Our Away Support -Last Season

[Redcliffe 78]

I think you dimiss the fact of traveling greater distances too easily. If as I said, we were more successful. We would build up a larger core of more fanatical followers. This is all part and parcel of continued success. You are comparing BCFC fans with the likes of LUFC supporters. They have a tradition of success, have always attracted higher attendances, have a larger population to draw on, a higher perecntage of working class people that are more likely to follow footbal (traditionally), only have one team to support. and have other teams closer, which makes the traveling to those other teams a lot easier, plus an increased local rivalry.

I know there are other factors to consider, but probably the biggest is the desire to go to a game, further than the average supporter has to travel, to follow the team which aren't producing the goods on a regular basis. As I said, it takes a long time to breed that level of support and it's only done with consistent success.

True fans, true support, Wigan are the biggest example, if they get to our league apart from big games and away fan's they will be lucky to get 8000. On the away thing Forest away when Pender scored that own goal that was near our average crowd that year. We get a big following away when chance of trouble and to say i went there.

[Red Robin]

We never went away last season not once,the team just did not deserve support for the majority of the season,previous seasons we have been to over 50% of away games on our return to the championship.let's hope for a better season next time around.this season was dire.

[Rich]

True fans, true support, Wigan are the biggest example, if they get to our league apart from big games and away fan's they will be lucky to get 8000. On the away thing Forest away when Pender scored that own goal that was near our average crowd that year. We get a big following away when chance of trouble and to say i went there.

There are many examples of teams increasing their average attendances over a period of increased success, both home and away.

As for big followings because of an increased chance of trouble, or to say I was there. How come we don't get a big following to millwall. I think it's more to do with how important and attractive the match is.

[Redcliffe 78]

There are many examples of teams increasing their average attendances over a period of increased success, both home and away.

As for big followings because of an increased chance of trouble, or to say I was there. How come we don't get a big following to millwall. I think it's more to do with how important and attractive the match is.

Success you say so if Rovers are better you change clubs.

[Red-Robbo]

As I've said here before, Leeds is probably the largest city in England with just one team.

And due to the periods of success it has had in the past, the place isn't full of plastic Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea fans either.

So both on population grounds and due to past success, you absolutely cannot compare City with Leeds.

There away following has nothing to do with Leeds having more fanatical supporters. It has everything with them having more supporters full stop.

[Jordan Tansley]

As I've said here before, Leeds is probably the largest city in England with just one team.

And due to the periods of success it has had in the past, the place isn't full of plastic Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea fans either.

So both on population grounds and due to past success, you absolutely cannot compare City with Leeds.

There away following has nothing to do with Leeds having more fanatical supporters. It has everything with them having more supporters full stop.

adding the fact that the people of Yorkshire are very tribal, So they'd never follow the "Soft southern" London teams or the Lancastrian Man U or Liverpool.

[Mr Roper]

I,m not surprised our away support wasnt great last season and probably has dropped a lot since the first two seasons in the championship a couple of reasons for that I believe are 1 The novelty of being in the Championship has worn off 2 We had a poorish season in general .The main reason that some perceived smaller clubs than us have higher average away support is the distance a lot of these clubs are from each other ,there away trips mileage must be a hell of a lot less than ours which means a lot less cost for them and a lot less time consuming .Hopefully we will get off to a good start next season and more fans will take to the road .

Just getting back to what someone said in a post about being easy to beat away ,that maybe the case some days but we did have a few good results away last season as well didnt we .

[Rich]

Success you say so if Rovers are better you change clubs.

No, I'm saying the more successful the team are, the more you want to see that success, whether it be at home or away. The easier it is to watch the team away, the more people will want to and will to attend.

What success does, is attract more support. An average attendance of say 15,000 is made up of people that attend on a regular basis, some every match, some every other march and some infrequent, probably 20,000 regular attendees. With more success, more will attend more frequently and others will be attracted that rarely or never attend. Absolutely nothing to do with changing clubs, why bring it up?

[Rich]

As I've said here before, Leeds is probably the largest city in England with just one team.

And due to the periods of success it has had in the past, the place isn't full of plastic Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea fans either.

So both on population grounds and due to past success, you absolutely cannot compare City with Leeds.

There away following has nothing to do with Leeds having more fanatical supporters. It has everything with them having more supporters full stop.

So are you saying that the less fanatical supporter will attend as many away matches as the more fanatical supporter?

Oviously the more supporters you have, the more fanatical supporters you have, which in turn will result in a larger away following.

