Attendance vs population?

Is there a link between your city population and your attendance?

F.eks.

If I choose a BSP club wit ha town population of 190k, will I then have more sold out seats (later on) than if I choose a team with 40k population?

Iirc it doesn't limit your stadium size. I'm sure someone on the forum said on FM10 they were in a town with around 20k, but filled a 60k stadium when they got the premiership.

So club catchment areas aren't taken into account? Disappointing if true.

Factors like what league you are in and the rep of the club seem to be most important. In FM10, I managed a small Belgian club and got a stadium bigger than the population of the town once I became a top Champions legue club.

I read on the forum about a guy who managed to win the Campions league with a Northern Irish team in FM 2011, but still got very low league attendence and no stadium expansion. So the fact that he was in a small league seemed to stop him getting a higher attendences.

So club catchment areas aren't taken into account? Disappointing if true.

Catchment areas dont really count with football fans tho, people travel all across the country to go see the team they support play at home.

Catchment areas dont really count with football fans tho, people travel all across the country to go see the team they support play at home.

Ah, but if you take a BSS/BSN team in an area where there are already well supported league clubs (Gateshead, or Havent & Waterlooville, for example), then there's surely a limit to how many fans this club would attract if it achieved a meteoric rise through the leagues? I can't imagine Gateshead ever attracting huge crowds with Newcastle United within sight of their ground.

But whos to say that in 20 Years Gateshead could not be a bigger club than newcastle. Newcastle could have slipped down the leagues and be in league 2.

I know this is very unlikely but it could happen. Just look at clubs like Sheffield Wednesday. They were in the Premier League getting 38000 10 years ago. Now they only get about 15000 in League 1.

Ah, but if you take a BSS/BSN team in an area where there are already well supported league clubs (Gateshead, or Havent & Waterlooville, for example), then there's surely a limit to how many fans this club would attract if it achieved a meteoric rise through the leagues? I can't imagine Gateshead ever attracting huge crowds with Newcastle United within sight of their ground.

it would depend on the success of the team, there are still hundreds of thousands of people within a 100 mile radius of the ground who could in effect become fans.

Using scotland as an example, from Aberdeen we have buses every week that leave for Glasgow to watch rangers or celtic play, it takes more than 3 hours on a bus to do that journey one way. This is due to the success those two clubs have, people want to go watch teams that wins tropheys. If a club becomes successful they will attract fans, no matter how big the city, especially if its a small club on a meteoric rise, thats appealing to a lot of football fans.

it would depend on the success of the team, there are still hundreds of thousands of people within a 100 mile radius of the ground who could in effect become fans.

Using scotland as an example, from Aberdeen we have buses every week that leave for Glasgow to watch rangers or celtic play, it takes more than 3 hours on a bus to do that journey one way. This is due to the success those two clubs have, people want to go watch teams that wins tropheys. If a club becomes successful they will attract fans, no matter how big the city, especially if its a small club on a meteoric rise, thats appealing to a lot of football fans.

Wimbledon don't really bear that out though, do they? They used to get, what, 8,000 fans showing up at home games? They suffered because people in the area already supported league sides, London being awash with clubs from the top of the Premiership down to the Conference and below.

I guess my point is, in order to grow in such a fashion, you'd have to rely on getting people to change their allegiance from a club they already support. And I don't know anyone who'd do that.

It's an interesting discussion, and I'd like to know the official answer from SI about what is taken into account. For years now I've looked at the size of a town or city in order to judge the potential for growth of teams I was considering managing... maybe I needn't have bothered.

Doesn't matter, i am playing with Varde, with a population around 10k citizen, right now i'm getting build a stadion with 12.5k citizen

Actually, to contradict my earlier postings (but I like to be honest!), Hoffenheim are from a village with a population of c. 4,000, but have built a 30,000 seater stadium since their rise through the German league system. Although I think I'm right in saying the village isn't very close to any other big German sides? Feel free to correct that, as my knowledge of German geography isn't wonderful.

Wimbledon don't really bear that out though, do they? They used to get, what, 8,000 fans showing up at home games? They suffered because people in the area already supported league sides, London being awash with clubs from the top of the Premiership down to the Conference and below.

I guess my point is, in order to grow in such a fashion, you'd have to rely on getting people to change their allegiance from a club they already support. And I don't know anyone who'd do that.

