To be fair Barnsley away isn't a very attractive away fixture, dull team and town and we played them last season
Indeed our opening away games do lack excitement, Blackburn, Barnsley, Reading, Wigan aren't exactly the games were were looking forward to. In October we have Fulham, Bristol City and WBA, all far more attractive games
Attractive fixtures killer? Lets face it 80 % of us arrive plot up in a pub till 2.30 and then go to the ground. I did try and get though a fellow poster on here to do the Oxford sightseeing tour when our fixture kicked off earlier last season but the answer was a flat no. Fair enough if your going down to somewhere like bristol for a few nights and are going to go into somewhere like Bath.
Blackburn, Barnsley and Wigan are all teams we've played in L1. Reading is a dull ground with nothing around it. No real rivalry with any of them, no great spice or aggro.
Their probably amongst the dullest away fixtures we'll play this season!
Killer i go to watch us. If im up there for the day it doesnt matter how nice the city / town is, im finding one or two pubs and then the game. It was on the trip at Accrington last season going fron yorkshire to Lancashire that i decided i was going to do a few weekends when going away. Shrewsbury went to chester on the sunday. Barnsley went to the peak district for a couple of nights and chesterfield after the game.
So you don't find some fixtures more attractive than others ? You find Accrington away as attractive as Man U away ?
Yes mate i do. As i said in an earlier post i go to watch us, who we play is of no relevance to me.
I take your point, but surely Man City is more appealing than Bristol City. Only because ive never done man city Would rather league 1 grounds than premiership grounds
To be fair Barnsley away isn't a very attractive away fixture, dull team and town and we played them last season
Indeed our opening away games do lack excitement, Blackburn, Barnsley, Reading, Wigan aren't exactly the games were were looking forward to. In October we have Fulham, Bristol City and WBA, all far more attractive games
Attractive fixtures killer? Lets face it 80 % of us arrive plot up in a pub till 2.30 and then go to the ground. I did try and get though a fellow poster on here to do the Oxford sightseeing tour when our fixture kicked off earlier last season but the answer was a flat no. Fair enough if your going down to somewhere like bristol for a few nights and are going to go into somewhere like Bath.
Blackburn, Barnsley and Wigan are all teams we've played in L1. Reading is a dull ground with nothing around it. No real rivalry with any of them, no great spice or aggro.
Their probably amongst the dullest away fixtures we'll play this season!
Killer i go to watch us. If im up there for the day it doesnt matter how nice the city / town is, im finding one or two pubs and then the game. It was on the trip at Accrington last season going fron yorkshire to Lancashire that i decided i was going to do a few weekends when going away. Shrewsbury went to chester on the sunday. Barnsley went to the peak district for a couple of nights and chesterfield after the game.
So you don't find some fixtures more attractive than others ? You find Accrington away as attractive as Man U away ?
Yes mate i do. As i said in an earlier post i go to watch us, who we play is of no relevance to me.
I take your point, but surely Man City is more appealing than Bristol City.
Depends on your own personal experience I suppose. If say we’d spent a good few years in the prem (take this hypothetically lol) like you lot did, and I’d been to Man U a good few times, and we drew Accrington away in the league, and it was a toss up between the two, I’d much rather go to Accrington.
Accrington got a good away crowd last season as a new ground for most. Indeed it would be the same for you
By contrast there's no novelty about playing Championship strugglers/Upper L1 teams like Rotherham, Wigan or Barnsley as they're at the same level as Charlton and Millwall really.
To be fair Barnsley away isn't a very attractive away fixture, dull team and town and we played them last season
Indeed our opening away games do lack excitement, Blackburn, Barnsley, Reading, Wigan aren't exactly the games were were looking forward to. In October we have Fulham, Bristol City and WBA, all far more attractive games
Attractive fixtures killer? Lets face it 80 % of us arrive plot up in a pub till 2.30 and then go to the ground. I did try and get though a fellow poster on here to do the Oxford sightseeing tour when our fixture kicked off earlier last season but the answer was a flat no. Fair enough if your going down to somewhere like bristol for a few nights and are going to go into somewhere like Bath.
