Why, Oh Why, Are You A Newcastle Fan?
Put your guns down guys, this is not a Newcastle-bashing session.
The title was to get your attention. And now that I have it, I want to ask you Newcastle fans something.
This is an extract from an article (albeit slightly offensive to Newcastle fans) I just read:
“Every football supporter in the country will lay claim to the fact that they have the best supporters in the country. The more vociferous supporters tend to be supporters of teams who haven’t won anything of note since Geoff Hurst was a lad, a sort of small-penis syndrome.
The worst offenders of this are Newcastle United fans, just listening to them and they would have you believe that they were getting average gates of 40,000 in the old Second Division.”
Read the full article.
What I’m asking is to hear some reasoned, intelligent response to the article. There is no doubt that all clubs have a core of passionate supporters, and Newcastle United is no different. But do the arguments raised by this article make sense, or are they just another piss-taking attempt from a rival fan?
Once again, intelligent answers please.
And if you’re interested in writing about Newcastle United, drop me a line.
Topics: Newcastle United
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I have been a Newcastle fan for a great number of years now and although I am not a Geordie (I’m Welsh and proud of it) I feel a great passion for the city and its people. I for one try to stay away from the whole debate as to “who has the best fans?” because I do not believe it is a point that can be proven.
I disagree with the extract you have published from this article simply by virtue of the fact that I believe that the reputation Newcastle have for having the best fans is one that has been created by the british media and not the Newcastle faithful. If you asked almost any supporter in football, they would most likely state that their own club had the best support. Newcastle fans can claim to be some of the best because St. James Park is full with 52,000 fans every single premiership game despite having not won a trophy since the Fairs cup and having endured (particularly recently) very bad seasons brought about by bad management and bad transfer dealings that have sullied the clubs previously excellent reputation.
However, what many people (particularly Newcastle fans) fail to mention is that SJP is not always full, I have been in a very empty stadium on certain European nights where the atmosphere was positively flat.
All in all, Newcastle have some wonderful fans, but then so does every club and it is not ourselves that have created this reputation but the british media!
August 2nd, 2006 @ 21:28I think the only proof that you need to prove that Newcastle United are the best fans in England are as follows…
Our team gets more invites to play testiomonials than any other in England… The reason is… clubs know that more toon army fans will attend than any other club… so more money!
Fair enough it wasn’t ALWAYS packed to the rafters when the chips were down… the worst my memory lets me remember was 14’000 at St James on a wednesday night… but i spoke to a taxi driver recently who could remember lower attendences than that.
But judge a team’s fans when their team are doing well! I know people always say “where were you when you were s*!#t. But to be fair watching your team play badly can be depressing and even though i never stopped watching… i don’t blame the ones that did. All we need to remember is that when things were good our fans really showed their true colours. Every game packed to the rafters and deafening. You’d chat to fans from other clubs after the game and they were in a state of shock. In the year when we won the division one championship we filled not only our home games but at many away matches there were more Newcastle fans than the home team!!! FACT. Ask anyone about a wet night in Peterbrough when every end was packed with Geordie’s singing the Blaydon Races.
Black and White’s do have the best fans… and if you lot from other clubs are truly honest with yourself you will realise this is true!
Pete Graves (Newcastle United Commentator for Magic1152)
August 2nd, 2006 @ 21:30Actually, I think you CAN quantify the ‘full stadium’ thing, although my figures may be out of date. For actual bums-on-seats, the top 3 are (or were until recently) Man-U, followed by Newcastle, followed by Portsmouth. All have Premiership attendence up around the 99.5% mark. The difference between Man-U and the other two is that the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ is generally the ‘Theatre of Corporate Hospitality’, whereas the others are pretty much packed with season ticket holders and the odd one like me who spend hours hitting a redial button to get a seat in the stratosphere behind a pillar…
August 2nd, 2006 @ 22:05One more thought: why did Damien Duff sign? Because he went to St James’ at the end of last season and commented at the time on the unbelievable home support. There is even rumour of a statistic to back that up: apparently the middle of the Gallowgate end stand holds the record for the loudest crowd noise in the UK. I sat there for the FA Cup q-final against Spurs, and 120-odd DB seems about right. It actually hurt. And it was wonderful.
