St. James Park - Championship Ground

[Bridgy 81]

I also think the west side of Somerset could/should be a target area for City.
If you take the area from around Wellington to about Bridgwater (all with good road and rail links to Exeter)
and add in some of the smaller places in between you have around another 150k people.
Any further west than that you’ll be in Bristol City territory.
Plus you also have the South Somerset area, around 75-100k more people, which also has good transport links to Exeter, and another area of potential support, as Yeovil are struggling in a similar way to Torquay.

 

[andrew p long]

Crikey, not sure how you get the Amex mixed up with the Withdean, awful place!

I've only been to the Withdean once when we lost 3-0. Probably one of the worst away games I've been to for a number of reasons, great night out after though.

I think that's the one where the City fans' chant of 'we own our football club' got the witty response (in identical tempo) of

'ask for your money back'

 

[Boyo]

Then there's the population. I see Wiki give a population of 1.2M, but the Devon County Council website and a few others, say it is only around 800k. I would tend to believe the later over the former, which would mean that Plymouth alone, accounts for nearly a third of the entire population of the county.

The Devon County Council figure (814k) excludes Plymouth and Torbay, as they are both unitary authorities. Plymouth is 264k and Torbay is 139k. So 1.2m for the whole of Devon (inc Plymouth and Torbay) is correct. This is Census 2021 data.

 

[denzel]

I think there are all kinds of problems and considerations with comparing perceived catchment areas of Brighton and Exeter and particularly using the population of the two counties. Having lived in rural areas of Devon for the vast majority of the first 30 years of my life when I lived in Devon, the most obvious is the dreadful public transport and the type of roads. From many areas of Devon its nigh on impossible to get to Exeter on public transport, and journeys by road can take 90 mins or more, particularly in late spring and late summer. Plus Devon is a much bigger county than W Sussex, meaning distances are greater.
Then there's the population. I see Wiki give a population of 1.2M, but the Devon County Council website and a few others, say it is only around 800k. I would tend to believe the later over the former, which would mean that Plymouth alone, accounts for nearly a third of the entire population of the county. With most of west and South west Devon, including towns like Tavistock, Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Ivybridge more likely to favour the greens, the available population is significantly reduced further.
However, I do wonder what impact the demise of Torquay might have had? I went to secondary school in Ashburton which had a very big catchment area, including most of south east Dartmoor, Moretonhampstead, Bovey Tracy, down to Broadhempston etc. At that time, everyone I went to school with was Torquay, bar me and one Argyle fan. However this may not now be the case with Torquay in the NLS. So it may well be the case that the whole Torbay area plus Neton Abbot and surrounding towns could realistically be considered potential City fans, which would make a huge difference of an extra 175k people we might attract. Particularly given that travel to Exeter is relatively easy from those areas.
So I would say that we can look further afield than the east Devon coastal towns nowadays for support than we could have a decade ago.

Its 1.2mn with Plymouth and Torbay, 800k without as they are not part of Devon County Council

 

[denzel]

I also think the west side of Somerset could/should be a target area for City.
If you take the area from around Wellington to about Bridgwater (all with good road and rail links to Exeter)
and add in some of the smaller places in between you have around another 150k people.
Any further west than that you’ll be in Bristol City territory.
Plus you also have the South Somerset area, around 75-100k more people, which also has good transport links to Exeter, and another area of potential support, as Yeovil are struggling in a similar way to Torquay.

Perhaps ECFC should target South Somerset in the same way that the Yeovil chairman did East Devon in 2003, 'come to Yeovil to watch league football' or some nonsense.
Personally I'm uncomfortable muscling in on territories outside of Devon,and let's face it most people in Taunton, Bridgwater etc support United, Liverpool and such like anyway.

 

[iscalad]

I also think the west side of Somerset could/should be a target area for City.
If you take the area from around Wellington to about Bridgwater (all with good road and rail links to Exeter)
and add in some of the smaller places in between you have around another 150k people.
Any further west than that you’ll be in Bristol City territory.
Plus you also have the South Somerset area, around 75-100k more people, which also has good transport links to Exeter, and another area of potential support, as Yeovil are struggling in a similar way to Torquay.

Further east surely.
We do have fans further west. In Plymouth and Cornwall.

 

[Devon Red]

I think that's the one where the City fans' chant of 'we own our football club' got the witty response (in identical tempo) of

'ask for your money back'

That's the one! Didn't find it funny at the time but it's a great response.

 

[tom_ecfc]

If you can look at my articles in Some Sunny Day issue 2 November 2013 and issue 3 February 2014 relating to my ideas on Plan B, I suggested that the capacity could be increased to at least 14,000 by turning the pitch through 90 degrees and building a new stand without height restrictions across the middle of the old pitch.

- Some Sunny Day issue 2 Nov 2013 - https://grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/16218

- Some Sunny Day issue 3 Feb 2014 - https://grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/16217

 

[ECFC89]

I also think the west side of Somerset could/should be a target area for City.
If you take the area from around Wellington to about Bridgwater (all with good road and rail links to Exeter)
and add in some of the smaller places in between you have around another 150k people.
Any further west than that you’ll be in Bristol City territory.
Plus you also have the South Somerset area, around 75-100k more people, which also has good transport links to Exeter, and another area of potential support, as Yeovil are struggling in a similar way to Torquay.

Frustratingly, everyone I know from Wellington ,who has a passing interest in football, supports Bristol City, despite the closest station being Tiverton Parkway...

 

[rightwing]

- Some Sunny Day issue 2 Nov 2013 - https://grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/16218

- Some Sunny Day issue 3 Feb 2014 - https://grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/16217

Thanks for posting. Don't forget to look at the plan at the end of the first article, it's overleaf when it looks like the article is finished.