Who Was Big When? League Position and Crowds of Every English League Club, 1888-89 to 2024-25

I rebuild the final table of every Football League and Premier League season from 1888-89 to 2024-25 (126 seasons, 210,019 matches, 147 clubs) and join each club's average home league crowd for every season it is recorded, to map where English league football has been big and when. Total league crowds rose from about 635 thousand in the first season to a peak of 41.2 million in 1948-49, fell in 27 of the next 37 seasons to 16.5 million in 1985-86 (60% below the peak), and recovered to 36.4 million in 2024-25. The geography moved south. Before 1915 the North held 62% of top-flight places and London and the South 6%; since 2010 the shares are 36% and 43%, and the crowd-weighted centre of the top flight has moved about 78 km south. Titles stayed northern (87 of 126), concentrated since 2000 in Manchester and Liverpool. 39 of the 113 towns that have had a league club have none today. Every club's peak, by league position and crowd, is listed in the accompanying data. Interactive version: https://maps.tristanhotham.com/who-was-big-when/. Data and code: https://github.com/Tristan-Hotham/who-was-big-when. Match results from engsoccerdata (James P. Curley) and openfootball; average league gates derived from englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk and credited to it.