What's the problem with Stirling?

archimedes

archimedes

Well-Known Member
Forgetting the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen clubs for now ( as the 3 cities with the highest population in the country), the following towns where our premiership teams are based have respective populations of

Kilmarnock 46,350
Motherwell 32,120
Perth 44,820
Dundee (2 teams) 148,270
Dingwall 5,491
Livingston 56,269
Paisley 77,210

You could also include the likes of

Hamilton 54,080
Inverness 46,870
Ayr 45,595
Dunfermline 50,380


When you consider that Stirling has a population of 94,330, you'd think that it would have a more demand for a club to be competing at a higher level in Scottish football than Stirling Albion, who have an average crowd of around 580.

Why the lack of interest in Stirling's local club?
 
archimedes said:
Forgetting the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen clubs for now ( as the 3 cities with the highest population in the country), the following towns where our premiership teams are based have respective populations of

Kilmarnock 46,350
Motherwell 32,120
Perth 44,820
Dundee (2 teams) 148,270
Dingwall 5,491
Livingston 56,269
Paisley 77,210

You could also include the likes of

Hamilton 54,080
Inverness 46,870
Ayr 45,595
Dunfermline 50,380


When you consider that Stirling has a population of 94,330, you'd think that it would have a more demand for a club to be competing at a higher level in Scottish football than Stirling Albion, who have an average crowd of around 580.

Why the lack of interest in Stirling's local club?
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Stirlings nowhere near that big. 94k for the whole council area maybe???
 
Worked up there for a bit. Its quite central, Most locals were either Us Scum Hearts or Hibs and loads of Falkirk fans too. Dumbarton (where I work) has a similar population and similar crowds. THe huge crowd us and them generate does work against a lot of smaller clubs based in sizeable towns. Mortons another that springs to mind
 
archimedes said:
Forgetting the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen clubs for now ( as the 3 cities with the highest population in the country), the following towns where our premiership teams are based have respective populations of

Kilmarnock 46,350
Motherwell 32,120
Perth 44,820
Dundee (2 teams) 148,270
Dingwall 5,491
Livingston 56,269
Paisley 77,210

You could also include the likes of

Hamilton 54,080
Inverness 46,870
Ayr 45,595
Dunfermline 50,380


When you consider that Stirling has a population of 94,330, you'd think that it would have a more demand for a club to be competing at a higher level in Scottish football than Stirling Albion, who have an average crowd of around 580.

Why the lack of interest in Stirling's local club?
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i live in a small town in england bigger than all these apart from Dundee, our local club gets around 1.3k attendance
 
Renfrewshire has a population in excess of 300,000 but look at ST mingins average crowds.
people might live in an area might even be born but it doesn't equate to turning up in their 10,000 every other Saturday a lot more to it than that.
 
fedor said:
Alot of students in Stirling who generally have no interest in football.
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I don’t think it’s that they don’t have an interest. It’s that they don’t have an interest in supporting a diddy side for a few years
 
Papasmurf said:
I don’t think it’s that they don’t have an interest. It’s that they don’t have an interest in supporting a diddy side for a few years
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I think this is right, Cumbernauld has population of over 50k and Clyde’s average attendance is 638 even though they have been there 25 years
 
I went to Uni up there and was a member of the Billy Russell supporters club that left from The Wallace at Causewayhead.

It was a cracking Gers pub.

I was also in the town a lot and there wasn't really a designated Rangers or Celtic pub, although when out and about, there seemed to be way more Gers supporters than them.

Surrounding villages like Fallin, Plean, Airth etc were all Rangers too.
 
East Kilbride has a larger population than Stirling, it’s now up at Paisley’s level and will soon overtake.
 
MearnsUnionist said:
I went to Uni up there and was a member of the Billy Russell supporters club that left from The Wallace at Causewayhead.

It was a cracking Gers pub.

I was also in the town a lot and there wasn't really a designated Rangers or Celtic pub, although when out and about, there seemed to be way more Gers supporters than them.

Surrounding villages like Fallin, Plean, Airth etc were all Rangers too.
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I always assumed the Irish pub up from the station was their bar? Molly Malones?
 
MearnsUnionist said:
I went to Uni up there and was a member of the Billy Russell supporters club that left from The Wallace at Causewayhead.

It was a cracking Gers pub.

I was also in the town a lot and there wasn't really a designated Rangers or Celtic pub, although when out and about, there seemed to be way more Gers supporters than them.