[sglosbcfc]

City have always enjoyed a large travelling support going back decades. Last season the support tailed off due to awful start to the season, large number of games with huge travelling distances e.g. Norwich & Boro, novelty of Championship wearing off and recession biting. I don't dispute City's average of less than 800 but I do dispute the other figures - does anyone truely believe Donny, Palace and Millwall averaged those numbers???? Think about the numbers teams have brought to Ashton!!! Only a handful have brought more than a 1,000. That table is flawed, if it was accurate City's 750 would see us in mid table.

[Mr Roper]

Nope. Not buying that.

Our away support is crap in terms of numbers given the size of the support base and the city itself.

It's plain and simple - we are one of the worst supported teams away from home.

You dont believe the distance that an away game is makes any difference to the amount of support we take there then cynic ?I would have to check the stats but in general for us and most clubs distance must be a major factor in the amount of supporters we take to any given game .

[sglosbcfc]

Bullsh*t, anyone who believes that Barnsley take 1500 fans away on average clearly knows nothing about football. Ok they may have taken large followings to Leeds and Doncaster etc but that cover the 200 or so they bring to Ashton, Pompey, Millwall, Palace etc etc

[Never to the dark side]

If we go back to season 2007/08

The away games against Barnsley and Hull were midweek games,and yes I attended both

After the first five games we were basically never out of the top five

we had 341 City fans out of an attendance of 9,600 at Barnsly and we have played Barnsley nearly every season so it was NOT a new ground for most of us

Hull City attendance of 15,000 and 263 City and farther to travel and we had only played Hull once in the previous ten years

We have approx 150 "northern" turn up on the night Bristol City fans so not many travelled from the Bristol area

Compare that with Charlton another mid-week game and nearly 2,000 went to Charlton and 400 eco warriors went by train

and I was there

Very few of us can have days off in the middle of the week.,I am fortunate I can get days off in the middle of the week

So its more to do with the distance we have to travel to away games and whether a saturday or mid-week fixtures

So thats why I prefer mid-week short trips and the "long runners" maybe over 130 miles on SATURDAYS

[Frome Valley]

Nope. Not buying that.

Our away support is crap in terms of numbers given the size of the support base and the city itself.

It's plain and simple - we are one of the worst supported teams away from home.

If you check previous seasons you will see Bristol Citys away support averages normally were above Swansea and Cradiff. The same was true in previous decades home and away.

Its not plain and simple as you make it as its a combination of factors.

[Red-Robbo]

Oviously the more supporters you have, the more fanatical supporters you have, which in turn will result in a larger away following.

Precisely! And clubs like Leeds and Forest have a bigger fanbase without a shadow of a doubt.

Clubs with a smaller home crowd than us (eg Barnsley) have had a bigger away following this season because of the number of local derbies they've played.

It really is nothing to beat ourselves up about.

[AlwayBelieves]

i dont think this is correct! Because i know for a fact most teams dont allocate more than 2,500 tickets to away support! So im struggling to understand how leeds average is 3000+ ... Also alot of places like s****horpe, dont have massive grounds, so this would bring average down even more! Soo No i dont think this is correct, maybe for city! but not leeds!

[HIGHRIDGE BCFC]

I couldn't argue at our average figure - but I would be surprised if Leeds had an average of almost 3,500.

Not because they couldn't/wouldn't take that many, but simply because looking down that list of clubs, there are not that many that would provide that number of seats for away fans, surely..?

They didn't take that many to every game as away allocations wouldn't allow it.

But they did take 7000 to Barnsley, 6500 to Coventry, 5000 to Palace, Midlesbrough and Preston, 4500 to Forest and 4000 to Reading, so that would boost the average considerably.

Thay only failed to sell out to away games last season, with a 100 or so tickets remaining for the televised 1245ko at Swansea, where they took nearly 3000, and the Bank Holiday Monday fixture at Palace.

These are the only away games which they hadn't sold out in 4 seasons.

[Talk Of The Town]

It's worth remembering that - other than Cardiff where away attendance is low for non-football reasons - we don't really have many near neighbours in the division.

If you take Donny, they have local derbies with Leeds; Sheffield Utd; Hull and S****horpe - all very easy to get to. It's a doddle for them to get to the East Midlands club in the division too.

When you look at the numbers most clubs brought to AG they were (generally) a fraction of those average figures.

Also Barnsley. I agree with you, logistics play a big part

[East Yorkshire CideRed]

adding the fact that the people of Yorkshire are very tribal, So they'd never follow the "Soft southern" London teams or the Lancastrian Man U or Liverpool.

I'm based up here in East Yorks now and their fanbase stretches right to the coast. Bar the odd few Hull supporters, everyone round my way supports Leeds. Even more so since the demise of Scarborough and York City dropping out of the league.