Who is bigger in Manchester? City or Utd?

[Marvin]

They ain't in manchester.

I went to school in the 70s when City were at their last peak and it was 50-50 then. 20 years on, Utd won trebles and City nothing. The faithful kept going, but all the kids were red. You'd see it everywhere. It probably kept us blue. I'm sure if Utd had been less successful it would have seen City's support decline further, They were so in your face that you had to stay blue. The taunting and baiting, banners ad songs at Old Trafford kept us blue.

 

[philiph20]

As for matchgoers i would say there are more of us but for pub watching non attendees with no history of attending games it is them. If you go in any pub when they are on it is crowded with easy option taking cowards basking in reflected glory and giving it large, i don't class them as supporters just people who want to fit it and are terrified of deviating from the so called norm. I would say the age range of 18-25 is where we lack as far as matchgoer go, you see away sides coming to the Etihad and in many cases they seem to have a more youthful support than we do when we travel away.

It is up to City to capitalize on our recent success and attract more Mancunians through the gate when the stadium is expanded but i get the impression that your average 20 something working class Manc from Denton, Crumpsall or Withington is not a priority.

 

[Marvin]

As for matchgoers i would say there are more of us but for pub watching non attendees with no history of attending games it is them. If you go in any pub when they are on it is crowded with easy option taking cowards basking in reflected glory and giving it large, i don't class them as supporters just people who want to fit it and are terrified of deviating from the so called norm. I would say the age range of 18-25 is where we lack as far as matchgoer go, you see away sides coming to the Etihad and in many cases they seem to have a more youthful support than we do when we travel away.

It is up to City to capitalize on our recent success and attract more Mancunians through the gate when the stadium is expanded but i get the impression that your average 20 something working class Manc from Denton, Crumpsall or Withington is not a priority.

That was the case for sure, but just going off the number of City fans I see around me, I think it's changed.

The only way of knowing is to look at gates for Cup crowds when the out of towners don't go, and there you can see that City's support has surged. There used to be no chance City would ever get more than 25k for a Cup game, now it's 40k or a full house.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Probably be even I would have thought, much the same as Everton/Liverpool will be even in Liverpool itself.

However in surrounding areas it will almost certainly be more rags. I live in Warrington and it used to be 40% rags and Liverpool and 10% each City and Everton when I was at school.

That has probably changed a bit in recent years and I definitely see more City tops now than years ago. Match going blues from Warrington is high though going off the numbers on the trains etc...

 

[Marvin]

I wonder what it's like in schools now?

Aguero, Silva, Toure, Hart versus Rooney and RVP. We must be winning that hands down

 

[Academica]

City have more support South and East Manchester
United have more North and West

I live in North Manchester nearly all my neighbors are blues and at my lads school l would say it's about 5 to 1 blues, even some of the kids with rag dad's prefer city.

 

[west didsblue]

This was in the Evening News a couple of years ago based on a very unscientific survey

 

[philiph20]

I can't get my head around that survey unscientific or not, more blues in Wigan than in Rochdale and Bury?, i'm not having that. Am i correct in assuming that Prestwich and Whitefield have the largest local supporters branch and places like Heywood have plenty of blues, places like Wigan and Bolton have always seemed to be either the local sides and the 'ugly sisters' and very few City fans.

 

[west didsblue]

I can't get my head around that survey unscientific or not, more blues in Wigan than in Rochdale and Bury?, i'm not having that. Am i correct in assuming that Prestwich and Whitefield have the largest local supporters branch and places like Heywood have plenty of blues, places like Wigan and Bolton have always seemed to be either the local sides and the 'ugly sisters' and very few City fans.

I think it's because in the more outlying areas only a small number of people took part in the survey so for example if 2 out 3 from one area said they were blue, a blue blob was put on the map. It only provides a general indication.

 

[Mankymeat FC]

The topic about overseas support triggered a thought about our support in Manchester.

The survey from many years ago by Manchester Metropolitan University (early 90s? - I forget now) of both clubs season ticket base told us that Utd had more season ticket holders in Greater Manchester than City, but that as a percentage City's support was more concentrated in Greater Manchester i.e a higher proportion of City's support was based in Greater Manchester.

We comforted ourselves with that but in reality it was a false argument. Bury or Oldham would be expected to draw a high percentages of their support from their locality.

What I'd like to know is who by absolute numbers has the biggest support in the City. I realise there's no means of knowing and it's all subjective, but in my opinion City are much bigger than Utd in Manchester.

I used to work in the CIS in Manchester, one of the biggest employers in the City and going off my floor, City's match-going support totally dwarfed Utd, we're talking about 5 to 1. When I'm walking down Market Street or through the Arndale you see much more City than Utd.

They have bigger crowds, but the number of day-trippers is amazing, It's said that City's support will go the same way as our match ticket prices are now higher than Utd but for the moment this is rubbish. For League games, almost 90% of the City fans present are season ticket holders. It's why City can charge £50 for match-day tickets (like the Sunderland game), because it's the away fans, and a small number of occasional fans who are paying it.

It used to be the case that City would get 30,000 at Maine Road, and that was our hard core regular support, and they'd go whatever. But then when you made it difficult for the out of towners with midweek Cup games, we'd be lucky to get 25k whatever the price, and we couldn't fill our ground even when we had FA Cupor League Cup Quarter Finals. Now however, it's become very noticeable that if a Cup game is priced reasonably we can fill the ground comfortably.

When I was a kid growing up in the 80s, and then when I used to watch my brother play football in the 90s, a lot more of the kids used to be Utd than City. It was depressing to see. I am hearing this has changed now, but I don't get to see this for myself.

I reckon whether you base it on match-going fans or not, Manchester is now at least 70% blue. What do you think?

In the 70's and 80's in South manchester ie withington burn age, Didsbury and over to Stockport as I was growing up we outnumbered United massively - at school in Didsbury I would say there were more Liverpool fans than United fans and all my mates were blues. That said I have mates who grew up in places like Chorlton , higher broughton etc who would talk about being the only blues in their class. round altrincham and into Cheshire was also very red! I reckon overall probably more reds as the outskirts in the west and north and the big populations of Salford eto were pretty red. Didsbury though was blue.

Mind you i suspect all those Liverpool fans and their kids weren't supporting Liverpools by the late 90's and became rags so things evened out with rag success

That sounds like complete bollocks. I went to school in Didsbury from 81 - 92 and there were about 10 city fans in my entire year at secondary school and 1 Liverpool fan. I can still name them all.