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 1897-98 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.
From 9 May 1898 the first Manchester football programme was a mock up based on Everton Liverpool programme
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.
1897-9 Average Attendances
Average
Team
17550
Everton
15325
Aston Villa
12125
Liverpool
11800
Sheff Utd
11600
Newcastle (2)
10925
Sunderland
9475
Sheff Wed
9050
Derby
8600
Notts County
8300
Bolton
8050
Blackburn Rovers
8000
Manchester City (2)
7875
Woolwich Arsenal (2)
7425
Nottm Forest
6950
WBA
6925
Wolves
6825
Stoke
6200
Preston
6125
Newton Heath (2)
5900
Leicester Fosse (2)
5400
Small Heath (2)
5200
Bury
3825
Burnley (2)
3525
Grimsby (2)
3325
Luton (2)
2950
Lincoln (2)
2825
Walsall (2)
2600
Darwen (2)
2300
Burton Swifts (2)
2250
Gainsborough Trinity (2) (2)
2050
Loughborough (2)
1825
Blackpool (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 1897-98 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 1897-98.
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?
On this day (9 May) in 1898 the first ever Newton Heath and Salford match programme was produced however all is not what it seems. This was actually a mock up of what a Manchester football programme could look like and was used to officially register the new publication. Everything in this issue was mocked up based on an Everton-Liverpool style programme. The company behind the Manchester programme was Merseyside based.
From 9 May 1898 the first Manchester football programme was a mock up based on Everton Liverpool programme
When the programme properly began the following football season it carried the details of not only Newton Heath and Salford but also Broughton Rangers and Manchester City.
One interesting image the original mock up contained was this scene from an Everton Liverpool game which it described as the finest picture of football ever published (hyperbole, hey?).
From 9 May 1898 the first Manchester football programme was a mock up based on Everton Liverpool programme
