As everyone knows Burnley is considered a footy mad town with a very high percentage of attendees per head of population, one of the biggest in the country I believe, you can go into town on any day and see lots of people wearing Burnley shirts and there is a 'feel' about the place I think. This weekend (yesterday in fact) I found myself in Leicester (don't ask) and after looking around the historic sites we found ourselves in the city centre (actually far nicer than I expected - I've never been there before ever). The really odd thing was, considering they have fairly recently been PL Champions and are, at the moment flying high again, I saw no evidence whatsoever of football, no mention of it anywhere, no graffiti (in a grafitti ridden place) and oddly not one person in a Leicester City shirt - not one. It was as if they didn't have a football club.

Has anyone ever been to a place like this where they have a fairly prominent club but no evidence of it anywhere? Go to Newcastle and it's barcode city. Liverpool will have a lot of people with Liverpool or Everton shirts. I even seen reasonable numbers of people in Plymouth with Argyle shirts. Same with Manchester and Birmingham. I just found it a bit odd.

Sad bugger that I am whenever I'm anywhere, including abroad, I always look out for this stuff.

Not many Everton shirts around Liverpool... it's 95% red, especially in the centre

Leicester is a rugby town. Not saying there is no interest in football but there but they have another sport to compete with unlike us (and Newcastle in reality).

In a similar part of the country and with the same reason, Northampton have always performed poorly for such a big place.

Chester. Liverpool shirts mainly.

houseboy wrote:Go to Newcastle and it's barcode city.

I did like that one and Newcastle is very much a city that is dominated by its football club as our town is with ours. I'd always put Sunderland and the two Liverpool clubs very much into the same category too.

Liverpool has 2 tremendous teams...Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers.

Glasgow.

TheFamilyCat wrote:Leicester is a rugby town. Not saying there is no interest in football but there but they have another sport to compete with unlike us (and Newcastle in reality).

In a similar part of the country and with the same reason, Northampton have always performed poorly for such a big place.

I must admit I wondered if it clashed with the rugby as they are very high profile in that sport yes.

Portsmouth = Footie city
Southampton = Not Footie city

Purely from my experience. Southampton fans seem really plastic somehow.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Chester. Liverpool shirts mainly.

I've also seen a fair scattering of Wrexham shirts in Chester.

andyh wrote:Portsmouth = Footie city
Southampton = Not Footie city

Purely from my experience. Southampton fans seem really plastic somehow.

I wonder if the plastic has melted after the visit of Leicester last week.

I have never seen anyone wearing a Salisbury shirt in Salisbury.

Steve1956 wrote:Glasgow.

Do they sport Celtic and Rangers shirts mate or are they afraid to wear them in case they run into the opposition? Incidentally I saw a chap in a Burnley shirt walking around Blackburn Mall a few weeks ago. I remember thinking it was a rather brave (or silly) thing to do.

IanMcL wrote:I have never seen anyone wearing a Salisbury shirt in Salisbury.

Do they have a football team mate?

Risen from the ashes! No longer Salisbury City, owing to being sold to a Moroccan or Tunisian (somewhere there!) Who just emptied the safe and did a runner!

Our Ashley Barnes learned his trade there, for a month!

houseboy wrote:Do they sport Celtic and Rangers shirts mate or are they afraid to wear them in case they run into the opposition? Incidentally I saw a chap in a Burnley shirt walking around Blackburn Mall a few weeks ago. I remember thinking it was a rather brave (or silly) thing to do.

I've had two visits to the hospital at Blackburn recently. For the first of them I was unprepared, I was sent there from the urgent care at Burnley, the second was for an appointment on the following day and I followed my standard protocol for a visit there, I wore a Burnley shirt.

To be fair any city full of grown men wearing football tops on a a non match day is more a reflection of blind faith, poverty and uber “ chavness” and terrible fashion sense than the cities interest in football imo .Though Liverpool and Newcastle fit both camps !

ClaretTony wrote:I've had two visits to the hospital at Blackburn recently. For the first of them I was unprepared, I was sent there from the urgent care at Burnley, the second was for an appointment on the following day and I followed my standard protocol for a visit there, I wore a Burnley shirt.

Good man. At least if you'd been attacked you were in the right place.

