Are there too many professional football clubs?

[mmh]

Essex doesn't have any league clubs.

 

[madannie77]

Essex doesn't have any league clubs.

Has anyone told Southend United & Colchester United this?

 

[mmh]

Has anyone told Southend United & Colchester United this?

Whoops! I was completely wrong there.

 

[adrock1976]

Has anyone told Southend United & Colchester United this?

Don't also forget Dagenham & Redbridge too, who were in recent years in the basement division and the third tier. They were managed by John Still back then.

Also, have Braintree Town ever been in the fourth tier or higher?

 

[SteveM70]

Has anyone told Southend United & Colchester United this?

Give it a year and they may well only have one

 

[xotGD]

Essex doesn't have any league clubs.

Isn't Manchester United their local team?

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Ellesmere Port (pop. 60,000) was the home of the fictional Wirral County, managed by Mike Bassett, but has never had a real football team any higher than the old Cheshire League. This used to be the top (non-)league in the North before the formation of the NPL. The top team in the town now is Vauxhall Motors, members of Conference North until resigning in 2014, who had already won the NW Counties League D1 (South) when this season was voided, denying them promotion.

The Port also has no cricket, rugby league or rugby union team of any great standing.

There was once a second tier speedway team called the Ellesmere Port Gunners who met on the old Ellesmere Port Town football ground. And nearby Neston once had a top tier hockey team.

However Ellesmere Port is home to Cheshire Phoenix, one of the top teams in the British Basketball League.

 

[Grecian 1998]

Generally - no

On the north west side of Greater Manchester - evidently yes.

This is of course partly a historic hangover - professional football developed in the industrial areas of Lancashire and the Midlands originally, with 6 Lancashire teams and 6 Midland teams comprising the original football league. It didn't develop in the south until much later and there were still only a handful of southern clubs in the FL by 1914. After WWI the Southern League was essentially incorporated as a Third Division. A year later it was decided to even this up by rebranding it as Third Division South and adding a Third Division North. D3N was always somewhat weaker than D3S. After creating D3 and D4 in 1958 (L1 and L2 in modern parlance) the majority of the clubs regularly seeking re-election were northern. After relegation to the Conference was introduced it seems to have had a sink or swim effect - some clubs such as Rochdale, Crewe and Scunthorpe have improved markedly from once being bottom feeders, others have sunk without trace.

A bit of a diversion from the question, that. In answer to the question, I would always say no simply because most professional clubs sustain crowds (or did in the BCV era) which should be sufficient if well run. Supporters Trust run clubs such as (my club) Exeter, Wimbledon and Wycombe are testament to that. English clubs get crowds and media attention at lower levels which are simply unprecedented anywhere else. Exeter average around 4000 and that isn't anything remarkable for L2. This is in part due to the population density of England and relative compactness of the dense populations. There is of course not much at the fringes - no teams in Cornwall, one in Kent, nothing north of Newcastle, two teams in Cumbria (welcome back Barrow), one in the Marches and two in Norfolk and Suffolk. But then there aren't many people there.

In the other big 5 European leagues, Germany seems to have a similar level of interest in lower league football, but its greater size prevents more national divisions (it only acquired a Bundesliga III relatively recently). Buli III however seems similar to England - some teams with 5 figure crowds, others closer to 2000. Spain and Italy seem to have little interest in level 2 football never mind lower - the Spanish Segunda Division B 9L1 equivalent) has numerous teams with sub-1000 average attendances. Save for a few pockets such as Lens, St Etienne and Marseille, France barely seems to have any interest in Ligue Un, never mind anything lower than that.

English football has survived with 92 professional league clubs and numerous non-league ones for many years. As long as they're prudently run it isn't a problem. As long as people are allowed into the ground. That last point might be problematic.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Would have thought Wakefield is more a Rugby League area though, can include Castleford too in that, Halifax too

Wakefield wanted a team just over 20 years ago, so they nicked one from the former pit village of Emley (population of around 2,500) (which is classed as Huddersfield though it has a WF postcode and 01924 dialling code). The former Emley FC had over achieved through the late 80s and 90s to get within 90 minutes of the then-new Conference North (6th tier) before losing their play-off game against Stalybridge Celtic. They even reached the FA Cup third round and gave a good account of themselves away at West Ham United.

In 2002 the team moved out of their village home to play at Belle Vue, the home of Wakefield Trinity RLFC, and renamed themselves first to Wakefield & Emley, then to plain Wakefield FC. Performances and crowds dropped over the following years and the team eventually folded in 2014.

Speaking of mergers, the Wakefield area includes the small town of Ossett which up until a couple of years ago had two teams (Ossett Town and Ossett Albion) both at tier 7 until they merged in 2018 as Ossett United. It's early days yet but it appears to be a rare example of a successful merger between rival clubs. That said, being based outside the city itself means they may never be seen as a true Wakefield club.