Professional sport in Blackpool has rarely, if ever, had the full backing of the town’s population. In the late 1970’s the now long-defunct Blackpool Borough rugby league side threatened to become a noise in the sport’s top division, but in reality the good times were over before they started. Indeed, the side withered on the vine to such an extent that a tour of the northwest under such guises as Springfield Borough, so called due to playing its ‘home’ games at the town’s then football ground, plus Trafford, and Chorley Borough was just a needless insult to injury to the hardy hundreds, not thousands, of league fans in the Blackpool area.
A short-lived, entirely fruitless, and ill-judged re-emergence on the Fylde Coast as Blackpool Gladiators during the early to mid 1990’s in effect drew the final curtain over what was by this stage semi-professional rugby league, but the lack of community support for the code’s initial iteration precipitated what became a long, drawn out downfall.
The Fylde Coast’s population, including Lytham St. Annes, Poulton le Fylde, Fleetwood, Thornton Cleveleys, and Over Wyre totals in excess of 300,000 but this has never been enough to sustain high(er) level professional sport. Rugby League in Blackpool suffered due to poor attendances, that itself being due to the demographic of many who live in the area. With a large population of those who’ve retired to or relocated in their prime being from Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, South and West Yorkshire, there are already established affiliations with the likes of Burnley, Oldham Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, and Bolton Wanderers, to name just a few. Similarly, those with roots in the likes of Wigan, St. Helens, and the rugby strongholds of Yorkshire were unlikely to take in an occasional game at Borough Park, now incidentally an identikit retail and fast food estate. Perhaps the ultimate folly was though relocating to Wigan, the location of arguably the world’s most famous rugby league side.
Even during the halcyon days of Blackpool Football Club’s then ever presence in the top division, attendances would wildly fluctuate. Indeed, whilst some games would go beyond 35,000, resulting in the ground locked an hour before kick off, others would fail to attract little more than the team does do now. Fickleness would be rooted in who was playing for the opposition, or if the two Stanleys, Matthews and Mortensen, would be turning out. This is of course before the days of away supporters arriving in their thousands, if at all.
It was then with the above in mind that I recently attended Blackpool’s Stanley Park to view Lancashire versus Durham in the County Championship. With the possibility of stellar names including Ben Stokes, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, and James Anderson pitching up at a modest but reasonably formed out ground, would this swell the numbers on a hot day to levels that are usually enjoyed when the county 20:20 bandwagon rolls into town?
Whilst the answer was no, a healthy crowd on the Saturday of perhaps 2,500-3,000 saw Durham’s South African batsman David Bedingham and Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings steal the show overall during the four-day fixture, which resulted in the ‘home’ side squeaking home as Durham valiantly finished just 60 runs short of their 475 target.
Ben Stokes had an erratic game, consisting of bowling figures that flattered his waywardness and two failed ventures to the crease. However, it was good to see the England captain take his sporadic county duties so seriously. It was unusual to see someone of Nathan Lyon’s world status patrolling the boundary in little old Blackpool but again, the Australian’s high standards were evident throughout. Peter Siddle was in effect the twelfth man and performed drinks duties, whilst Anderson was conspicuous by his absence.
In an age where instance gratification has detrimentally altered attention spans, it was highly enjoyable to settle in to a slow burn of 96 overs of bowling, instead of the crash, bang, wallop of the 20:20 ‘hit and giggle’ tour. Furthermore, whilst plenty of beer was supped by many of the spectators during what was a hot day, there was not a hint of the trouble or rowdiness that has infested test matches in England, nor any sign of the egregious ‘beer snakes’.
It is certainly less stressful watching county games than those at Bloomfield Road and on the road; season ticket prices also compare favourably to those recently announced by a club out of touch with those it needs the most. Football and cricket are extremely different beasts, but there may be a point in the life of all supporters when they realise that their club is more interested in selling alcohol and promoting gambling than touching base with a local community that is gradually being priced out of attending. Will I ever stop supporting Blackpool Football Club? of course not, but that doesn’t mean I won’t seek more holistic, and morally healthy ways of consuming sport in my local area, as well as or instead of.
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