Big towns with no major football clubs.

Warrington 172k
Slough 164k
York 162k
Poole 159k
Telford 150k
Gloucester 147k
Sale 138k
Solihull 138k
Gateshead 122k
Maidstone 118k
Chelmsford 117k
Basildon 115k
Basingstoke 114k
Worthing 114k
Eastbourne 113k
Stockport 110k
Sutton Coldfield 108k
Woking 107k
Wakefield 105k
St Helens 105k
Worcester 104k
Hemel Hempstead 102k
Bath 101k

Definitive list of towns and cities currently without a team in the football league with a population of over 100k, obviously some have previously and others have clubs that are in the higher reaches of the pyramid that are pushing for promotion, Forest Green Rovers play in Nailsworth which has a population of 11k or 1/16th of the population of Warrington.
 
American_Mary said:
Warrington 172k
Slough 164k
York 162k
Poole 159k
Telford 150k
Gloucester 147k
Sale 138k
Solihull 138k
Gateshead 122k
Maidstone 118k
Chelmsford 117k
Basildon 115k
Basingstoke 114k
Worthing 114k
Eastbourne 113k
Stockport 110k
Sutton Coldfield 108k
Woking 107k
Wakefield 105k
St Helens 105k
Worcester 104k
Hemel Hempstead 102k
Bath 101k

Definitive list of towns and cities currently without a team in the football league with a population of over 100k, obviously some have previously and others have clubs that are in the higher reaches of the pyramid that are pushing for promotion, Forest Green Rovers play in Nailsworth which has a population of 11k or 1/16th of the population of Warrington.
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I thought Dudley was the largest town since Salford were promoted? Population of 300k+
 
Frozen Horse said:
Around 15k.
I know that that doesn't fit with my claim that RL is bigger in Leeds than football. However, the RL crowd only comes from Leeds, the football crowd comes from much of Yorkshire where they have their own RL teams.

In addition to seeing more RL shirts than football, what struck me as unusual was, if you were passing a school at break time, the kids would be playing scratch games of RL rather than football.

Nothing against RL; it's a good sport and I prefer it to RU. It's just that I was far more aware of Leeds, the city's, love of RL than football when I lived there.
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Leeds United always played second fiddle to the rugby league teams before Revie got hold of them. I'm of an age when Leeds had three first division RL teams - Leeds, Bramley and (my lot) Hunslet, never mind the surrounding teams like Castleford and Wakefield. League is a shadow of its former self now, mostly thanks to Superleague and Sky monopolising it, but at one point not so long ago, it was huge across the M62 belt.
 
I think we should discount towns/cities that have a professional club within 10 miles.

Taunton postcode area is about 312,000 pop - no professional football club or league club for over 40 miles (Bristol City)
 
Dudley borough area has a population of 310k but the town of Dudley itself has a population of 79k, again with Taunton the post code area covers West Somerset the population of Taunton town itself is around 70k, Crystal Palace is in Selhurst which is a district of Croydon, I think the Bromley bit is a throwback to the original Crystal Palace which was in Bromley.
 
Crystal Palace itself was in what is now Bromley, as was the ground where they pleayed (and where Cup Finals were played). However, you can walk from there to Croydon in five minutes. As you also can to Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham as it happens.
 
I used to live in Basingstoke and go watch them when unable to get to a Boro game. Disgraceful how no-one there cares for the club as seen in the current situation they find themselves in. Used to only get 400-500 for home games, same as Stockton Town now, when they just below Conference/National League level despite being a larger town and with no real ”big” team near them. Despite Reading being the closest club (about a 25 min drive, same as Boro to Sunderland) not many there support either Reading or Basingstoke, many support London teams as it is a London overspill town with many families moving from London to Basingstoke for affordable housing and then commuting in.

The club currently finds themselves without a ground as the owner sold off the ground for housing and kicked them out to the local athletics park pitch. The owner then found out that despite owning the club and the land there is covenant on the land stating it can only be used for sporting use so no housing can be built currently. The owner of course is taking this through the courts. The owner has not allowed the club back and for the last four years the stadium has fallen into disrepair, like how Billy Synners did, and there is that much damage it will take a small fortune to put right if he cannot build the housing.

The town showed its contempt for the club in its attitude towards a new stadium. Many towns would be grateful to have a new multi-use sporting arena but the locals were all paid up members of the “not in my backyard“ brigade and have for a decade objected to any area it is to built on. One bunch of fields that is basically a fly-tippers dream and a place where dog walkers feel free to let their dogs defecate without having to pick it up was classed as a “local beauty spot” by residents which I know first hand is laughable.

Basingstoke must have the largest catchment area bar the far South-West without a league club and has huge potential if they could get a benefactor in and get the town behind the club.
 
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