Sunderland was sensible. Only Hull and Leeds had 2 professional rugby clubs in the city before a football one.In fact the largest attendance at Elland Road before Leeds United played Sunderland in the FA Cup, and still the second largest attendance there, was 54,000 for Leeds RL v Hunslet. Elland Road was originally a rugby league ground. Sunderland are Sunderland AFC, one of relatively few clubs named AFC rather than AFC because there was a Sunderland rugby union team before the football one.
I can remember when a lot still worked Saturday mornings Sunderland averaging 28,000 for reserve games.
I was at that game had just returned from a 2.5 year stint in what was called then the Far East. I was unable to get in our normal spot in the midddle of Bunkers so ended up at the back of the crowd in the south part of the East Stand.. Watching City that day was a big change from my previous experience BW (before Waggy). Its hard to undestand how we never made it to Division One with and team like that. .
He's trotting out the old trope that city would be much bigger if it wasn't for that pesky egg chasing, but it's far more complex than that. There are competing interests everywhere, and since RL became primarily a summer sport and at a lower price point it's no longer really an argument.
City would be bigger if we didn't have the rugby teams, anyone not acknowledging this also won't acknowledge it's a rugby town, which sadly it is. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
If say 5k fans go to kr And say 8k to efcee That could be 10k+ that might have been die hard city fans
Maybe historically, but they occupy completely different market sectors nowadays. As previously stated, larger clubs in traditional industrial conurbations often had other football clubs in the area to compete with and still managed to thrive. If only Wednesday didn't have united to compete with eh? Or Liverpool - Everton. Or all the Lancashire/greater manchester clubs - oh wait, they had R L to compete with too. It's just a lazy scapegoat in hull. Just look at how many existing football fans in Hull chose Leeds over City for example. Relative success, pride in your club and strong sense of cultural identity have a lot to do with it. It's too easy to just say if RL wasn't a thing city would be greater. If city didn't exist I wouldn't become a RL fan all of a sudden, why would it necessarily work the other way around?
I said relatively few are named AFC. We are AFC to distinguish us from the rugby clubs who were formed before us. Leeds United are AFC, though they always put LUFC on their jerseys, for the same reason. That is the point, the one I made about Sunderland. In those days the term football club or FC covered rugby clubs as well as football ones.
It doesn’t help having 3 professional clubs in one city of our size. There can be 40,000 watching the 3 clubs in Hull in a week. In Sunderland, a similar size you watch Sunderland or you don’t watch anybody. Sunderland fans aren’t going to go to Newcastle or vice versa. The only place outside London with 3 clubs I can think of is Bristol and that is a lot larger than Hull.
Not nowadays. Plenty of Toon fans live in Sunderland's catchment and vice versa. Maybe historically like I said previously, but not nowadays.
If they live in their catchment area it doesn’t mean they support them. But as Imsaid people living in the cities themselves wouldn’t go watch the other club, unlike up inadequates in Hull following the two lots of reds and TWS.
A large chunk of RL fans in Hull want nothing to do with City, yet will happily wear Man City/West Ham/ Liverpool shirts, that's just three gits that live down my street, all of them Hullensians. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
This to me is more the issue than the R L clubs. You have football fans in Hull choosing not to support City. They're actual existing football fans not ones you think would convert from R L. Fact is, City for many generations were seen as a small, lower league club. I even remember die hard city supporters telling me we'll never get to the 1st division, so if that's how our own saw the club then no wonder others went elsewhere for success. Hopefully that's been less of a problem with the more recent generations, and to be fair, it is reflected in a 20k average currently. But I'd be looking at the hull whites and fake reds before pointing the finger at RL.
I think Hull is one of the worst places for people choosing to support clubs from other cities. People who say Hull is a rugby city are wrong. Pubs are packed when football matches are on. The amount watching RL games and World Cups are paltry compared to those watching football. They just don’t choose to go to City. In fact a lot of them sneer at City and delight at their failure. Other cities of a similar size identify with their local team and wish them well even if they don’t go to games. Someone I know, a football fanatic who was one of the only 43 who joined the away day scheme when we were in the bottom division. He applied for a new England travel club membership when they altered it. The person who he spoke to on the phone said more members of the travel club had declared themselves City fans than any club except WestvHam.
I've heard Wigan Athletic fans say that their biggest rivals are Wigan Warriors, on account of the hostility their club gets from rugby league fans, and sadly I know we suffer from the same sickness in Hull.
Was talking to a Pompey supporting taxi driver this morning, who is driving to Hull and back on Saturday for the game. He was talking about how disappointed they were not to sign Kamara after his loan spell last season. Interestingly, he said that Kamara was initially unimpressive playing on the left but then excellent when switched to the right wing. Switching Kamara and Belloumi within games could be very positive.
Nope, we've watched England matches in city centre pubs when RL was also on the TV and the sound was muted for England, but not the RL. Took our business elsewhere. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
