Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the seventh chapter of the book (a 10,500 word section). This focuses on football as a business (yes, it was a business even then!), the move into league football for Manchester’s clubs and the relaunch of them as Manchester City and Manchester United.
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The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1896-97 when Manchester City was a Second Division club. These figures are estimated based on newspaper reports of the period but are widely accepted as a good indication of support enjoyed at each club.
In the following table every team is in Division One unless (2) appears after their name. This indicates they were a Second Division club that season. Where two teams have the same average then these have been listed in alphabetic order.
1896-97 Average Attendances
Average
Team
15525
Everton
12925
Aston Villa
11675
Liverpool
8575
Bolton
8300
Derby
8200
Sheff Utd
8075
Newcastle (2)
8000
Manchester City (2)
7300
Sheff Wed
6775
Blackburn
6725
Preston
6425
Wolves
6275
Woolwich Arsenal (2)
6200
Newton Heath (2)
6150
Bury
6000
Leicester Fosse (2)
5825
Small Heath
5550
WBA
5525
Sunderland
5425
Stoke
5300
Leicester Fosse (2)
5175
Burnley
5125
Nottm Forest
4850
Notts County (2)
4800
Grimsby (2)
4500
Small Heath (2)
3325
Gainsborough Trinity (2)
2950
Blackpool (2)
2875
Walsall (2)
2650
Burton Wanderers (2)
1500
Darwen (2)
2325
Burton Swifts (2)
2075
Loughborough (2)
1675
Lincoln (2)
This series of features covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success. Why not subscribe and read every feature? Here’s a link to the story of the 1896-97 season:
Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with an article on Manchester City in 1896-97.
This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
Merry Christmas to all. On this day (25 December) in 1896 Manchester City played their first competitive Christmas Day fixture. The game, staged within sight of the present day Etihad Stadium, was a derby match with Newton Heath (United). It was played at Bank Street, Clayton (behind the Velodrome and the current BMX site). It was a Manchester derby which ended in a Newton Heath victory.
