Are West Ham really that much bigger than us?

Now, I know West Ham are playing in the Premiership and their history is much more successfull than ours, they have a bigger ground and apparently 600,000 on their club data base, but every home game they advertise tickets on general sale, so can't sell out 33k internally. I was very surprised to see an ad in the Metro yesterday advertising that tickets still remain available for the visit of Spurs! A local derby FFS. It got me to thinking that either we are overestimating our own support as I have always believed that we would sell out 35k given the opportunity of Premiership football against a club like Spurs. Is the Premiership as big a draw as we once thought, is it way too expensive or are we potentially bigger than West Ham? I notice that last year they had sold the most season tickets of any championship club at 19,700, we weren't far behind at 18,200, it will be interesting how the future pans out. It would be miraculous, considering where we were 10 years ago, if we gave clubs like West Ham a run for their money in matching or even beating their attendances.

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It's cause and effect in football, you generally get better, the bigger you get. More support means more revenue which equates to acquiring better players, which ultimately ends up with you becoming the best

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It's cause and effect in football, you generally get better, the bigger you get. More support means more revenue which equates to acquiring better players, which ultimately ends up with you becoming the best

Generally.

But look at Swansea. Arguably many 'bigger' clubs not as good as them. and at the end of the day all that matters is success.

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It's cause and effect in football, you generally get better, the bigger you get. More support means more revenue which equates to acquiring better players, which ultimately ends up with you becoming the best

Generally.

But look at Swansea. Arguably many 'bigger' clubs not as good as them. and at the end of the day all that matters is success.

So that being the case, we are far better than Swansea because we are more consistently better than them. Over the years they have had their times finishing above us but only 20 times in their whole existence.
Cup success and cup runs too put us well above them.
Yes they are having a their time at the moment, but it will change as things usually do in football.

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It's cause and effect in football, you generally get better, the bigger you get. More support means more revenue which equates to acquiring better players, which ultimately ends up with you becoming the best

Generally.

But look at Swansea. Arguably many 'bigger' clubs not as good as them. and at the end of the day all that matters is success.

Any anomoly can occur in the short term but generally the bigger clubs will have more success and the smaller clubs will revert to being also rans with the odd short terms of success here and there. So enjoy it while it lasts.
I honestly don't think success will be sustained long term by either Cardiff or Swansea unfortunately.

I know Dave Jones once said that old record crowds are nothing to shout out about as EVERYONE had massive crowds in the past, but it must give you an indication of potential especially if you compare ALL clubs biggest ever crowd.

With that in mind check out the list at the attached link.

It shows that West Ham's record crowd is 42,322 and gets them placed 40th on list, 20 places below us. This is one of my favourite lists as it shows we have a record attendance of 1 person more than Leeds. It may not be correct but it's always worth bringing up when certain people rock up on the site.

Also most records are for cup games whereas ours is for a league game. Also love the fact that Coventry and Palace got over 50,000 in the old division 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_hom ... ball_clubs

Interesting to see little old Swansea Town down at 32000. That nicely ranks them in amongst Reading and the like.

Yes they are.

If we ever get back to those heights again we get some really high attendances again also. That is why expansion is needed to capitalize on the potential. Some believe it won't happen but the proof is there and they're just being negative. Just you wait for the boom in demand if we go up.

It is sport, a competition - it doesn't matter who is 'biggest' , all that matters is who is best.

It's cause and effect in football, you generally get better, the bigger you get. More support means more revenue which equates to acquiring better players, which ultimately ends up with you becoming the best

Generally.

But look at Swansea. Arguably many 'bigger' clubs not as good as them. and at the end of the day all that matters is success.

Again, the past is irrelevant in sport/competition. It's all about who is best at the present.

Swansea are planning for the future in a sustainable way. Will they maintain that success or even improve? Remains to be seen - but I don't think the bubble can just suddenly burst at a club where big spending isn't the method of success.

Eye spy with my little eye a first time poster being provocative without bedding in first.

I know Dave Jones once said that old record crowds are nothing to shout out about as EVERYONE had massive crowds in the past, but it must give you an indication of potential especially if you compare ALL clubs biggest ever crowd.

With that in mind check out the list at the attached link.

It shows that West Ham's record crowd is 42,322 and gets them placed 40th on list, 20 places below us. This is one of my favourite lists as it shows we have a record attendance of 1 person more than Leeds. It may not be correct but it's always worth bringing up when certain people rock up on the site.

Also most records are for cup games whereas ours is for a league game. Also love the fact that Coventry and Palace got over 50,000 in the old division 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_hom ... ball_clubs

I would'nt take too much notice of historically biggest attendance, as factors such as ground size come into it. I would think that the West Ham's 42k, highest attendance is just because thats all they could get in a confined ground like the Boleyn. Given their history and catchment area, if Palace, Coventry and us got over 50k, you would think that given a bigger stadium at that time, then West Ham would have been in the 60k plus bracket.

My boy is a big West Ham fan & over the years we've been to a lot of Hammers games & one thing that is evident that a lot of older fans wear the old Hammers tops,very passionate support who are strongly linked to their history, whereas we lack the dye in the wool numbers that West Ham have.Once upon a time i would have said we were very similiar to West Ham, loud n proud but not anymore.