It's an interesting discussion, and I'd like to know the official answer from SI about what is taken into account. For years now I've looked at the size of a town or city in order to judge the potential for growth of teams I was considering managing... maybe I needn't have bothered.

they are a unique case, an old club that was struggling to keep their fan base, the crazy gang had long since gone and the club was on the decline, their board decided to move to re-invent the club so to speak, i dont think many others have tried this, the other thing is at the end of it all this is a game, designed so you can take your tiny club to the heights of Europe, it would be impossible to code it to measure how many fans your likely to attract based on catchment areas and other clubs around you, i would have thought anyway.

Same with Gretna, who have only c. 3000 in their village, yet they had a 6000 stadium. There is only Carlisle nearby I think, so that didn't really work out for them when they got into the SPL.

I was gonna say as well, that if you are taking a small team in a village to greater heights, who is to say in the future anyway that that village might prosper and grow somewhat, therefore a bigger catchment area. We are playing into the future after all, and town and village sizes are always expanding.

they are a unique case, an old club that was struggling to keep their fan base, the crazy gang had long since gone and the club was on the decline, their board decided to move to re-invent the club so to speak, i dont think many others have tried this, the other thing is at the end of it all this is a game, designed so you can take your tiny club to the heights of Europe, it would be impossible to code it to measure how many fans your likely to attract based on catchment areas and other clubs around you, i would have thought anyway.

Well their board only bought the club with the intention of moving it to Milton Keynes, then the largest conurbation in Europe without a professional football club. The previous owner, Sam Hammam (sp?) even floated the idea of moving the club to Dublin, as I recall. Prior to that though, even at the height of the crazy gang, they never attracted the crowds that a more established club would have done.

Interestingly, when they first moved to MK, they didn't attract huge crowds because the existing Wimbledon fans voted with their feet and created their own club (and all power to them, I say), and anyone in MK who was interested in football already supported a club.

However, going back to the original point of this thread, now you mention it, it would be a tough job to code the potentional catchment area of a club into the game. You'd need to map out the population spread of every country, and factor in overlaps between clubs etc etc. It seems I was expecting rather too much of the game! Shame on me, as a programmer by trade, for not thinking about it logically.

Catchment areas dont really count with football fans tho, people travel all across the country to go see the team they support play at home.

Of course catchment areas count! For most football fans, it surely counts for everything because it impacts upon what teams you can easily go to watch on a regular basis!

However, going back to the original point of this thread, now you mention it, it would be a tough job to code the potentional catchment area of a club into the game. You'd need to map out the population spread of every country, and factor in overlaps between clubs etc etc. It seems I was expecting rather too much of the game! Shame on me, as a programmer by trade, for not thinking about it logically.

I also think it isn't needed. It would not only be very complex and difficult but it would also be a shame to have these kind of restrictions in a game where you need to keep some fantasy!

I also think it isn't needed. It would not only be very complex and difficult but it would also be a shame to have these kind of restrictions in a game where you need to keep some fantasy!

I think the problem I have is that the game is such an accurate simulation of most aspects of the beautiful game, I forget that it doesn't do EVERYTHING that real life football does!

Of course catchment areas count! For most football fans, it surely counts for everything because it impacts upon what teams you can easily go to watch on a regular basis!

not now a days, its very easy to get cheap transport between cities in britain, as i say from aberdeen alone i would say at least 2-3 thousand people travel for 6 hours overall every week to watch the old firm play. a few of my pals have season tickets for rangers, they were born here and have lived here their entire lives, but because its quite easy for them to get there and back they dont mind.

I think the City population counts more in lower leagues and less as you get higher. What I want to know is would people travel to different countries to watch a team? (Not IRL I mean in the game)

Flamers

not now a days, its very easy to get cheap transport between cities in britain, as i say from aberdeen alone i would say at least 2-3 thousand people travel for 6 hours overall every week to watch the old firm play. a few of my pals have season tickets for rangers, they were born here and have lived here their entire lives, but because its quite easy for them to get there and back they dont mind.

I think clubs like Rangers and Celtic are the exception to the rule really. Same with Manchester United etc.

For most clubs, their catchment area is very important, because that's where they are going to draw the vast majority of their support. That's the point I was making.

I think clubs like Rangers and Celtic are the exception to the rule really. Same with Manchester United etc.

For most clubs, their catchment area is very important, because that's where they are going to draw the vast majority of their support. That's the point I was making.

yeah i guess your right to be honest with smaller clubs you will need to rely on the local people, but if you became a club like man u, rangers ect then it would begin to matter less, the more successful you are the more people will want to travel to watch your team.

I had a 65000 seater stadium in FM10 as st Mirren, the population of paisley is like 70k or so, so, I think if it's "unspecified" the local population, then there's no limit, but I don't know if it works the same in FM2011