Travelling Jacks in Numbers – 2014-2015 Season

Contrary to what some people might think or say, Swansea fans have always been a loyal bunch whom have travelled the length of breadth of England and Wales following their team – through great and not so great times.

A recent BBC survey highlighted the fact that Swansea fans had to travel the furthest during the 2014-2015 Barclays Premier League season…on average 217 miles per game in fact!

Given the debate that often rages between football fans of who takes the most support here, there and everywhere, we thought we’d do our own bit of maths to figure out just how many fans the Swans took with them around the other 19 Premier League grounds last season.

Jacks Away 2014-2015 Season

An average away following of 1,597 is quite impressive especially when you consider the travelling distances and costs involved in watching Premier League football.

Lets look at some other figures. The capacity of the Liberty Stadium is approximately 20,828 – of which 2,074 is usually allocated to away fans – thus meaning that the maximum home capacity for any Swans Premier League game is 18,754 or thereabouts.

Why am I telling you this? Well we thought you’d like to know that around 8.52% of the Liberty Stadium’s Jack Army travel to watch Garry Monk’s Super Swans at each Premier League away game!!

I’d have a guess and say that this is probably one of the higher percentages in the Premier League – when ground capacities and away fan allocations are taken into account.

Despite six of the Swans away games being televised last season – Manchester United, Stoke City, West Ham United, Liverpool, Southampton and Arsenal – our away followings at those games, bar two, remained above the Travelling Jacks average.

Perhaps what is most telling however is that our largest away following of the season was at Arsenal on a Monday night (due to the game being televised). A glory hunter or Ki Sung Yyueng fan club game it may have been, but it’s an impressive and loyal following by any stretch of the imagination. Thankfully it was matched by a glorious result also!

Whilst the Jack Army’s total mileage of over 4,100 last season could take you on a one-way trip to the Bahamas, next season is unlikely to be much different with a nice long trip to Norwich to look forward to rather than Hull.

At least Bournemouth will provide an ample opportunity to enjoy a weekend away at the seaside rather than a trip ‘up north’ to Burnley. You can get the lowdown on all of next season’s journeys by taking a look at our Swans on the Road for the 2015-2016 season article.

So no matter what the fixtures the Premier League computer comes up with tomorrow, one thing is certain, the loyal Jack Army will follow their team wherever they may go.