The Much Awaited Return of Promotion Maths

[XXVilla]

Surely any town or city with a football team that gets support is a football town?

Wigan..?

[IFWaters]

Nottingham has two long standing league clubs. How can it not be a football town?

Now here's a debate : Is Birmingham a football City?

I always put it down to the fact that Nottingham had/has more other attractions than Derby (proper university, Trent Bridge for international cricket, ice hockey team, tennis open, plus its a bit more of a tourist town etc).

[malckennedy]

I went to Uni in Nottingham in the late 80s and early 90s when Forest were one of the best teams in the country and the atmosphere at the City Ground was generally akin to a library. Rubbish fans.

I went in the mid 70s and remained in Nottingham until 1985, coinciding with them being champions and subsequently winning 2 European Cups. Yes, really poor fans.

I remember one Forest "supporter" who I worked with telling me in the weeks in the run up to Christmas one year how they were going to give us a football lesson in the match that was scheduled during the Christmas and New Year period. Returning to work for a day around the 29th December he took great delight in telling me that he knew we'd get a stuffing from the mighty Forest. I was able to have the satisfaction of publicly pointing out to him that the match wasn't until New Year. His response was "Oh, who did we beat on Boxing Day then?" 

Unfortunately they did beat us in the New Year. Not sure of the exact Year but somewhere between 1980 and 1984.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Surely any town or city with a football team that gets support is a football town?

Coventry isn't a football town. I worked there for a while, yet still met very few Cov fans.

[Des Little]

Surely any town or city with a football team that gets support is a football town?

Coventry isn't a football town. I worked there for a while, yet still met very few Cov fans.

That’s because they all support Liverpool or Man United. Wankers

[saunders_heroes]

Derby is a football town. Nottingham isn't.

How do you work that out? they're both football towns - Nottingham has 2 clubs, one of them a founder member of the Football League.

Although I hate to admit that Wolves and the Albion are "bigger" than both of them

Albion bigger than Derby? I don’t think so.

[Ad@m]

Where's this Derby love in come from?

As much as I hate the Olbiyun they've won more than double the trophies Derby have. Derby are barely bigger than the Blues.

[FranzBiberkopf]

Further (subjective examples):

Leeds isnt a football town (it’s a rugby league town)
Leicester isn’t a football town (it’s a rugby union town)
London isnt a football town
Paris isn’t a football town
Preston is a football town


Whereas
Derby is a football town
Sunderland is a football town
São Paulo is a football town
Wigan isn’t a football town

Etc

[Lastfootstamper]

I'm with Ad@m on the Derby thing. They've been "famous" for less time than Leeds. Same with Forest. The successes for both of them have been blips, albeit quite big blips in the latter's case, but still blips nonetheless, in otherwise utterly unremarkable histories.

[Meanwood Villa]

Further (subjective examples):

Leeds isnt a football town (it’s a rugby league town)
Leicester isn’t a football town (it’s a rugby union town)
London isnt a football town
Paris isn’t a football town
Preston is a football town


Whereas
Derby is a football town
Sunderland is a football town
São Paulo is a football town
Wigan isn’t a football town

Etc

I get where you're coming from with Leeds. Rugby was the established winter sport there first. Same goes for Bradford and Huddersfield. See also Bristol. Football of course became more popular in all these places because that's what football does. However I can see the reasoning that these might not be football towns.

This is demonstrably not true about Nottingham though with football teams dating from the 1860s and a rugby team dating from the 1870s. Personally I'd say any town/city with a team in the original 12 is a football town.

[London Villan]

Controversial... but is Birmingham a football town? I think the size of the city dilutes the effect, unlike somewhere Liverpool or Newcastle.

[XXVilla]

Controversial... but is Birmingham a football town? I think the size of the city dilutes the effect, unlike somewhere Liverpool or Newcastle.

Yes we’re a football town

[cdbearsfan]

Derby is a football town. Nottingham isn't.

How do you work that out? they're both football towns - Nottingham has 2 clubs, one of them a founder member of the Football League.

Although I hate to admit that Wolves and the Albion are "bigger" than both of them

Albion bigger than Derby? I don’t think so.

One League title, five FA Cups and a League Cup vs two League titles and one FA Cup. Albion have also played more than six hundred more top flight games, that must be about fifteen more years at the highest level.

Struggling to see how Albion aren't bigger than Derby.

[IFWaters]

I think a "football town" (or city) is one where football is an all-consuming identity of the place, it's religion if you like. Newcastle is the obvious example. The football club is the toon. Glasgow is a 2 club example. As I said earlier, if Derby, population 230,000 can get 30,000 for a home game, we'll over 10% of the population then to me that's a fair measure of a football town. By that measure, Birmingham isn't, not at the moment.

[brian green]

Sheringham is not a football town

Charlton is not a football town

Albrighton is not a football town

Grays (A, A, S) is not a football town

Rowley Regis is not a football town

Neither is Bognor Regis

Or Lyme Regis

Austin is not a football town. It is an American city

But Dallas is a football referee

Delph is a brass band town

Morecambe was a director of Luton Town

Kendall was almost one of a midfield of Bell, Book and Kendall

Kendal is a mint cake town

Small Heath is an endangered butterfly


In the words of Forrest Gump, that is all I have to say about that.