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We Need To Turn The Liverpool Section White

An interesting map appeared on Sky Sports news pages this morning when they released a graphic showing which team is the most popular in each area of the country.

There was no real surprise to see that South West Wales saw Swansea being the most popular but elsewhere across the South Wales area it was the red of Liverpool that was the most popular and this is something that we need to work on.

Of course these are TV viewing habits across 500,000 homes that create the results but a stadium expansion would, for me, work at nipping away at these numbers by giving people a chance to watch us sometimes live in the stadium and therefore it would mean that when they cannot get to the ground we could be the team they choose to watch on TV.

Notable results included Chelsea and Liverpool dominating in Scotland, while Arsenal had a stronghold in the south east - and Leicester City were the viewers' choice in the Outer Hebrides.

Matthew Roberts, Sky Sports’ Head of Sports and News Research, said: "This data is invaluable for Sky Sports as it allows us to understand what our customers enjoy and want. The results also produced some interesting surprises and regional trends.

"Arsenal really do dominate the south east and several areas in Scotland enjoy watching Chelsea more than any other Premier League team, while Manchester United and Liverpool really do enjoy support across England, Wales and Scotland."

Manchester United topped the poll with 49 regions whilst Arsenal (33) and Liverpool (21) were the 2nd and 3rd most popular.

There are no real major surprises in the poll but - aside from the stats - this is a time for us to capitalise on the popularity that we have which will never have been higher than at any point in our history. If we can get extra seats in the stadium then that means extra fans watching us and maybe we can knock a few of these Liverpool areas to white.

Not expanding would be a missed opportunity that we could regret for years?

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