Blackburn, Barnsley and Wigan are all teams we've played in L1. Reading is a dull ground with nothing around it. No real rivalry with any of them, no great spice or aggro.
Their probably amongst the dullest away fixtures we'll play this season!
Killer i go to watch us. If im up there for the day it doesnt matter how nice the city / town is, im finding one or two pubs and then the game. It was on the trip at Accrington last season going fron yorkshire to Lancashire that i decided i was going to do a few weekends when going away. Shrewsbury went to chester on the sunday. Barnsley went to the peak district for a couple of nights and chesterfield after the game.
So you don't find some fixtures more attractive than others ? You find Accrington away as attractive as Man U away ?
Yes mate i do. As i said in an earlier post i go to watch us, who we play is of no relevance to me.
Currently, I think of the 92 clubs, I've only not been to Forest Green, Lincoln, Macclesfield, Morecambe and Newport.
So I too go to watch us play, whoever we play and generally have a good time regardless.
But I do have fonder memories of Man U, Newcastle & Liverpool, than Halifax, AFC Wimbledon & Dagenham & Redbridge.
The population of Barnsley is 90,000, being generous and including
‘greater Barnsley’ it is a quarter of a million. When they travel to London (population nearly
nine million) they are going to the largest city in Europe with international
culture, theatre, arts, clubs, music venues, shopping, etc – stuff other than the
hour and a half of football.
When we travel to Barnsley we go to somewhere less than 3%
the size of London, with none of the other bonuses of London. It is the equivalent of Barnsley travelling
250 miles to visit a village with a population of 7,000, eg: Tenterden.
If the population of Barnsley was nine million and had the infrastructure
to match they would probably have more away fans wanting to visit there. I’m not picking on Barnsley the argument could be applied to:
Gillingham, Chesterfield, Stockport, Salford, Wigan, Chester, Crawley, Barnsley,
Oldham, Stevenage, Hartlepool, Grimsby, Chelmsford, Burnley, Rochdale, Maidstone,
Halifax, Lincoln, Darlington, Preston, Southport, Doncaster and so on. That’s
why people who are ‘doing the 92’ will only visit some grounds once.
It’s easier to say to a group of mates, your dad, kids,
wife/girlfriend – ‘do you fancy a weekend away in the biggest city in Europe?’ than
it is to say “What are you up to on the 14th March? – well it’s your
lucky day I’m off to watch Charlton play Hull, you and the kids can come too
and wander around the Prospect Shopping Centre for three hours”.
Imagine there was a city three hours away on the train with
a population of nine million, with history, 7000 pubs, scores of nightclubs,
award winning restaurants, loads going on.
There’s a chance you’re not going to turn up, have four pints in the
Railway tavern, jump in a cab to the ground, straight back to the station via
an off-licence and on the 17:30 back home again.
The population of Barnsley is 90,000, being generous and including
‘greater Barnsley’ it is a quarter of a million. When they travel to London (population nearly
nine million) they are going to the largest city in Europe with international
culture, theatre, arts, clubs, music venues, shopping, etc – stuff other than the
hour and a half of football.
When we travel to Barnsley we go to somewhere less than 3%
the size of London, with none of the other bonuses of London. It is the equivalent of Barnsley travelling
250 miles to visit
Seeing as your number crunching what percentage of away fans come to London for the night /weekend. And how many bring the family or friends with them.
The population of Barnsley is 90,000, being generous and including
‘greater Barnsley’ it is a quarter of a million. When they travel to London (population nearly
nine million) they are going to the largest city in Europe with international
culture, theatre, arts, clubs, music venues, shopping, etc – stuff other than the
hour and a half of football.
When we travel to Barnsley we go to somewhere less than 3%
the size of London, with none of the other bonuses of London. It is the equivalent of Barnsley travelling
250 miles to visit
Seeing as your number crunching what percentage of away fans come to London for the night /weekend. And how many bring the family or friends with them.
A very good
point but it’s difficult to say because I can’t type that into google like I
can ‘population of Barnsley’ or ‘how many pubs are there in London’ so this is
all anecdotal but bear with me.
