Traditionally we always seem to have a huge away support % wise to what we get at home and obviously a fair bit of this is down to our big number of exiles. Pro rata though since the 70s when football fans really started making the effort to travel why do people think the Town support has been so good numbers wise away? I remember it tailed off mid-late 80s and again mid 90s but other than that far better than most similar sized Clubs.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

Traditionally we always seem to have a huge away support % wise to what we get at home and obviously a fair bit of this is down to our big number of exiles. Pro rata though since the 70s when football fans really started making the effort to travel why do people think the Town support has been so good numbers wise away? I remember it tailed off mid-late 80s and again mid 90s but other than that far better than most similar sized Clubs.

Fishing industry/community/belonging/togetherness. Sadly now dismantled by the EU state.... :-/

Since mid-90s far more leave the local area to go to higher education. Most stay in or around their university city because of jobs.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

Traditionally we always seem to have a huge away support % wise to what we get at home and obviously a fair bit of this is down to our big number of exiles. Pro rata though since the 70s when football fans really started making the effort to travel why do people think the Town support has been so good numbers wise away? I remember it tailed off mid-late 80s and again mid 90s but other than that far better than most similar sized Clubs.

Because we use any excuse to get away from here for a day  :)

Any stats available on how many travel from NEL rather than from elsewhere? Wonder what the proportion of exiles is in an away crowd.

Lincolnshire has always been a keen recruiting ground for the Armed Services, particularly  the RAF.     Regulars and retired Servicemen (like me) usually live away.  I know of others in the same position.  

I was at school mid 70s and three quarters of my year never came back to Grimsby after uni or armed services BUT every time Town are playing in the South there are at least 12-15 who meet up at the game. That's just one year from one school. There is another decent sized following in the north west too.
It was especially true in the non-league days that night time matches "in the smoke" (Bromley springs to mind) there was the supporters bus and a few cars from NEL but the vast majority were southern based.