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Villa fans in the Birmingham area


ender4

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I was wondering how much of the Greater Birmingham population (really West Midlands) are Villa fans as compared to other fans like Bham City, West Brom, Wolves, etc. Ignoring people who aren’t football fans at all.

My random guess is:

Villa - 25%
West Brom - 15%
Wolves - 15%
Birmingham City - 15%
Liverpool - 15%
Man Utd - 10%
Other - 5%
 

Im also guessing that more new local fans are becoming Villa fans rather than Man Utd, Liverpool or Bham City fans?

Will we ever achieve total dominance, say over 50% of local football fans will support Villa?

I wonder if the proportion of football fans in general is also increasing in Birmingham?

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I'm not sure how you'd quantify such a topic beyond just random guessing, or what threshold you'd put on what actually counts as a fan.  Does somebody have to think about their club every day to count?  Do they have to be able to name at least five current players?  What the last result was or next fixture is? I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who will say they support Liverpool or Manchester United if you ask them, but that's practically the only time they'll think about it on a month to month basis.  Villa are definitely the most popular team in the region, but like a lot of areas with a high immigrant population there will be a huge bunch of people who just support the most successful sides, mostly because they didn't have a father figure who'd take them to their local club when they were kids.  I'm married into such a family and as children of the 80s it's very much Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool despite none of them ever having lived there or even been to Anfield. 

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I think it’s difficult to consider Birmingham as a whole when different area are different strong holds. 
 

I grew up in Kingstanding, not been there for many years now so I’m sure if things have changed, but growing up Kingstanding was almost exclusively Villa. But then I travelled all over Brum with work, and some places are very much small heath. 
 

 

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I agree with the above poster, I am from a "non-traditional" background and therefore there was no family history of supporting an english team. My dad and his family grew up literally around the corner from highfield road but my dad went to aston uni and lived in birmingham from 1979 - 1983 so villa were going through one of their most successful periods to date. Then i went to my first game at villa park in 2001 i think it was against Liverpool, still got the ticket stub upstairs.

So i have supported them since really, but only started going to games regularly i think 2012 season when i got a half season ticket. There are quite a few villa fans in Coventry and especially in Nuneaton, a lot of those people have grandparents or great grandparents who moved out of birmingham originally and passed that tradition of supporting villa to their offspring. But even in areas like my home town where there is not too much diversity, a lot of youngsters are supporting the big teams now, you see man city and man utd and liverpool shirts, not so many chelsea these days but that used to be popular too.

I live in east london now and have even seen a few villa fans there, one guy i met used to drive up to villa park with mates in the late 80s and early 90s, they all had ST's. So i imagine they supported villa as a legacy of our success in the 80s, when we had some great teams and had won trophies not that long before.

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42 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

or what threshold you'd put on what actually counts as a fan.  Does somebody have to think about their club every day to count?  Do they have to be able to name at least five current players?  What the last result was or next fixture is?

Had to have looked Steven Gerrard in the eye when he was in charge. Not sure what the criteria is now though.

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Off topic slightly but I'm seeing loads more villa shirts on folk out and about different places. Got season passes for alton towers and see loads of villa fans there. And this weekend we went Cosford air show and saw loads, and it's usually full of dingles there 

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Growing up in Sutton in the 90s it was almost exclusively Villa fans, with a smattering of glory supporters following Man Utd, and to a much lesser degree Liverpool. I knew more WBA fans than Blues fans and honestly can't ever recall meeting a Wolves fan in my life until I started working there a few years ago.

I'd say that a clear majorities of football fans in Sutton, Erdington and Kingstanding are Villa, perhaps up to 75%. It's a lot less clear cut in other parts of the city and as others have pointed out, the more ethnically diverse inner city areas will now have lots of glory supporters of Sky 6 clubs.

You'll find more Villa fans in areas which are traditionally more Blues-leaning, than you will Blues fans in Villa areas

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I think the city is fairly even but the shires have a much larger share of utd and liverpool

Kidderminster for example blues would do well to be 6th, loads more utd there than blues, villa probably 3rd after baggies and wolves but I would say the kiddy lions club do so much good work compared to those clubs, they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery whereas Harry does incredible work

Also another thread to say "the shires" of course villa have more fans in the shires, they have more fans in the outer hebrides, it's because we're a much bigger club you inbred **** words removed, no one outside of a B postcode in their right mind would support the blues, that's not a good thing...

Edited by villa4europe
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I delivered some training to a group of 12 people the other week, in Birmingham (City Hospital area). From that small sample size, three were Villa, one West Brom and one Wolves. No small heathens, they must have all been drinking in town.
Nobody else liked football. I thought they’d be more West Brom being out by Smethwick. 

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4 hours ago, ender4 said:

I was wondering how much of the Greater Birmingham population (really West Midlands) are Villa fans as compared to other fans like Bham City, West Brom, Wolves, etc. Ignoring people who aren’t football fans at all.

My random guess is:

Villa - 25%
West Brom - 15%
Wolves - 15%
Birmingham City - 15%
Liverpool - 15%
Man Utd - 10%
Other - 5%
 

Im also guessing that more new local fans are becoming Villa fans rather than Man Utd, Liverpool or Bham City fans?

Will we ever achieve total dominance, say over 50% of local football fans will support Villa?

I wonder if the proportion of football fans in general is also increasing in Birmingham?

My guess is half of football fans in the city are villa fans.

however you find that certain areas more strongly support one team or another 

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I live in the Shires , i could be seen as a Shiler by SHA I suppose . There are lots of Villa out in the Shires but I still see the odd rat in some dated nose garb , not many Tesco’s and even les Dingles now the bubble has burst 

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7 minutes ago, Chine said:

I live in the Shires , i could be seen as a Shiler by SHA I suppose . There are lots of Villa out in the Shires but I still see the odd rat in some dated nose garb , not many Tesco’s and even les Dingles now the bubble has burst 

I saw some absolute tool at Ventura Park in a full Leedszzz tracksuit, it was all I could do to not laugh.

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My dad and his brother were born in Balsall Heath over 90 years ago. In their early 20's my dad moved to Kingstanding, all his offsprung family became Villa fans, however, my dads brother moved to Chelmsey Wood, all his offsprung family became City fans, it ripped the family in half, it wasnt untill they had both passed away that certain relatives could speak to each other again without the possibility of bloodshead, the stupid thing is neither of them were ever footie fans before they left Balsall Heath. It was the influence of the people in the areas they moved to, not the love of the game that determined who they supported. It was sad that the family got pulled apart over a feckin game. 

Interesting topic by the way, nice one ender4.

 

 

Edited by Podster
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All my English relatives in Brum (mostly around Handsworth) or who have moved to other parts of the UK or who have emigrated are either Villa or Albion fans -- and that is it. Never Blues and certainly not clubs from Manchester or Merseyside, never, Jesus no. There's probably a little more love for Albion among my cousins. Villa are seen as more upscale. 

Edited by Marka Ragnos
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I was born and bred in Small Heath....and have been Villa from a small boy. when my Dad arrived in Brum from Dublin, he landed in Aston and adopted Villa from his native Bohemians, and I followed on... my kids and grand kids are all Villa.

They need to hurry up an build the new stand.

I Live on the outskirts of Tamworth Now, which is predominately Villa.

My understanding is area's like Chelmsley wood, and Solihull are mainly Blues.........Erdington and Sutton Coldfield is Mainly Villa, I guess it follows South and North of the city.

Edited by TRO
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