DCs comments on Stoke

[Mellor!]

1 hour ago, Dr Delgado said:

How many Vale fans hate Stoke more than they love the Vale?

I'm about 55/45 in favour of love for Vale

[Birches Head Fred]

52 minutes ago, Warren said:

I primarily stopped watching Stoke in the mid 1980s because of the hooligan culture. That's inside and outside the ground. Last went to a Stoke game circa 1999 at the Victoria ground. 

More recently I don't know what to think of the owners. Bet365 is a major employer in the potteries and Coates and family do sponsor stuff locally. But gambling doesn't sit comfortably with me as sponsorship in the same way tobacco and alcohol doesn't. 

I feel the owners have bought a period of relative success for the club by writing off a vast amount of money. I guess the local economy and employment benefited. 

I'm have moved from the point where I would watch PV and SC 40 years ago to where I have no affinity left for SC. I won't ever go to their stadium again. 

 

Can't believe you of all people aren't going on Tuesday Warren 😆

[Platty's Tassels]

Im not going to lie, I really hate Sjoke. I grew up in the times where we regularly beat them and being from the South of the city we were hugely outnumbered as fans.

 

I own absolutely no clothing that is red. Just my brain refuses it and I just cant.

 

Now, I dont agree with the  stokie loan bashing. Im in the camp of give them a chance, just like any player.

 

Think about it, who would be more pissed off? Vale fans having him, or Sjoke fans after he does really well for us and we close the gap even more. Its a no lose for us.

[Bycarsbill]

On 02/09/2022 at 17:47, Dr Delgado said:

How many Vale fans hate Stoke more than they love the Vale?

A pretty ridiculous question!

[Biddulph_PV]

I agree with DC and @Powerline. The simple truth is that Vale fans of my generation (mid 40’s) will never see Vale as a ‘bigger’ club that Stoke. Fact.

What defines a ‘big’ club?? For me it is consistent gates of 10k-plus (irrespective of league), also what you might take to Wembley on a given day and what you would pull in for a big ‘one off game’.

We’ve at 4 trips (including Cardiff) and taken 28k, 11k, 15k and 18k. Had Stoke been at Wembley in May, they’d have taken 30k+. We couldn’t even get 10k Vale fans into the ground vs Swindle.

All this is because they have been far more successful down the years, plying mainly the 1st and 2nd divisions, whereas we’ve been perennial strugglers living hand to mouth. They therefore became the defo facto choice for the majority of the Staffordshire natives who understandably preferred to watch Stoke vs Best, Law, Charlton than Vale vs Newport County. 

It will take a monumental, Man City-type investment and decades of relative success for us to reverse this, plus a ban of gambling companies involvement.

Look at Man City vs Utd. There is a running joke that all Utd fans are from London, but the fact is that even with Utd where they are after a decade mismanagement, every game is a 73,000 sell out and they have a season ticket waiting list as long as your arm. I’ve seen reports that in Greater Manchester there are 9 United fans to every single City fan. You hopefully get the point.

The trajectory is definitely upwards for us but what DC said is bang on the money for me.

[mr.hobblesworth]

13 minutes ago, Biddulph_PV said:

I’ve seen reports that in Greater Manchester there are 9 United fans to every single City fan. 

Where did you see these "reports"? As someone who lived in Manchester since being a teenager, that is the biggest load of bilge I've ever heard.

[toyahw]

6 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

Where did you see these "reports"? As someone who lived in Manchester since being a teenager, that is the biggest load of bilge I've ever heard.

In Manchester Manchester about 50/50  I'd say. Even when City were pants.

[philpvfc]

7 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

Where did you see these "reports"? As someone who lived in Manchester since being a teenager, that is the biggest load of bilge I've ever heard.

Totally. I worked in Manchester for a year or so and came across more City fans than United and the area I worked was mostly around Salford which choice be a United stronghold. There is reportedly 1.1 Billion United fans, Manchester has a population of around 1.2 million, so there ain’t many United fans who actually live in Manchester, in fact I would go as far to say that less than 10% of United fans in the U.K. actually live in Manchester.

[Biddulph_PV]

I read it on some website, can’t remember which. I’ve worked in Manchester for most of the last 15 years and it’s always felt overwhelmingly Utd. 

[toyahw]

I lived in Manchester for years. Proper Manchester, half my family are Mancunians, 50/50. Once you get out into the sticks of greater Manchester mainly United. City fans live (or did) in town.

[Warren]

4 hours ago, Biddulph_PV said:

I agree with DC and @Powerline. The simple truth is that Vale fans of my generation (mid 40’s) will never see Vale as a ‘bigger’ club that Stoke. Fact.

What defines a ‘big’ club?? For me it is consistent gates of 10k-plus (irrespective of league), also what you might take to Wembley on a given day and what you would pull in for a big ‘one off game’.

We’ve at 4 trips (including Cardiff) and taken 28k, 11k, 15k and 18k. Had Stoke been at Wembley in May, they’d have taken 30k+. We couldn’t even get 10k Vale fans into the ground vs Swindle.

All this is because they have been far more successful down the years, plying mainly the 1st and 2nd divisions, whereas we’ve been perennial strugglers living hand to mouth. They therefore became the defo facto choice for the majority of the Staffordshire natives who understandably preferred to watch Stoke vs Best, Law, Charlton than Vale vs Newport County. 

It will take a monumental, Man City-type investment and decades of relative success for us to reverse this, plus a ban of gambling companies involvement.

Look at Man City vs Utd. There is a running joke that all Utd fans are from London, but the fact is that even with Utd where they are after a decade mismanagement, every game is a 73,000 sell out and they have a season ticket waiting list as long as your arm. I’ve seen reports that in Greater Manchester there are 9 United fans to every single City fan. You hopefully get the point.

The trajectory is definitely upwards for us but what DC said is bang on the money for me.

The ban on gambling sponsorship may be coming. The PL are considering acting before the Government does to prohibit it. Of course a couple of things happened recently - new PM and a new King. I don't know whether I'm facing North or South anymore and so stuff like this may be way down the agenda. 

[Warren]

4 hours ago, Biddulph_PV said:

I read it on some website, can’t remember which. I’ve worked in Manchester for most of the last 15 years and it’s always felt overwhelmingly Utd. 

There is an irony that Man Utd isn't in the City of Manchester taking local authority arbitrarily drawn boundaries. I have met many more Utd supporters than City supporters in my life time. City seemed to be centred on Wythenshawe which is one of those places you try to drive past rather than go to. I hypothesis that old Man City was based there and its surrounding areas. New Man City has acquired more cosmopolitan supporters because of success. They would likely fall away if City went back to its past status . Then maybe City support is a couple of hundred thousand people whereas Utd support, drawn much more widely in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire, is inherently much bigger. They have a huge cosmopolitan following as well. 

[toyahw]

21 minutes ago, Warren said:

City seemed to be centred on Wythenshawe which is one of those places you try to drive past rather than go to. I hypothesis that old Man City was based there and its surrounding areas.

Hmmm. You do not know Manchester very well do you.... 

[toyahw]

Citeh support is mainly central and south Manc. Where Maine Rd was actually. United is north and trafford/salford.  United have a big support from the Irish community all around. Wythenshawe is an out-of-town place, probably mostly Man U fans.

I'm talking genuine fans here not plastic fans.  

But I'm Vale... 

[fuzzyvalefan]

Lived in Manchester for years and the general rule i felt was City is South and East, United is West and North but the numbers were always similar, even before the money.