What happens when a football club ups sticks and leaves its traditional home for pastures new? What replaces the terraces, stands and floodlights that tower above old town centres and terraced streets? How does football relate to the new landscapes that the clubs head to? What happens when football leaves home? When the Circus Leaves Town: What Happens When Football Leaves Home explores the impact of the ruptures created when clubs and supporters wave goodbye to their homes. It examines disruption to matchday routines, erasure of geographic memories and the difficulties in repairing these, and considers whether such moves have been for better or worse. Writer Dave Proudlove walks the streets of towns and cities across the country visiting housing estates, retail parks and shiny new stadiums. He talks to those involved with the relocation of football clubs - club officials, developers, politicians, fans - to understand the reasons behind the upheaval, and to bring us the full story of what happens when football leaves home.

About the Author
Dave Proudlove is the author of Ballad of the Streets. He writes a weekly column for the North Staffordshire daily newspaper The Sentinel and contributes to its sister publication The Way We Were. Dave is also a regular contributor to the Stoke City fanzine Duck, online magazine The Football Pink, and regularly collaborates with artists and other writers.

Reviews

"A book I recently read and loved is... When the Circus Leaves Town by David Proudlove, a travelogue about the closure of traditional football grounds in England and Wales. Underneath the ostensible subject it's a wonderfully intricate and humane history of the last 30 years of so of British civic life, which puts to shame a thousand journalistic commentaries on the "Red Wall", "Brexit Britain", etc."

-- Alex Niven * The Independent *



Book Information
ISBN 9781801501736
Author David Proudlove
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Pitch Publishing Ltd
Publisher Pitch Publishing Ltd
Weight(grams) 406g