Here’s an advert from the official Manchester City and Newton Heath match programme, published in September 1899. It demonstrates a period when football clubs looked to raise money however they could. Here ‘business men’ could advertise on almost any part of City’s Hyde Road ground or United’s Bank Street ground. I always find it funny when people try to claim that football has only become a ‘business’ in recent decades… Ever since the game became professional it has been a business and those owning clubs have looked at ways to increase income or profitability.
More on the 1899-1900 season elsewhere on the site. Why not search for features?
The series of features on the 1900s starts today with a simple look at the average attendances of league clubs. I’m publishing the statistics here for season 1899-1900 when Manchester City was a First Division club for the first time. They were the third best supported club – the highest position either Manchester team had enjoyed up to that point. In fact City had been the best supported club for the opening months of the season as the heading photo shows (that’s from 20 January 1900).
All 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.
Manchester City with the Second Division Shield, 1899
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.
1899-1900 Average Attendances
Average
Team
19825
Aston Villa
16725
Newcastle
16000
Manchester City
12925
Everton
11325
Liverpool
11175
Sheff Utd
10475
Sunderland
8950
Notts County
8125
Derby
7875
Nottm Forest
7700
Stoke
7150
Sheff Wed (2)
6575
Wolves
6475
Blackburn
6250
Leicester Fosse (2)
6225
Newton Heath (2)
6175
WBA
5925
Burnley
5925
Middlesbrough (2)
5775
Bury
5050
Small Heath (2)
4825
Preston
4800
Bolton (2)
4125
Woolwich Arsenal (2)
4000
Glossop
3775
Grimsby (2)
3775
Lincoln (2)
2950
Chesterfield (2)
2875
New Brighton Tower (2)
2525
Walsall (2)
2400
Barnsley (2)
1875
Gainsborough Trinity (2)
1675
Burslem Port Vale (2)
1650
Loughborough (2)
1650
Luton (2)
1500
Burton Swifts (2)
This series of features covers Manchester City in the opening years of the twentieth century. Why not subscribe and read every feature?
Tomorrow there’ll be a subscriber article on the 1900-01 season in a similar style to those recently posted on the 1890s. Here’s an 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899:
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The series of features on the 1890s continues today with a simple look at the last League tables for the 1800s. These were published after the final games of December 1899 and cover the Football League First Division and the Second Division. See if you can spot your club.
Notice the Division One table includes Bury and Manchester City from present day Greater Manchester, with near neighbours Glossop also in there (at the time the smallest town ever to have had a top flight team). Glossop were funded by Samuel Hill-Wood who eventually turned his attentions to Arsenal (they’re in the Second Division in these tables).
The last Division One table for the 1800s. This was published after the final games of December 1899.
The Second Division included Bolton and Newton Heath (MUFC) from present day Greater Manchester. Arsenal appear below New Brighton Tower.
The last Division Two table for the 1800s. This was published after the final games of December 1899.
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 like this 1800 article below on Manchester City in the final months of 1899?
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 (January 20) in 1900 the attendance stats (see image) seen here were published in various newspapers. Of course, as a historian who researches these sorts of things it does not surprise me at all that Manchester City were the best supported club at this stage. However, I can understand why some may have been surprised back then. City had only just been promoted for the first time the previous season.
In the end Manchester’s Blues ended the season as the third best supported club with an average of 16,000 (League champions Aston Villa attracted 19,825 and 5th placed Newcastle 16,725). City ended the season 7th in the top division.
For those wondering Newton Heath (Manchester United) averaged 6,225 and were the 16th best supported club. Liverpool averaged 11,325 and were 5th best supported club.
Gary James' Football Archive 