Supporters
Blackpool supporters are known by the general terms Tangerine Army or Seaside Barmy Army. Whilst Blackpool had the lowest average home attendance in the Premier League, the atmosphere generated by the home support was regarded as loud and intimidating.
In July 1999, Seasiders fans' group BISA (Blackpool Independent Supporters Association) voted overwhelmingly to scrap its independence and accept the offer to become the club's official supporters' group.
After Steve McMahon resigned as Blackpool manager in 2004, he said of the Tangerine support: "During my time here, the supporters have been fantastic and are a credit to the club. Whilst they have that support, I am sure they can go a long way. I think both on and off the pitch the club is going forward in a big way and unfortunately I'm not part of that anymore.". The club was promoted three years later to the Championship, and again in 2010 to the Premier League for the 2010–11 season.
Scunthorpe United manager Nigel Adkins, speaking in November 2007, said of Bloomfield Road: "It's an intimidating place to go." In February 2008, Mick McCarthy, manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers praised the Blackpool support, saying: "It's an amazing crowd they have. There are only two sides but you wouldn't believe it, it was fabulous. The drum roll and everyone chanting drove them on." For the writing of 'An Ethnography of English Football Fans', Dr Geoff Peason spent four years (1995–1999) observing fans of Blackpool, and also noted their passion and vociferousness, particularly away from home and on the now demolished 'South Paddock'.
In September 2009, freelance journalist Mike Whalley said after attending a game against Peterborough United: "The home fans certainly make plenty of noise. Bloomfield Road does not lack for atmosphere. Or a drummer. Every home game is played to a thumping drum beat." After Blackpool beat Newcastle United 2–1 on 16 September 2009, Scott Wilson of The Northern Echo wrote: "Almost 10,000 spectators created a hostile and intimidating atmosphere that was a throwback to footballing days gone by" while the Sky Sports match report described the Blackpool support as "boisterous".
In May 2010, the club held a Promotion Parade along the promenade after they gained promotion to the Premier League. On the stage at the Waterloo Headlands manager Ian Holloway jokingly said to the gathered 60,000 crowd: "Where have you been all season?" This was in reference to the average League-game attendance of only 8,611 at Bloomfield Road during the 2009–10 campaign, though this was largely down to the fact that the capacity of the ground was just over 9,000 until the opening of the Armfield Stand in March 2010.
Upon Blackpool's rise to the Premier League, chairman Karl Oyston vowed to increase the stadium capacity to over 16,000 with a temporary stand, which will later be made permanent. This stand is expected to be ready for the opening game against Wigan Athletic, who are expected to have a large following. Progress of this stand can be viewed here.
Seven-year-old Blackpool fan Kian Kelly made the national media after being caught by the Sky Sports cameras celebrating at the end of the Seasiders' victory over Wigan Athletic in their debut match in the Premier League on 14 August 2010. He was also featured in a half-page photograph, illustrating his tri-colour dyed hair, on the front page of the sports section of The Guardian.
Two days after the game, he appeared on Sky Sports News and was invited to Blackpool's Squires Gate training ground, where Charlie Adam presented him with two tickets to the club's next Premier League match, at Arsenal on 21 August.
On 28 August 2010 Blackpool played Fulham in their first-ever home Premier League game, in front of a crowd of 15,529, the largest attendance for over thirty years at Bloomfield Road. On Sky Sports' Football First programme, co-commentator Barry Horne said: "They are a fantastic crowd. I've watched a lot of Championship games here and the crowd have always been brilliant; they get behind their team." Commentator Will Cope later said: "It's deafening; deafening by the seaside. You wouldn't have thought 15,000 fans could make so much noise." After the game Fulham manager Mark Hughes also praised the home support saying that the atmosphere in the stadium would really help the team in their debut season in the Premier League.
During the 2010–11 Premier League campaign, a decibel-metre was set up three times at each stadium, and an average then taken to indicate the loudest supporters. Despite having a capacity of 16,220, the Blackpool support was ranked the fifth-loudest, at 85 decibels.
Read more about this topic: Blackpool F.C.
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)