires might have more football stadiums. I am no too sure though. That map that Fulham Fan linked is amazing!

[Dre00]

I knew more or less where the Prem clubs were in the city but there are several clubs I've never even heard of on that map. I don't think they're even in the conference. Really cool map though.

[superdave]

Oh, this map fascinates me:

http://footballclubs.dyndns.org/multiclubcities.php?co=england&map=london&showing=all%20clubs%20in%20Levels%201-6
What kind of people support Leyton Orient and Barnet? Are they pretty much like the people who support Spurs and Palace and Chelsea and so forth, just live near their teams or inherited their fandom from their family? Or are they people who have made a decision to reject the values inherent in being a fan of a big team?

And what kind of people support Sutton United or Carhsarlton Athletic, who I've never heard of even tho I'm a Championship Manager freak? What level do they play?

As an aside, here in the States, we have pro sports, college sports, and high school sports. And even in college sports, you have tackle football teams that draw 80,000+ on a Saturday, and you have teams that draw less than 10,000. There are people who prefer high school sports or low level college football because they like the intimacy and honesty of the competition.

[RichardL]

What kind of people support Leyton Orient and Barnet? Are they pretty much like the people who support Spurs and Palace and Chelsea and so forth, just live near their teams or inherited their fandom from their family? Or are they people who have made a decision to reject the values inherent in being a fan of a big team?

yes to all questions, although you are unlikely to see either of them getting cross-town support unless it's family orientated.


And what kind of people support Sutton United or Carhsarlton Athletic, who I've never heard of even tho I'm a Championship Manager freak? What level do they play?
Sutton & Carshalton are both in the Conference South, just below the conference. Sutton have spent a few years in the Conference. Sutton are most famous for dumping Coventry (then one of the better teams in England, and cup winners in 1987) out of the FA Cup in 1989.

As to why people support them - well it'd be the same a why people might support Orient or Barnet, with localness perhaps being a stronger issue. Fans of non-league clubs tend to prefer the atmosphere of non-league matches. Maybe ambience would be a better term than atmosphere, as many prefer the friendly laid back atmosphere of non-league games, where there no segregation as there's no need for it, and more of a feeling of being part of the club, rather than just being a customer of a corporate monster.


As an aside, here in the States, we have pro sports, college sports, and high school sports. And even in college sports, you have tackle football teams that draw 80,000+ on a Saturday, and you have teams that draw less than 10,000. There are people who prefer high school sports or low level college football because they like the intimacy and honesty of the competition.
fans attending college & school sports is something people here will just never understand. Do these places have no proper team to support (even at minor league level)?

[superdave]

Do you mean some fans of Barnet fit into one category, some in the other, or that fans of Barnet fall into both categories?

fans attending college & school sports is something people here will just never understand. Do these places have no proper team to support (even at minor league level)?
Except for pockets of support for ice hockey and lacrosse, the only high school sports that get much support are basketball and football, and they don't have minor leagues. We have minor league hockey and minor league baseball.

Plus, keep in mind the size of the US, and the vast swaths of land without any cities of 50,000 people. Here in North Carolina, attendance at high school sports isn't that great in Raleigh. But in the rural areas, high school sports are big. There are two factors: first, the populations are stable. The same families live there now as did a generation ago. The whole town goes to the same high school their parents did. Here in Raleigh, the population is booming, and we're building high schools left and right, and have to shift neighborhoods to fill up the new schools, plus, even people like me who grew up in Raleigh are unlikely to live in a neighborhood that feeds into the high school they attended. So there's almost zero intergenerational continuity.

Second, in small towns, high school sports are a community event. It's the only damn thing to do on a Friday night.

I'll let someone who is from an area where high school sports attendance is high decide which factor is more important.

[superdave]

fans attending college & school sports is something people here will just never understand.
Sorry to double post, but I wanted to address this separately.

The people who go to low-level college football games and high school sports are mostly like people who support a club like York City or Carsharlton Athletic, I think. The people who support, say, the University of Tennessee Volunteers, who draw over 100,000 fans to a modest-sized city 6 Saturdays a year, at (judging from prices around here) 20-25 pounds, with those in the good seats paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year to the booster club, are like people who support PSV, Ajax, and Feyenoord, or Dynamo Kiev. Those are teams that have a chance to win their league, but aren't serious contenders for the CL. Just like Tennessee can win the collegiate championship, but can't win the Super Bowl.

[aloisius]

fans attending college & school sports is something people here will just never understand. Do these places have no proper team to support (even at minor league level)?


Well those are proper teams.

Schools are to Americans more than they are to us.

They cover almost all aspects of social life.

[RichardL]

Do you mean some fans of Barnet fit into one category, some in the other, or that fans of Barnet fall into both categories?

There are fans of Barnet who just live near their team.
There are fans of Barnet who inherited their fandom from their family.
There are fans of Barnet who'll live relatively local and have made a decision to reject the values inherent in being a fan of a big team.

You aren't likely to find any fans of Barnet, however, who have no links at all with the Barnet area. People are only ever drawn to distant clubs that are bigger than those on their own doorstep. If you live in Islington, Arsenal will be your local club, and you'd feel the same sense of local attachment that a Barnet resident would feel about his team (if he supported Barnet).

Even Barnet no doubt attact a few "gloryhunters", who might otherwise be supporting their local sides lower down the pyramid at Edgware or Boreham Wood, for example.

[tomwilhelm]

It's slightly off topic, but as an American who tries to follow English football, I'm curious how other non-Brits choose a team to support. Obviously the standard draws like locality and family bonds aren't as likely to be a factor.

I personally support Fulham because of their long history, recent propensity towards being a scrappy underdog, and the number of Americans (particularly Mr. McBride) who have been given the opportunity to help the club. It's pretty nice when a team you followed in the 3rd division makes it back up to the Premiership.

Now that Fulham has been back up (to stay one hopes) for a few seasons, I'm looking for a lower league team to support. After a recent visit to the area, Doncaster looks intriguing, but I'm curious if other Americans or other non-locals have any thoughts on the matter...

[superdave]

This may sound dorky, but I have a soft spot for West Ham because I saw where they're Billy Bragg's favorite team, and for QPR because I saw that Robert Smith and Pete Townshend are supporters.

See if you have a favorite musician or actor, and see whom they support. For example, Patrick Stewart is a Huddersfield supporter.

Yeading's ground was used in Bend it Like Beckham.

[Colm]

Though funny enough the most supported football team in London is Manchester United.

[sarabella]

I'm for Everton because my best friend in college was from Liverpool and used to drag me to the pubs to watch them with him on Saturday mornings.