50% of the
population of London are not from London, now admittedly a percentage of these
may be from abroad and have no particular allegiance to a team, for example, I
think 10% of Londoners are Polish (or at least used to be). But a very large chunk of people living in
London come from other parts of England and support the team they grew up
with. Of my non-London team supporting friends
that live in London, they support Liverpool x 2, Birmingham, Middlesbrough x3,
Plymouth, Southampton, WBA, Everton, Sheffield, Brighton, Southend and
Bradford. They often get invaded by
friends and family when their team are in town (well maybe not so much the lad
from Southend).
In all my
time of watching Charlton away I’ve had weekenders away staying with friends when
we’ve played Walsall and Wolves (brother at university in the black country)
and Middlesbrough when I was seeing a girl who lived near there (incidentally, the
match got called off Saturday morning due to a frozen pitch) – so two games in
thirty odd years.
I’ve had
more people want to stay with me to watch their team in a year than I have had
the opportunity to stay with friends elsewhere in my entire life. I’ve even suggested going to watch Charlton
play at the Riverside to my Middlesbrough supporting friends and they can’t be
bothered. One of them has seen
Middlesbrough play more times at the Valley than Ayresome Park and the
Riverside stadium combined.
The only
other times I’ve stayed away for the weekend watching Charlton have been
seaside towns, Brighton, Plymouth, Bournemouth and Blackpool and also
Manchester once (which has a bit more going for it as a place to visit). It’s difficult to persuade a group of
friends/family to travel to a pit town in Lancashire just for a football game,
unless they are fairly obsessed with football.
As I’ve
said, this is just based on my experience, but I think its fair to say that
London is a bigger draw as a place to visit than anywhere else in the UK and
that London has more ‘away fans’ living there than anywhere else in the UK and
that has to influence attendances. The
only other place I think that may have a similar blip are places like Blackpool
(although god only knows why).
So I can’t
tell you how many people stay the night in London or how many friends they
bring with them – I haven’t got a clue, but I think it will be higher than for most
other towns. Why do you need an exact
number?
Comments
By contrast there's no novelty about playing Championship strugglers/Upper L1 teams like Rotherham, Wigan or Barnsley as they're at the same level as Charlton and Millwall really.
So I too go to watch us play, whoever we play and generally have a good time regardless.
But I do have fonder memories of Man U, Newcastle & Liverpool, than Halifax, AFC Wimbledon & Dagenham & Redbridge.
The population of Barnsley is 90,000, being generous and including ‘greater Barnsley’ it is a quarter of a million. When they travel to London (population nearly nine million) they are going to the largest city in Europe with international culture, theatre, arts, clubs, music venues, shopping, etc – stuff other than the hour and a half of football.
When we travel to Barnsley we go to somewhere less than 3% the size of London, with none of the other bonuses of London. It is the equivalent of Barnsley travelling 250 miles to visit a village with a population of 7,000, eg: Tenterden.
If the population of Barnsley was nine million and had the infrastructure to match they would probably have more away fans wanting to visit there. I’m not picking on Barnsley the argument could be applied to: Gillingham, Chesterfield, Stockport, Salford, Wigan, Chester, Crawley, Barnsley, Oldham, Stevenage, Hartlepool, Grimsby, Chelmsford, Burnley, Rochdale, Maidstone, Halifax, Lincoln, Darlington, Preston, Southport, Doncaster and so on. That’s why people who are ‘doing the 92’ will only visit some grounds once.
It’s easier to say to a group of mates, your dad, kids, wife/girlfriend – ‘do you fancy a weekend away in the biggest city in Europe?’ than it is to say “What are you up to on the 14th March? – well it’s your lucky day I’m off to watch Charlton play Hull, you and the kids can come too and wander around the Prospect Shopping Centre for three hours”.
Imagine there was a city three hours away on the train with a population of nine million, with history, 7000 pubs, scores of nightclubs, award winning restaurants, loads going on. There’s a chance you’re not going to turn up, have four pints in the Railway tavern, jump in a cab to the ground, straight back to the station via an off-licence and on the 17:30 back home again.
1 Good company
2 Decent ground
3 Charlton win
4 Decent boozers
5 Get p*****
6 Pleasant town/city visiting
I can see the points of both @clb74 and @Covered End
And how many bring the family or friends with them.