Surrounding villages like Fallin, Plean, Airth etc were all Rangers too.
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The Wallace is a good rangers pub. Frequent it regularly :))

your also right, I think Stirling is more of a Rangers area.
 
Stirling has 1000s heading to Glasgow every week...
Busses , trains and cars ....

If this trend was ever reversed , Glasgow would suffer and Stirling Albion should benefit.....

Can't see it happening in my lifetime....

Many supporters down south just don't get the Scottish obsession for Glasgow.....and the lack of support for local teams ...

Obviously the supporters of local teams should be applauded , how they can turn out in winter months to watch such a poor product is beyond me .
As can be witnessed every week , support outside Glasgow for Scottish football is in major decline and needs serious attention....
In my opinion Scotland has too many clubs and it's not sustainable...
 
Blaew said:
I always assumed the Irish pub up from the station was their bar? Molly Malones?
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I know the one you mean, I don’t live there anymore so I’m not sure but any time I’ve been in it wasn’t one way or another. More of a place tourists would go to see an ‘authentic’ pub. I definitely watched football in there tho.
 
Ünnëcëssärÿ Ümläüts said:
I know the one you mean, I don’t live there anymore so I’m not sure but any time I’ve been in it wasn’t one way or another. More of a place tourists would go to see an ‘authentic’ pub. I definitely watched football in there tho.
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Fair enough. I used to work in Stirling quite a bit and used to go past it all the time. Never been in it as I assumed it was a Celtic pub.

I really like Stirling, although the traffic is shocking at times for a small place. Has always struck me as more of a Rugby town though than a football one.
 
Alloa and Falkirk are really not far from Stirling either.
I agree that in Stirling or Clackmannanshire there are more Rangers supporters than anyone else
 
Stirling Albion were never really a draw in the town, but their move from Annfield to Forthbank killed any hopes of them getting crowds of even 2000+.

Under Kevin Drinkell and Alan Moore were the only 2 times in my life that they were any good and even then crowds struggled past 1000.

I grew up in St Ninians which was 90/10 Rangers them when I was growing up, but it’s now more mixed due to an influx of Raploch people from the “Raploch clearances”

In terms of Rangers pubs, it’s never been the same as it is in Glasgow. Fallin, Bannockburn and Plean are is close as it gets.

The town centre caters to students and tourists and is very mixed, even the Irish pub isn’t an out and out scum hole (but I wouldn’t go in when us or them are playing).
 
macjohn212 said:
Stirling has 1000s heading to Glasgow every week...
Busses , trains and cars ....

If this trend was ever reversed , Glasgow would suffer and Stirling Albion should benefit.....

Can't see it happening in my lifetime....

Many supporters down south just don't get the Scottish obsession for Glasgow.....and the lack of support for local teams ...

Obviously the supporters of local teams should be applauded , how they can turn out in winter months to watch such a poor product is beyond me .
As can be witnessed every week , support outside Glasgow for Scottish football is in major decline and needs serious attention....
In my opinion Scotland has too many clubs and it's not sustainable...
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Carlisle has exclusive rights to the whole of Cumbria in terms of a professional club.I dont know one Cumbrian that goes to see them.
 
Then you have oneils the Irish bar which flies the flag of the four provinces outside and owned by an Orangeman.
 
Ünnëcëssärÿ Ümläüts said:
I know the one you mean, I don’t live there anymore so I’m not sure but any time I’ve been in it wasn’t one way or another. More of a place tourists would go to see an ‘authentic’ pub. I definitely watched football in there tho.
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Was in Molly Malones when the Central parade was in Stirling. Guy who ran it was clever - took the tri colours down and started playing party tunes. Place was rocking
 
I'm originally from Bannockburn and there has always been a considerably higher proportion of Rangers fans to any other club.

With Stirling and the surrounding areas now being commuter towns the percentage of Rangers fans in the area (along with them sadly) is ever growing.
 
Molly Malone's is heaving when the rugby is on. Never been near it for football - not in that often to be fair, and try to avoid Stirling for a night out as it is shit.

They have had a few dodgy act for live music over the years but as far as I'm aware it's not a rabid dump.
 
Most people from Stirling support us or them. I’d say it’s more weighted towards us, just about all of the towns and villages in the Stirling area have their own RSC and there’s 2 or 3 in Stirling itself.
Also need to factor in that Stirling Albion only came into being in the 1940s.
 
Alex said:
Most people from Stirling support us or them. I’d say it’s more weighted towards us, just about all of the towns and villages in the Stirling area have their own RSC and there’s 2 or 3 in Stirling itself.
Also need to factor in that Stirling Albion only came into being in the 1940s.
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I'd actually forgotten about that. The original team from Stirling were King's Park but their pitch etc were damaged by German bombing in the Second World War.