It’s true that Newcastle haven’t drawn the biggest crowds whilst in the lower divisions but I seem to remember, (if my memory serves me well ) that when we were drawing crowds averaging 17,000 in the old second division the average gate in division one was about 20,000. People who comment on crowd size should look at their own crowds during the same period and take into account the division they were in and the success they were having at the time.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 22:32Why do we support Newcastle United? Because that’s where we are from. Who else is a Geordie going to support?
As regards to claims to being the best, I don’t think it is particularly Newcastle fans that make this claim, more that people in the media do this for us. I often hear such comments from the pundits on Sky Sports, many of whom have barely been to the place. I’m sure many Newcastle fans are happy to go along with these claims, but that is hardly the same as making them ourselves.
Man City are another team about whom this is often said, though they seem to have a real chip on their shoulder about it. Witness their constant tedious chants of “where were you when you were sh*t?” It is noticable that Man City can’t fill their new stadium (which is smaller than ours), despite all their posturing.
What we can say is that given the complete lack of domestic success (ie trophies) that Newcastle United have had over the past 50 years, we have extremely loyal and long suffering fans. We had over 31,000 for a 1st round Intertoto game in July the other week, and 20,000 turned up to see Michael Owen sign. League games are always full to capacity with 52,000 present.
In the old 2nd division, we weren’t getting 40,000. Then again, the top team in the first division (usually Liverpool) wasn’t getting this either! In the early to mid 80′s, we were regularly in the top 5 attendances in the country despite being in the 2nd division. Even in the darkest days we averaged over 20,000 which was a big attendance before the Premiership boom.
I wouldn’t like to say we are the best supporters, that is not a judgement for us to make. Most other top flight teams have had more tangible success than we have yet do not attract anything like the numbers we do.
Maybe it is blind loyalty, maybe it is the hope that our luck must change soon. What is true is that the team do not deserve the loyalty of the fans they have. Despite all this, we will always love the Toon. And we can always console ourselves with the fact that it could be worse – we could be Mackems!
August 2nd, 2006 @ 21:53I think the sentence
“even Geordies are bright enough to realise that supporting Newcastle represents the best option by some margin. ”
August 3rd, 2006 @ 01:57says everything you need to know about the person who wrote that article.
The person who wrote this article is one of the many football ‘fans’ who get frustrated by the likes of Newcastle because they simply can’t understand us. They can’t grasp why we can be so blindly passionate and loyal about a team that doesn’t win trophies.
Newcastle united is definately not the best team around. The club is one of the worst managed clubs in the league. Our chairman thinks that one big signing can mask the reality of a small squad and changes managers more times than his socks. The stability of the team in general is poor.
However….the fans genuinely love the club. Not because of success or big signings, but because it’s ours. The best way I could describe it would be a fathers love for his daughter. From day one you know that you are going to be there rain or shine and regardless what anyone else say’s, to you that girl is the most most special person on the planet! No if’s and no buts!
When you are born in the shadow of St. James Park you bond with the club and you simply can’t change your stripes. When things are going bad it hurts but that doesn’t stop you loving your team. The city reacts to the team like no other city I’ve encountered. I’m not saying that no other city does, but Newcastle is a very special place after a home win.
Are we the best supporters in the world…..that could never be proved so I will not say we are. We are great suporters though and nobody can deny us that.
To the person who wrote the article…..I’m sure that you’re pleased with the signing of Schevchenko but if it all goes pear shaped, Arsenals ground isn’t too far away!!
