Here is an interesting article from the Evil Post: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/how-bristol-citys-support-compares-3410740 What I find interesting in particular (trusting their stats are accurate) is the rapid decline in attendance of former premiership sides like Hull and Boro - and Preston (PESTon I cal them) have a surprisingly low attendance considering their current position. Just interesting - not making any point from this - other than I wonder if we would still get over 20k attendance IF we did get to the Prem, got dicked every week and came straight back down(?) - would the negativity hit attendances? Who knows........
I would think that season ticket sales alone, even for a single season in the top flight would stand up for one more season at least even if we were then relegated straight back to the Championship, as the club would start flogging them mid season and people would buy them in the hope we'd survive. Some clubs like Preston, at least in my time of following football have never attracted massive crowds, and the likes of Hull, Millwall, Boro, Blackburn, Barnsley Carlisle (back in the day), Swindon, and of course Reading all saw large declines in attendances following relegation in subsequent seasons. But one interesting fact I read a while ago, was that Bradford City actually sold more Season Tickets (18,000 I think) in L1 a few years ago than they did when they were in the top flight !! I'm also always amazed how clubs that build new or revamped stadiums usually go on to do well in terms of success and attendances. Reading for example, used to get about 3,000 people turning up at the old Elm Park, but when the money arrived along with the new stadium and some success, they were soon packing in well over 20k. Of course there are always two sides to every story, and Darlington well and truly bucked that trend. After building a 20,000 plus stadium they now find themselves in the Conference North, without a permanent home, and they play their home matches in Bishop Auckland.
AVERAGE ATTENDANCES 1. Leeds United 34,956 2. Nottingham Forest 27,784 3. Derby County 26,978 4. Sheffield Wednesday 24,184 5. West Bromwich Albion 23,723 6. Stoke City 23,081 7. Cardiff City 22,740 8. Bristol City 22,053 9. Huddersfield Town 21,742 10. Birmingham City 20,606 11. Middlesbrough 19,881 12. Fulham 18,029 13. Charlton Athletic 18,020 14. Swansea City 16,336 15. Reading 16,095 16. Millwall 15,110 17. Barnsley 14,083 18. Queens Park Rangers 13,715 19. Blackburn Rovers 13,533 20. Preston North End 13,297 21. Brentford 11,338 22. Wigan Athletic 11,202 23. Hull City 10,665 24. Luton Town 10,057 HIGHEST ATTENDANCES 1. Leeds United 35,453 2. Nottingham Forest 29,202 3. Derby County 28,454 4. Sheffield Wednesday 28,028 5. West Bromwich Albion 25,140 6. Cardiff City 24,724 7. Stoke City 24,090 8. Bristol City 23,553 9. Huddersfield Town 22,754 10. Middlesbrough 22,075 11. Birmingham City 21,808 12. Charlton Athletic 21,808 13. Fulham 18,654 14. Barnsley 17,598 15. Swansea City 17,277 16. Reading 16,906 17. Millwall 16,808 18. Queens Park Rangers 16,186 19. Preston North End 15,715 20. Blackburn Rovers 15,319 21. Wigan Athletic 14,819 22. Brentford 11,870 23. Hull City 11,590 24. Luton Town 10,066
You're spot on thanks, I hadn't realised they'd gone back to play in Darlo. Their ground is called Blackwell Meadows apparently which is the rugby stadium. Capacity is 3,000.
