Support as a % of population

[absent friend]

I realise that we are still a young team and must keep attracting new followers although I would have thought our exploits over the past few years would have already done just that!

Looking at the populations V the home support for the teams I realise we are not the worst but we could do with more. I would say that our average home support is circa 6% of the population (4200) tops! Whilst I would think that Dunfermline could be twice that % figure. We must therefore have scope for attracting many more spectators given the correct climate ie money less tight and results on the field enjoying positive spin from the press.

Aberdeen must be struggling to hit 4.5% (9000) I would have thought but putting a % turnout per club does throw up some strange figures.

The main population shows up as follows so I am hoping someone is able to attach a more correct average home support figure, to the respective teams, as opposed to my guess above:-

1Glasgow578,790City

2Edinburgh448,624City

3 Aberdeen202,370City

4Dundee143,090City

5Livingston75,889Town

6Paisley74,170Town

7East Kilbride73,796Town

8Inverness70,207City

9Cumbernauld49,664Town

10Hamilton49,451Town

11Kirkcaldy46,912Town

12Ayr46,431Town

13Clydebank46,011Town

14Greenock45,467Town

15Kilmarnock44,170Town

16Perth43,450Town

17Stirling41,243City

18Coatbridge41,170Town

19Irvine39,527Town

20Dunfermline39,345

21Glenrothes38,678Town

22Dumfries37,846Town

23Airdrie36,326Town

24Falkirk32,376Town

25Motherwell30,311Town

26Wishaw28,565Town

27Rutherglen25,019Town

28Cambuslang24,502Town

29Bishopbriggs23,521Town

30Bearsden23,501Town

[Kingsmills]

Using that criterion Ross County are probably the best supported team in the land regularly attracting over 50 % of the population of Dingwall to Victoria Park.

[PullMyFinger]

Using that criterion Ross County are probably the best supported team in the land regularly attracting over 50 % of the population of Dingwall to Victoria Park.

Is that a fair comparison when you consider the fact that their homes are pitched in Victoria Park. :)

[DornochCaley]

Using that criterion Ross County are probably the best supported team in the land regularly attracting over 50 % of the population of Dingwall to Victoria Park.

Is that a fair comparison when you consider the fact that their homes are pitched in Victoria Park. :)

:P

Well actually. Eah club has a catchment area and Ross County covers most of Ross-Shire so no, they dont have 50 %.

[alternative maryhill]

This is one of those topics that someone could write a book about, in all honesty. The main reasons cited for our comparatively low share of the potential support are:

• the fact that Inverness has a higher proportion of incomers and older people than most other population centres
  
• historic opposition to the merger
  
• "new team syndrome": the idea that a lot of people in the area already had a "big team" and many of those were not prepared to switch loyalties when ICT started going up the divisions.
  

It's the last one that's most interesting in light of the population figures absent friend posted: Livingston apparently has a population of 75,000, approximately 5,000 more than Inverness, yet their home support has sometimes dipped below 1,000 in recent years. Surely that suggests that "new team syndrome" must have a pretty significant influence on a team's potential to attract local support?

[CaleyD]

Livingston suffers even more than Inverness in terms of being populated by people who are not from the area. I would be very surprised if more than 20% of the Livingston population were "native".

[alternative maryhill]

Livingston suffers even more than Inverness in terms of being populated by people who are not from the area. I would be very surprised if more than 20% of the Livingston population were "native".

That's a very good point, Don. It's going to be full of descendants of the victims of the Glasgow clearances too. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a football team there? Little wonder the poor wee souls keep going into administration...

[+DoofersDad]

There isn't the tradition of big time football in the Highlands and it takes years to establish. Look down south and you see teams like Bolton and Blackburn regularly pulling in 20,000 even though they are close to the big Manchester and Liverpool clubs and have populations of only, I guess twice that of Inverness, if that. That tradition was built up when there were fewer things to spend money on and it was what the working man did every Saturday.

If crowds are going to increase there probably needs to be a significant decrease in gate prices and more entertaining football. We don't necessarily need more people going to watch the team, we need those who do go to sometimes to go more often.

[absent friend]

I was using this area of thought to see if we could establish a pattern of support. As stated above Livi new town, newish team, building up support, similar to ourselves, maybe take years. Old established clubs, tradition creates loyal following and therefore higher support.

Using a basic formula for last season and allocating 50% of the population to each team in Dundee and Edinburgh and assuming the away support make up, on average, 10% of the home attendance, the following stats emerge.

Club % attendance

Hibs 5.2 - Rugby influence?

Hearts 5.7 - a/a

ICT 5.7

Dons 5.8 - Ploughing matches influence?

Midden 6.6

Hamilton 7.0

United 11.14

Killie 11.77

Falkirk 16.0

Well 16.5

I have left out the OF - I realise top six/bottom six will make a difference but the stat pattern will remain - I realise we all have hinterlands from which we draw support or lose support to the OF.