Stirling Albion were formed in 1945.
 
Good question from OP. I wonder why a big Stirling club was never formed back in the late 1800’s just like the other big cities/towns?
 
To be honest all clubs have lost fans and probably NOT to us and the vermin but because of us. Football is expensive, no fun, much better football is on TV 24/7, and regional teams don't win anything ever.

We used to get far larger crowds too, but we could sustain the drop....those clubs couldn't. Morton used to get 6,000 rising to 10,000 for big games. Those fans have just stopped going to football, they haven't started going to see another Scottish team.
 
Ask yourself if you'd go and watch a local team with no prospect of ever winning anything.
It's actually bad for Scottish football that Rangers and the micky bassards have total dominance.
 
THink a potential factor is when you look at local clubs there is four within maybe five miles of each other. Ive always said Falkirk should join up with the shire and Stenhousemuir and become a forth valley team
 
Dunnybear said:
Good question from OP. I wonder why a big Stirling club was never formed back in the late 1800’s just like the other big cities/towns?
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The original Stirling Club, Kings Park, were formed in 1875 but didn't join the League until after WWI.
 
Ally Shuffle said:
THink a potential factor is when you look at local clubs there is four within maybe five miles of each other. Ive always said Falkirk should join up with the shire and Stenhousemuir and become a forth valley team
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Merging teams sounds easy to someone that isnt a fan of the team. Would you be so ready to do it if we had been asked to merge with another team when all the shit happened in 2012? I know I wouldn't have wanted it.
 
TommyEgan said:
Merging teams sounds easy to someone that isnt a fan of the team. Would you be so ready to do it if we had been asked to merge with another team when all the shit happened in 2012? I know I wouldn't have wanted it.
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I get that - the fans likely wouldnt go for it. Just think having so many small clubs within the area spreads the already small support too thin. The shire already ground share and must get what a few hundred fans a game - when the money they got selling the stadium goes what will they do then?
 
razzer said:
I think this is right, Cumbernauld has population of over 50k and Clyde’s average attendance is 638 even though they have been there 25 years
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It's near impossible to move to a different town and attract a good support. When Clyde moved those in Cumbernauld who were interested in football already supported a team and their kids will follow that team as well. They're not going to attract fans from their traditional area in Glasgow either.
 
Maybe, that most folk just don’t want to watch mid-table league 2 football when Premiership standard is available in Glasgow/Edinburgh.
 
Earl of Leven said:
To be honest all clubs have lost fans and probably NOT to us and the vermin but because of us. Football is expensive, no fun, much better football is on TV 24/7, and regional teams don't win anything ever.

We used to get far larger crowds too, but we could sustain the drop....those clubs couldn't. Morton used to get 6,000 rising to 10,000 for big games. Those fans have just stopped going to football, they haven't started going to see another Scottish team.
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Our average crowds have never been higher since the early 1950s Earl.

Our season ticket sales are higher than ever now.

They're even higher than in Walter's 9 in a row and the Advocaat eras, plus we've got a good size waiting list too.

There's certainly no attendance issues at Ibrox.
 
MearnsUnionist said:
Our average crowds have never been higher since the early 1950s Earl.

Our season ticket sales are higher than ever now.

They're even higher than in Walter's 9 in a row and the Advocaat eras, plus we've got a good size waiting list too.

There's certainly no attendance issues at Ibrox.
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30s-50s more people went to football, almost all football. We had higher crowds. We haven't stolen anyone's fans.
 
Ünnëcëssärÿ Ümläüts said:
I know the one you mean, I don’t live there anymore so I’m not sure but any time I’ve been in it wasn’t one way or another. More of a place tourists would go to see an ‘authentic’ pub. I definitely watched football in there tho.
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This is incorrect, place is infested these days so much so I know bears who have been questioned of there motives for being in mollys lately
 
Earl of Leven said:
30s-50s more people went to football, almost all football. We had higher crowds. We haven't stolen anyone's fans.
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Pre and early Post war attendances were off the scale, no question.

However, if you check Rangers average attendances, outside the Old Firm games, from the mid 1950s onwards, then there are consistently more fans at Ibrox currently.

The mentally challengeds will be in the same position too and both Hearts and Hibs currently have their biggest average attendances since the 1960s.

I agree the smaller team's attendances have declined, but we still have the highest number of people weekly attending professional football than any other country in Europe, by percentage of population.
 
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