It's about the place of football in the declining towns/cities of the nation: http://thetwounfortunates.com/decli...n=decline-and-fall-football-and-failing-towns
A good read. At one time, around the world not just here, the more passionate fans could be found in the more deprived areas. Things have altered as poverty has decreased in some of those areas and working class fans have been driven out. ( Have you seen the price of games in Brazil? Relative to wages they are far more expensive than here, which is why gates there have declined alarmingly for a lot of clubs). The following, from the article " a recent Cardiff University study into Swansea concluded, the Premier League status of a club has a huge impact on the local economy." Should be made compulsory reading for the likes of Geraghty who ignores the fact we have a Premier League club but waffles on about how rugby and darts show what a sporting city Hull is and what financial benefits that they supposedly bring. He even mentioned them in the City of Culture bid whilst ignoring City. Would anywhere else not have made something of the fact that they were the only city with a Premier League club in the largest county in the country?
Yes, no amount of success by the two rugby clubs will put the city of Hull on the map. All it would do is stereotype Hull as a grim northern place. Rugby league no doubt conjures up in a southerner's mind backward thoughts of ferrets and pidgeon racing and coal mining. City's two first two years in the PL no doubt did more for the image of Hull than Hull FC or HKR winning twenty successive Challenge Cups.
