WHAT DEFINES A "BIG CLUB" ?

I have always wondered what defines a big club ?

Home Support ?
Away Support ?
City Population ?
Catchment Area?
Money?
History?
Stadia?

There are many reasons as to what makes a club "Big".

Ipswich for example is a relatively small Uk town, however, today it is classed as a big club based on its history between 1960 to 1990, yet prior to the early sixties it was very small.

Whats your opinion , and which clubs?

Good question , my opinion would be history, support within and outside geographical area,and number of trophy,s won
So big clubs Man U. Liverpool and Arsenal !

Excellent Question, Catchment area,History,Population and then you need the stadium with of course a Big Home Support

Catchment area must be a factor. Burnley and Blackburn cancel each other out and could never increase their respective fan base by much even if they won the prem league. We have the potential of increasing our fan base again, with no other league club within 30 miles and traditional support throughout most of south wales and across the border into saxony. Buses use to travel to ninian from where I live in gloucestershire back in the 20's and 30's and support has been growing again within the last 10 years.

History,Support,Silverware

Did a history lesson on Duklas Prague. In the 50s they were huge and represented everything communist Czechslovakia wanted it to. It was run by the government so therefore had state support. The crowds were above 70,000 for all the games altohugh I am led to believe it cost a penny to go and watch them. Around 30 years ago the ground was closed due to crowds as low as 2,000 and lost of government support.

A bit of a false impression was given just like the ideology of communism was. To me I dont think its history that makes a club but how it copes with the way the world is today. There is alot of talk about the catchment area making it a big club. That helps but I dont think that puts a club in the big bracket alone. You have to look further afield to stand a chance of becoming big.

When we went to Chelsea last season how many of their fans do you reckon are local? Perhaps a fair few but I would say a large proportion come from outside Chelsea. After the game and stopping off at a service station I talked to quite a few Chelsea fans who had actually travelled alot further than us. I also recall when they just starting winning everything I was working in Ireland and came home every weekend, flew out on a Friday night. There were always Chelsea at the airport making a weekend of it to go and see the game. Being an ex-pat myself I could tell you all similar stories for Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool.

So its not just your local area that will make you a big club but how you can attract fans further afield. There are loads of Welsh living away from Wales. Generations of us to be honest I can and they will turn to Cardiff when we get to the premier. Our away following will be immense and we will become a big club because of it.

I have always wondered what defines a big club ?

Home Support ?
Away Support ?
City Population ?
Catchment Area?
Money?
History?
Stadia?

There are many reasons as to what makes a club "Big".

Ipswich for example is a relativley small Uk town, however, today it is classed as a big club based on its hitory between 1960 to 1990, yet prior to the early sixties it was very small.

Whats your opinion , and which clubs?

Probably a combination of all of those things.

In terms of the championship and applying that criteria I'd say Leeds, Forest, Derby, Ipswich, Sheff Utd, Norwich and maybe Leicester and Boro are all bigger than us.

Similar sized clubs in our division are the likes of Hull, Pompey, Coventry, Bristol City, Palace & QPR (all of whom have tasted top flight football more recently than us incidentally)

I'd bracket Swansea with teams such as Preston, Millwall and Burnley, Reading, Watford.

History,Support,Silverware

Silverware

money

Its a hard one. Its like who is bigger Man City or Liverpool?

Man City now have more money and higher attendances than Liverpool but Liverpool have the history and the silverware.

Did a history lesson on Duklas Prague. In the 50s they were huge and represented everything communist Czechslovakia wanted it to. It was run by the government so therefore had state support. The crowds were above 70,000 for all the games altohugh I am led to believe it cost a penny to go and watch them. Around 30 years ago the ground was closed due to crowds as low as 2,000 and lost of government support.

A bit of a false impression was given just like the ideology of communism was. To me I dont think its history that makes a club but how it copes with the way the world is today. There is alot of talk about the catchment area making it a big club. That helps but I dont think that puts a club in the big bracket alone. You have to look further afield to stand a chance of becoming big.

When we went to Chelsea last season how many of their fans do you reckon are local? Perhaps a fair few but I would say a large proportion come from outside Chelsea. After the game and stopping off at a service station I talked to quite a few Chelsea fans who had actually travelled alot further than us. I also recall when they just starting winning everything I was working in Ireland and came home every weekend, flew out on a Friday night. There were always Chelsea at the airport making a weekend of it to go and see the game. Being an ex-pat myself I could tell you all similar stories for Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool.

So its not just your local area that will make you a big club but how you can attract fans further afield. There are loads of Welsh living away from Wales. Generations of us to be honest I can and they will turn to Cardiff when we get to the premier. Our away following will be immense and we will become a big club because of it.

That is an interesting insight, although not surprising

Many of the old "iron curtain " teams were Army teams

CSKA (an abbreviation for Central Sport Club of the Army in several Slavic languages) refers to military sports teams in several east European countries:

Bulgaria
CSKA Sofia (sports club)
PBC CSKA Sofia, a basketball club
PFC CSKA Sofia, a football club
PHC CSKA Sofia, an ice hockey club
VC CSKA Sofia, a volleyball team
Moldova
CSKA-Agro Stauceni
CSCA-Rapid Chişinău
Poland
Legia Warszawa, also known as CWKS Legia Warszawa
Romania
FC Steaua Bucureşti, known as CSCA from 5 June 1948 to March 1950
Russia
CSKA Moscow
HC CSKA Moscow, an ice hockey club
PBC CSKA Moscow, a basketball club
PFC CSKA Moscow, a football club
VC CSKA Moscow, a volleyball club
FC SKA-Energiya Khabarovsk
FC SKA Rostov-on-Don
SKA Saint Petersburg, an ice hockey club
Tajikistan
CSKA Dushanbe
Ukraine
CSKA Kiev
CSCA Stadium, Kiev


These teams were often the best supported and crowds were huge in comparison to other teams.

I believe it is is history ( previous success ) and then the crowd following.

home crowds and away following in my opinion, nothing to do with silverware that means a club is succesfull doesn't allways mean it is big, man city ain't won a trophy since the 70's but they are a big club

average attendance at home

Has to be consistent large attendance support with international recognition and the history to back it up....

Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton, Spurs, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan (AC and Inter), Bayern Munich, etc are 'big' in Europe, whilst other continents, specifically South America (Brazill and Argentina) have their own 'big' clubs which are effectively 'brand' names; instantly recognisable worldwide by their names, nicknames, shirts, badge/logo and/or achievements.

Gotta be support followed by history. To me Sheff Wed are a big club..always good crowds and plenty of history, Forest likewise and of course everyone's favourites Leeds. 3 examples of BIG clubs who are currently not enjoying the high life in the Prem, but 3 clubs who will IMO be back amongst the elite in the not too distant future.

GOOD DEBATE