Point from the above, we are nowhere near saturation point regarding support level and this must be an area for the club to major on. I would hope that the level could be raised to circa 7%, an extra 1000 heads with an extra income of maybe ?250000.

.

[Alex MacLeod]

I think your figures for Falkirk are very false. They take support from the whole district, including Grangemouth and the district population is nearer 105,000

[Ronaldo]

I thought there was 1M or very close to it living in Glasgow as well?

[Alex MacLeod]

I was using this area of thought to see if we could establish a pattern of support. As stated above Livi new town, newish team, building up support, similar to ourselves, maybe take years. Old established clubs, tradition creates loyal following and therefore higher support.

Using a basic formula for last season and allocating 50% of the population to each team in Dundee and Edinburgh and assuming the away support make up, on average, 10% of the home attendance, the following stats emerge.

Club % attendance

Hibs 5.2 - Rugby influence? Hearts influence?

Hearts 5.7 - a/a

ICT 5.7 OF Influence

Dons 5.8 - Ploughing matches influence?

Midden 6.6

Hamilton 7.0

United 11.14

Killie 11.77

Falkirk 16.0

Well 16.5

I have left out the OF - I realise top six/bottom six will make a difference but the stat pattern will remain - I realise we all have hinterlands from which we draw support or lose support to the OF.

Point from the above, we are nowhere near saturation point regarding support level and this must be an area for the club to major on. I would hope that the level could be raised to circa 7%, an extra 1000 heads with an extra income of maybe ?250000.

.

The OF influence affects attendances of every team. More especially the Highlands and Glasgow/Greenock/Paisley area's.

Not sure how you arrived at your DU figure considering there are two teams in that city.

Falkirk is the senior team for Falkirk District, which takes in Grangemouth, Bonnybridge, Larbert, Shieldhill, Slamannan, Bo'ness, Linlithgow etc, and so all these well populated places must be included in any table.

We are lucky in that our average support appears to be unaffected by the drop but I believe if roles were reversed and County went to SPL with us still in Div 1 they would gain a fair whack of our support. Examples of this could always be seen when RC play at home and we are away. Many so called ICT fans, many who even post hatred for RC, can be seen among the Dingwall home support at these times.

[Alex MacLeod]

I thought there was 1M or very close to it living in Glasgow as well?

Within the city of Glasgow there are about 570,000. Briing in Bearsden, Milngavie, Rutherglen etc and its nearer 1 million.

[absent friend]

I think your figures for Falkirk are very false. They take support from the whole district, including Grangemouth and the district population is nearer 105,000

Hi Alex, I think in the overpopulated Central Scotland, this could very well be the case, areas running into each other but I just accepted the official population Government figures. Does this area not also support another two SFL teams?

Maybe the same can be said of the areas of all the other teams with a better % attendance than ours and our figure is therefore OK.

I thought there was 1M or very close to it living in Glasgow as well?

Glasgow and Greater Glasgow figures are quite different I think, if you feel the Glasgow figure is incorrect blame Gordon Brown however I don't see the relevence of your point when the OF are not being considered.

[rinomac]

I definitely think that being a 'newish team' leads to having a smaller percentage than others. The merger caused problems for our support, unlike Livingston, and most people from Inverness and the surrounding area had a 'big' team, like the OF or Aberdeen.

As our club progresses over the next 10 years or so, I would expect to see our attendances gradually rise (if we are still doing relatively well). I am 19 and people from my generation and younger will have grown up hearing about ICT in the city. My dad took me to my first game when I was 5 and since then I've always supported ICT and they have always been my 'first' team. If kids are taken to ICT games by a parent or whoever, they may be less inclined to support the OF and we could see our percentage increase.

Not too sure about the Hearts and Hibs %. The population of Edinburgh changes throughout the year with events like the festival and even students moving in again in September so maybe that affected that one?

[The Mantis]

As our club progresses over the next 10 years or so, I would expect to see our attendances gradually rise (if we are still doing relatively well). I am 19 and people from my generation and younger will have grown up hearing about ICT in the city. My dad took me to my first game when I was 5 and since then I've always supported ICT and they have always been my 'first' team. If kids are taken to ICT games by a parent or whoever, they may be less inclined to support the OF and we could see our percentage increase.

I was going to mention that too. ICT is pretty unique in that respect. The young lads who now attend away games and give the team good support, have grown up with the club - they are far better than the handful of oldies like me who attended in div 3 and 2 for five seasons while our peers were still arguing about whether ICT were as good as Caley (or Thistle).

I know everybody says Sneck is full of OF gloryhunters, but you should see places like Airdrie, Larkhall, Bellshill and so on. Maybe Inverness is one place where a good few people will decide that supporting the OF is not worth the travelling if they can see a half decent side here.

On the down side, Sneckie seems like too prosperous a place TBH. In some of the places mentioned above, they have huge housing schemes where the football seems to be the only bright spot in the week for a lot of people. I'm sure that's patronising and so on, but so be it.