A pub conversation about the current composition of the English Premier League led me to check the regional distribution of teams at the moment. The best represented region is Lancashire (historic boundaries) with 6 teams, followed by London with 5. The West Midlands has 3, the South of England 2, the North East 2, and the East Midland and Yorkshire one each. All of which raises an issue: if Leeds are relegated and Sheffield United are not promoted, will next season be the first season ever without a Yorkshire team in the top division of English football?
It’ll just be a return to the good old days of the Football League’s founding. Twelve clubs (Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolves) and none of them from Yorkshire, but there’s still a chance for the first Premiership Black Country derby.
Isn’t Middlesbrough in Yorkshire? Or is that Northeast? Damned wireless interweb is no help for the geographically challenged yank, I’ve found sites claiming it for both.
As something of a Wednesday fan - ie, they won the first English soccer game I ever saw so why not - I’ll just say this sucks. Of course, as an Owls fan, everything sucks these days.
Well Middlesborough was in Yorkshire, but is now in Cleveland. But since I used “historic borders” for Lancashire, I should probably have done the same.
Daaaaaaaaamn. You read my mind. I had the very same questions.
Oh, wait ….
Simon Kuper in the FT a few weeks ago suggested that only conurbations between 1m and 3m could host football teams. The idea is that smaller ones don’t have the resources, while larger ones haven’t the focus or civic pride in their football team. This conveniently gave him Manchester, Madrid, Munich, Milan, while Liverpool are declining along with their population. Perhaps the same is true of Yorkshire (though not Leeds, I suppose)?
Harry: the Tees is the northern border of Yorkshire. The confusion you find online is because when Cleveland was finally abolished in 1996 (at the same time as ‘Avon’ and other mongrel counties) it was quartered up into four unitary authorities.
That means Middlesbrough is administratively without a county, but is post-officially (i.e. to the Post Office) regarded as part of Yorkshire. As it always was: there’s a reason why Yorkshire CC plays one game annually at Acklam Park.
It’s not simply a historical curiosity; the people of Thornaby (south of the Tees, so Yorkshire) still complain about being lumped in administratively with Stockton (north of the Tees, so Durham). And I believe the same applies to those in the East Riding who liberated from ‘Humberside’.
Oh, and Chris: it’s spelt ‘Middlesbrough’. As in ‘Middlesbrough win 3-1 on aggregate.’
Simon Kuper in the FT a few weeks ago suggested that only conurbations between 1m and 3m could host football teams.
That’s a classic consultant’s-eye view: I’m sure the supporters of Feyernood would disagree. Those sorts of comments usually come with arguments for team mergers.
Actually, the best argument against the 1m-3m idea is from American Football - the Green Bay Packers.
It’s probably true in that no new side is going to come up to a strong position from a small town - Rushden, say, are unlikely to make the Premiership, as they’ll never develop the supporter base - but established sides will have supporters from outside their geographic base. Most Premiership and Division 1 sides in England have supporters clubs in many parts of the country - Wolves, for instance, have a thriving fan base in Scandinavia (including an ex-Swedish PM).
And, of course, we know what happens when you try to move a team from a metropolis to a small place where it will be “more successful.”
But wait — perhaps Oldham will be promoted a couple of times???
Don’t ask me, I support the ex-Woolwich side, although I have a soft spot for the metropolitan team with their own political party.
Bugger. Just looked at the Groniad football page. Middlesbrough, paugh! Keown — past it.
Well, if Leeds Utd. goes down the pan a lot of people in the rest of Yorkshire will survive the blow, believe you me.
Simon Kuper in the FT a few weeks ago suggested that only conurbations between 1m and 3m could host football teams.
It’s really hard to argue for that in an American setting. The Packers aren’t really a good counterexample because of the odd way NFL funding works. (Most revenue is TV generated, and that’s equally shared.) But in all the other American sports, there is remarkably little evidence for there being a cap on how big cities can get and still support successful teams. New York, for instance, is doing reasonably well in baseball (and their failures in basketball and hockey are not for want of spendong), and the LA area seems to do just fine in most sports.
Simon Kuper in the FT a few weeks ago suggested that only conurbations between 1m and 3m could host football teams.
I missed that, and I try to read his stuff, I think he’s often on the ball. Surely what’s optimum is for each conurbation to host 2 teams? Which includes the Ms listed above (is there a second Munich team?), and Glasgow, Liverpool and for now Barcelona, but not Leeds.
Leeds’ gates are holding up astonishingly well - 35000 still turn up most weeks.
London suffers from having so many teams - well, the Arse do/did. Wenger noted some years ago that they accrued fewer points than might be expected due to 10 or 12 derby matches per season. I think that’s changed in the last couple of seasons.
[Eric Idle] Good evening. Tonight on World Forum we are deeply privileged to have with us Karl Marx, the founder of modern socialism and author of the Communist Manifesto, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known to the world as Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution, writer, statesman, and father of modern socialism, Che Guevara, the Bolivian guerilla leader, and Mao Tse-tung, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party since 1949.
And the first question is for you, Karl Marx. “The Hammers.” “The Hammers” is the nickname of what English football team? “The Hammers.” No? Well, bad luck, Karl. It is, in fact, West Ham United.
Now, Che Guevara. Che… Coventry City last won the English football cup in what year? No? I can tell no further question. Anybody else? Coventry City last won the English Football Cup in what year? No, I’m not surprised you didn’t get that. It is in fact a trick question. Coventry City have never won the English Football Cup.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review