AlargeClaret wrote:To be fair any city full of grown men wearing football tops on a a non match day is more a reflection of blind faith, poverty and uber “ chavness” and terrible fashion sense than the cities interest in football imo .Though Liverpool and Newcastle fit both camps !

How about grown women? There's a lot of those too. To be fair I don't mind it, whatever anyone wants to wear is fine by me. Wearing footy shirts has a 'clan-ness' to it that is quite nice.

The one thing I noticed about Leicester the other week was the amount of homeless people in the city centre, by far the most I've seen outside London. I imagine most of them were made that way when their scummy club refused to pay their debts

TheFamilyCat wrote:Leicester is a rugby town. Not saying there is no interest in football but there but they have another sport to compete with unlike us (and Newcastle in reality).

In a similar part of the country and with the same reason, Northampton have always performed poorly for such a big place.

Think the locals in Leicester have a bit of (inverse) snobbery going on. Rugby is considered the sport for those out in the sticks and football for the city-types. (Read into that whatever sterotypes you want). I don't think there's much crossover between the fans i.e. if you go the rugby you don't bother with the footie and vice versa.

Goddy wrote:Think the locals in Leicester have a bit of (inverse) snobbery going on. Rugby is considered the sport for those out in the sticks and football for the city-types. (Read into that whatever sterotypes you want). I don't think there's much crossover between the fans i.e. if you go the rugby you don't bother with the footie and vice versa.

From a few people I've met there does seem to be more crossover now (at least in terms of rugby fans going to football) due to the success. Not sure how long that will last if the team doesn't continue to do well though.

Steve1956 wrote:Glasgow.

I was quite surprised when we went up for the friendly. In the centre there was no talk of football or evidence either club lived there.

Probably for the best

Dont see many PNE shirts in Preston.

Quickenthetempo wrote:I was quite surprised when we went up for the friendly. In the centre there was no talk of football or evidence either club lived there.

Probably for the best

My wife & I was chatting to a nieghbour,and my wife who used to be a keen golfer,was chatting golf with the nieghbour who was also keen on golf,she turned to me and asked if golf was my game i explained i was a football fan she said her husband loved football and in a whispered voice said my husband is a blue and then she looked rather worried waiting for my response i said all my wife's family are blues so i suppose i am,she looked rather relieved and invited us round for a coffee at a later date,since I've lived up here I havnt seen lots of shirts on display,

Leeds

I moved to Leicester when they were in League 1 and met one person I'd consider a serious Leicester City fan.

SammyBoy wrote:I moved to Leicester when they were in League 1 and met one person I'd consider a serious Leicester City fan.

I used to see a girl who lived in Enderby and I never really thought of them as a football city even when they won the title.

The old Filbert street proper ground..proper football fans it's only of Late you see lots of people wearing Burnley shirts.....we really are the Bees knees.

Tricky Trevor wrote:Leeds

Might be the case at the moment but the ratio of football:RL shirts reduced significantly when they were in league 1 and drifting aimlessly in the championship.

Very rare to see local shirts in Belfast - a lot of PL and SPL just. I did see a Linfield shirt being worn in east Belfast once and found myself getting annoyed, as it is Glentoran territory - so either a blow-in or glory-hunter.

The OP mentioned us being one of the highest percentage of attendees per head of population - I thought we were top?

I've just seen a Burnley shirt in benidorm

FactualFrank wrote:Do you still live there? I used to see a girl who lived in Enderby and I never really thought of them as a football city even when they won the title.

No I moved back north years ago. I'd say quite a lot of people down there would call themselves Leicester fans if you asked them, but they'd never attend a game and a bad result wouldn't bother them that much.

SammyBoy wrote:No I moved back north years ago. I'd say quite a lot of people down there would call themselves Leicester fans if you asked them, but they'd never attend a game and a bad result wouldn't bother them that much.

They seemed more excited when they found Richard III. The thing is they also buried Man United that same week.

FactualFrank wrote:The OP mentioned us being one of the highest percentage of attendees per head of population - I thought we were top?

Not quite I think. Forrest Green Rovers get similar crowds to Stanley and they play in a place called Nailsworth in Gloucestershire with a population of less than 6k. About 50% per head. Astonishing really.

AlargeClaret wrote:To be fair any city full of grown men wearing football tops on a a non match day is more a reflection of blind faith, poverty and uber “ chavness” and terrible fashion sense than the cities interest in football imo .Though Liverpool and Newcastle fit both camps !