August 3rd, 2006 @ 05:19As I was born in Newcastle, I seemed to inherit St. James’ Park as a second home. I’ve been in every end of the ground watching them, in executive boxes, even working in the food kiosks on matchdays just to soak up the atmosphere and maybe catch a glimpse of the game. The passion is contagious. My guess is whoever wrote the article is jealous of this and his comments certainly won’t upset me. I’m proud to be a Geordie and proud of the stigma that goes with it.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 14:12My first impression is of the article itself. The writer seems to lack insight, judgment and most importantly indepth research to back up his opinion. Every football club is the same, once you drop a division or two the support inevitibly diminshes. There are many reasons for this, one being the lower away fan attendances and another being the quality of players on display (more people want to watch Rooney and Henry than Trundle and Booth.)One thing that all football clubs maintain in the lower divisions is their hardcore fan base, and when it come to this I believe that Newcastle have one of the most, if not the most, loyal hardcore fan base in England. The author of the article is quick to point out the attendance against Luton in the Milk Cup, but fails to mention it was a Wednesday night, and even by north eastern standards the weather was abysmal (I remeber getting soaked to the bone!!)I must point out at this point that Arsenals lowest attendance was 4,354 and that was in the old first division, not in the Milk Cup, yet the author fails to give the article balance, which is most probably why he has to air his views on a small internet portal rather that in a broadsheet.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 13:13i live in cape town south africa ive never been to england, never seen st james park,never spoken to a goerdie but i support the club religiously. wheather it be buying overpriced shirts because nobody cares to supply them or because i check every internet site daily to keep up with the latest news. there is no one reason why i love the club. maybe it could be the fact that we never win anything let alone come close, or because we had an incredible marksman in shearer who instiled hope every time he hit the back of the net. even though we all know our defence will leak two and we will be waiting for another inspirtional yet unforfilling moment.
its that fix we desire whether it be scandal or news that james milner hopefully wont be leaving.each has his own personal reason these are just some of mine.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 18:22Chancy Cooke
Oh dear. Well, one reason why we can safely ignore this writer’s comments is the line about it going dark in Newcastle at 3pm in the height of summer. Hate to break it to you, but the sun goes down LATER the further north you go in summer.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 23:26Plus, any criticism directed at Butt has nothing to do with him not being good enough for us – I’m sure all Newcastle fans would welcome signings of players with a proven winning track record. All we ask is that they show the same determination and commitment as they did at their previous club, the point where Butt spectacularly failed to deliver.
I always find it remarkable that individuals in the media and individuals from other clubs (with the exception of the mackems of course)seem to be continuously trying to knock the club or its support off some unseen pedestal. I could understand it if we had dominated the premiership/first division for the last twenty years or had been bought by a multi billionaire and subsequently signed every world class player for funny money.
I live in the USA, I have done for the past four years, I have supported the club since before I could kick a ball. I spent many a happy Saturday watching us demolish the opposition and also spent many in despair as we were demolished. Do I think of myself as one of the most passionate fans in the premiership? of course I do but then so do the many expat supporters from various clubs I talk to out here. The media have decided to label us the most passionate, just as they labelled Keegan’s team the entertainers.
If there is an axe to grind I would suggest that these “other supporters” grind it with them. This does not include the mackems because the rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland is traditional and mostly friendly with Geordies and Mackems working side by side and in the mainbeing friends and colleagues, this all changes at 3pm on a Saturday of course!!!
August 4th, 2006 @ 03:10Why do we support Newcastle United. Cos me Dad said and thats it!
November 6th, 2006 @ 17:43i am a newcastle fan and i have to say that we definitely have wonderfully unique supporters and yes we hav got one of the best fans in the country but i think people are being ignorant because other clubs also have great supporters such as pompey reading colchester liverpool west ham nd even the mackems arent half bad though i would say we beat them by far, its probably a contest between us and liverpool even if they have had great success over the years
May 24th, 2007 @ 19:19