A very good point but it’s difficult to say because I can’t type that into google like I can ‘population of Barnsley’ or ‘how many pubs are there in London’ so this is all anecdotal but bear with me.
50% of the population of London are not from London, now admittedly a percentage of these may be from abroad and have no particular allegiance to a team, for example, I think 10% of Londoners are Polish (or at least used to be). But a very large chunk of people living in London come from other parts of England and support the team they grew up with. Of my non-London team supporting friends that live in London, they support Liverpool x 2, Birmingham, Middlesbrough x3, Plymouth, Southampton, WBA, Everton, Sheffield, Brighton, Southend and Bradford. They often get invaded by friends and family when their team are in town (well maybe not so much the lad from Southend).
In all my time of watching Charlton away I’ve had weekenders away staying with friends when we’ve played Walsall and Wolves (brother at university in the black country) and Middlesbrough when I was seeing a girl who lived near there (incidentally, the match got called off Saturday morning due to a frozen pitch) – so two games in thirty odd years.
I’ve had more people want to stay with me to watch their team in a year than I have had the opportunity to stay with friends elsewhere in my entire life. I’ve even suggested going to watch Charlton play at the Riverside to my Middlesbrough supporting friends and they can’t be bothered. One of them has seen Middlesbrough play more times at the Valley than Ayresome Park and the Riverside stadium combined.
The only other times I’ve stayed away for the weekend watching Charlton have been seaside towns, Brighton, Plymouth, Bournemouth and Blackpool and also Manchester once (which has a bit more going for it as a place to visit). It’s difficult to persuade a group of friends/family to travel to a pit town in Lancashire just for a football game, unless they are fairly obsessed with football.
As I’ve said, this is just based on my experience, but I think its fair to say that London is a bigger draw as a place to visit than anywhere else in the UK and that London has more ‘away fans’ living there than anywhere else in the UK and that has to influence attendances. The only other place I think that may have a similar blip are places like Blackpool (although god only knows why).
So I can’t tell you how many people stay the night in London or how many friends they bring with them – I haven’t got a clue, but I think it will be higher than for most other towns. Why do you need an exact number?
1,276 Barnsley @ Brum
773 Bristol City @ Derby
383 Blackburn @ Hull
790 Luton @ Sheff Wed
1,302 Stoke @ Preston
1,751 Forest @ The Valley
406 Brentford @ Leeds
503 Huddersfield @ Cardiff
1,085 Swansea @ QPR
893 Reading @ WBA
950 Coventry @ Pompey
493 Tranmere @ Bristol Rovers
1,350 Lincoln @ MK Dons
2,351 Sunderland @ Rochdale
667 Wombles @ Ipswich
600 Bradford @ Stevenage
3,136 Brum @ The Valley
1,788 Bristol City @ Stoke
4,394 Leeds @ Barnsley
639 Tranmere @ Oxford
2,600 Bolton @ Rotherham
621 Donny @ Ipswich
419 Bristol Rovers @ Lincoln
2,159 Sunderland @ Accrington
1,671 Coventry @ Burton
83 Fleetwood @ Southend
735 Plymouth @ Port Vale
783 Grimsby @ Oldham
791 Scum @ Huddersfield
3,137 Brum @ Derby
2,857 Sheff Wed @ Boro
366 Brentford @ Barnsley (Sunday afternoon on telly)
583 Wigan @ Fulham (Friday night)
2,783 Forest @ Stoke ( Friday night live on telly)
970 Cardiff @ Hull
1,296 Lincoln @ Blackpool (Friday night)
824 Bolton @ Pompey
811 Doncaster @ Coventry
621 Tranmere @ Ipswich
455 MK Dons @ Sunderland
613 Port Vale @ Orient
1,577 Bradford @ Scunthorpe
516 Oldham @ Carlisle
550 Plymouth @ Mansfield
440 Crewe @ Cheltenham
1,033 Cambridge @ Stevenage
992 Hudders @ Stoke
2,204 Wednesday @ Hull
442 PNE @ Middlesbrough
981 WBA @ Leeds
2,127 Derby @ Barnsley
1,222 Swans @ The Valley
1,032 Scum @ Luton