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Topics: Premier League
Dan Hargraves
Premier League clubs have been ranked based on the percentage of supporters local to their home stadium who attended matches over an eight-month period following a new study.
All top-flight clubs from last season were surveyed over the course of the campaign to monitor how many fans going to matches lived within seven miles of the stadium and the results are somewhat surprising for some clubs.
Only Liverpool had a percentage of under 50% of supporters living within seven miles of Anfield attending matches at 49% with all the other big six clubs also sat in the bottom half.
Interestingly, with just a mile separating the home of the Reds from Goodison Park, home of Everton, a much higher percentage of the Toffees' fanbase live near both stadiums at 78%.
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Out of the big six, Premier League champions Manchester City had the most local fanbase at 66% with the red half of Manchester having significantly fewer locals going to watch Manchester United at 53%.
London outfits Tottenham (62%), Chelsea (56%) and Arsenal (55%) also had a decent amount of supporters attending matches from outside a seven mile radius.
At the top of the list is Brentford with 83% of match-goers living within seven miles of the Gtech Community Stadium. This radius covers the vast majority of west London as well as parts of the north and south.
Closely following the Bees is, unsurprisingly, Newcastle at 82%. With an incredibly passionate fanbase and a stadium based in the city centre, having fans local to St.James' Park makes plenty of sense.
Wolves (81%), Crystal Palace, Bournemouth (71%), Everton, Brighton (76%), Southampton (75%), Leeds United and Aston Villa (74%) make up the rest of the top half with the figures pretty close.
Fulham and Nottingham Forest (71% and 70% respectively) also have figures in the 70s, whilst Leicester City (68%) and West Ham (65%) make up the rest of the rankings.
Having not seen the results, a generic Premier League fan could probably guess that the big six clubs would have smaller percentages based on having bigger stadiums to fill as well as having supporters from all over the country.
However, having the percentages as close as they are is arguably a surprise and with the inclusion of Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town next season, you would expect all three promoted sides to have pretty local fanbases.