On my wifes first visit to Burnley, many years ago, she asked me if there was a match being played that night. To which I replied no, why. She then said why are all the men wearing Burnley shirts then. Just saying.

andyh wrote:Portsmouth = Footie city
Southampton = Not Footie city

Purely from my experience. Southampton fans seem really plastic somehow.

Southampton have seemed pretty plastic since they got their new ground. The old one felt sort of real.

See also Brighton, Reading, Coventry.

I'm not sure about Salisbury. The only times I've been is to see them play Merthyr and they've had a few fans, but don't feel like Salisbury is there main team. That's a bit like all those sides around London where the places are full of supporters whose main team is away. I guess that is mainly aimed at Slough Woking Wycombe and all those west ham fan feeder clubs beginning with B etc but you can probably include everything up to reading.

I know Leicester very well. Often there and I can tell you
that many of the residents support Man U or Liverpool. Work that one out.

Stayingup wrote:I know Leicester very well. Often there and I can tell you
that many of the residents support Man U or Liverpool. Work that one out.

Apart from the Odd 30 thousand mebee...

tim_noone wrote:The old Filbert street proper ground..proper football fans it's only of Late you see lots of people wearing Burnley shirts.....we really are the Bees knees.

Often in the area of Filbert street. Next street is Big Ears street and a few minutes walk away is King Power Stadium and not far away from that the rugby ground and not that far is Grace Road. A sports city is Leicester.

tim_noone wrote:Apart from the Odd 30 thousand mebee...

Oh yes they are well supported from within the city and so they shoukd be.
But they could have even more support is my point. Leicester has 4 to 5 times the population of Burnley. Leicester has a huge ethnic population. Mainly from India. Some of these people are big Leicester fans but many are not. However they are all very decent people and Leicester is a place I like to visit.

LoveCurryPies wrote:Liverpool has 2 tremendous teams...Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers.

Tranmere isn't in Liverpool.

groove wrote:Tranmere isn't in Liverpool.

I know.....it's daft joke.

I should have said Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.

Los Angeles of all places

From Wikipedia:

Soccer has enjoyed longstanding popularity in Los Angeles. As of 2019 there are two professional soccer clubs in Los Angeles County that play in Major League Soccer: LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC. The Los Angeles area is also home to two Division 2 professional teams in the United Soccer League: Orange County SC and LA Galaxy II, the reserve side of LA Galaxy, and many semi-professional clubs and leagues including the United Premier Soccer League, SoCal Premier League and National Premier Soccer League, among others. In 2019, two more professional teams, Cal FC (Thousand Oaks) and California United Strikers FC (Orange County) will join a new, unsanctioned, professional league called the NPSL Founders Cup.

Stayingup wrote:Oh yes they are well supported from within the city and so they shoukd be.
But they could have even more support is my point. Leicester has 4 to 5 times the population of Burnley. Leicester has a huge ethnic population. Mainly from India. Some of these people are big Leicester fans but many are not. However they are all very decent people and Leicester is a place I like to visit.

Oddly I looked it up while we were there and the population is far bigger than I thought it was: just shy of 330k. This means their average attendance is about 10% per head. However their average is only slightly lower than capacity (like ours) and allowing for the away section not always being quite full it would seem that the home seats will be fairly full most matches. They would need a much bigger ground to improve on the average per head.

All this doesn't explain why I didn't get the feel of a football mad city when I was there.

Stayingup wrote:Often in the area of Filbert street. Next street is Big Ears street and a few minutes walk away is King Power Stadium and not far away from that the rugby ground and not that far is Grace Road. A sports city is Leicester.

Backed Filbert street at Southwell 13/2 tonight on the back of the thred. will keep my eyes open for the other three!!

ClaretTony wrote:I've had two visits to the hospital at Blackburn recently. For the first of them I was unprepared, I was sent there from the urgent care at Burnley, the second was for an appointment on the following day and I followed my standard protocol for a visit there, I wore a Burnley shirt.

And they treated you ok? Or are those new pills having a slow but odd effect?

Valencia is completely football mad - just off the scale compared to the UK

I’ve lived in Leeds for 9 years and for most of them I hardly ever saw any evidence that Leeds have a football club. However, the last couple of years when they have shown some willing to do something the amount of Leeds fans that have come out of the closet is ridiculous. A lot of fair weather fans