done some twatter reading today alot of Swindon fans believe that they are alot bigger than us I have always wondered what makes a club 'big' how can it be measured? attendance? titles? cup wins? league position over the years? confused!!
Big clubs are usually defined by their average crowd - Which league they spend most of their time in and finance. So in Division 1 this year the two 'biggest clubs are Wolves and Sheffield Utd.' However in terms of winning promotion from the division that means nothing Sheffield Utd have been the biggest club in this division for a few years now. In terms of league position the biggest club in the West has to be Yeovil at this moment in time.
Yeovil are currently the highest placed WC team. I still think we are the best in the west, We have the highest attendance's. Have been above them all for 6 years until now. Bristol City Yeovil Swindon Cheltenham Exeter Rovers Plymouth Torquay Probably the rankings
I don't want to be a pleb but I only care about Bristol City and I only take the piss out of our South Gloucestershire wannabee's, the rest happy days to them, except on match day..
Whilst I naturally see City as the biggest club in the West Country, probably followed by Plymouth, Swindon are the only club in our region to boast playing Premiership football (albeit briefly),so maybe that is their yardstick? I would counter with the argument that they have been the most successful team in the West Country in recent history and even if we had beaten Hull and made it the promised land, their efforts would still have eclipsed ours due to their smaller fanbase and financial clout, this however does not make them the biggest club in the West Country, these are 2 very different things!
City are the biggest club period Yeovil are in a higher league and fair play to them, but it doesn't make them a bigger club Doncaster are in the Championship now but both Sheffield clubs, Barnsley and Rotherham are all bigger clubs in South Yorkshire
The league table doesn't lie. We've been a League 1 team for a while now, and the league finally confirms it. Yeovil are a Championship team now, so I'd rate them as bigger than us.
Lets see so one season in the premiership makes them a big club ah well no accounting for some people, As the saying goes there's nowt so queer as folk.
Currently more successful on one of the ratings if they start getting bigger crowds than us I will agree they are a bigger club.
http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/swit.htm Compare attendances with us and Swindle over the past century.. Ours are historically bigger.. I'll give it to them though, they're mildly bigger than the gas.. but smaller than oxford
It is a hard one to judge on who is better. Of recent success we are probably the bigger club and I'm sure there are players out there who would pick us over Yeovil as I'm sure if you went with the bookies we will be back in the championship next year and Yeovil will be relegated. I can understand that Swindon would see themselves as a big team given they were once in teh Premierleague but that was many many years ago and they are probably lucky to still be a league team with their money issues. The same could be said about a team like Portsmouth, many seasons in the Prem but now look at them, Coventry and Bradford again. Even Cambridge once were one game away from the Prem and now in non league. We were once a top team in the top tier of English Football and if it wasnt for finances we could have still be there probably. We are the biggest in our area but compared to the rest of the country we are a mid size club which shows had bad sport is in the south west. Could the fact also that we have one of the richest owners in football (top 20) make us a big club?
However you look at it fans of one club are never going to accept that another rival club is bigger than they are if there is anything they can do or point to that might make it look differently. For instance would Everton fans say that Liverpool is a bigger club or Manchester City fans say that Manchester United is a bigger club the answer is no as it would be the other way round. As long as there is parity or one club has something the other doesn't there will be arguments and that's one of the things that makes footie the game it is rivalry between fans.
Interesting one Hawk. Urban legend would have you believe that Man City have always had a large fan base of local Mancunians as opposed to Man U who have more overall fans, but a lot of them are lsewhere. Also at the old Maine Road stadium, Man Citys record attendance was also something like 84,000 which eclipses Man U's best efforts....
