Built Different Index

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: The Full Index

The results are in, Brighton & Hove Albion are officially the most Built Different club in English football, and Birmingham City have the less glamorous honour of finishing 92nd.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: The Twelfth Man

A big crowd is impressive. A full ground is better. A full ground that represents a serious chunk of the local area is where things start to feel different.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: The Travellers

Some clubs get a few handy away days, one horrible long haul and enough local fixtures to keep the season manageable. Others spend nine months treating the motorway network like a second home.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Weatherproof

Some clubs want perfect grass, still air and a mild afternoon. Others seem happier when the rain is coming sideways and the ball has stopped obeying basic physics.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: The Chaos Index

Football chaos is rarely one thing. It is the 300-mile away trip. The rain that never really stops. The new manager arriving with a fresh system before the last one’s initials have been taken off the training kit.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Shortest Away Trip

A local derby should be simple. Roll out of bed. Question your life choices. Get on a train. Spend 90 minutes shouting at people who live 20 minutes away. That’s the theory, anyway. For some clubs, the nearest away day is practically next door. For others, “local” is doing some very heavy lifting.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Longest Away Trip

Some away days are easy. A short drive. One train. Home in time to catch the highlights and complain about the referee all over again. Others start before sunrise, end somewhere around Sunday morning and involve enough motorway service stations to make you question whether football is actually a hobby.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Total Distance Travelled

One big away day is bad enough, but the Total Distance Travelled factor isn’t interested in one horrible journey. It adds up all of them. Every motorway. Every service station. Every rail replacement bus that appears just as hope begins to return.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Home Capacity Utilisation

A big stadium is only impressive when people turn up. The Home Capacity Utilisation factor measures the five-season weighted average percentage of stadium capacity filled for home league matches. That longer view matters because it rewards sustained demand rather than one promotion bounce, one title chase or one unusually chaotic season.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Average Squad Age

There are clubs that build around resale value, running power and the belief that anyone over 27 is basically a pensioner. Others prefer players who have seen a few things, know where to stand and have already survived at least one manager being sacked in November.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Average Windspeed

This is where the Built Different Index gets properly daft. The Average Windspeed factor measures the annual average wind speed recorded at each club’s stadium coordinates. The windier the ground, the higher the club ranks.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Attendance as a % of Local Population

Raw attendance tells you how many people were there. This factor asks a better question: how much of the local area turned up?

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Most Built Different Derbies in English Football

Derbies do not need much encouragement. Put two neighbouring clubs on the same pitch and suddenly reasonable adults are arguing about county boundaries, train stations and something that happened in 1987.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Managerial Merry-Go-Round

Football clubs love talking about long-term projects. Some even make it past the first international break. The Managerial Merry-Go-Round factor looks at dugout stability across five seasons.

Built Different Index

The Built Different Index: Average Rainfall X Win %

This is where the Built Different Index starts requiring a calculator and a waterproof notebook. The Rainfall vs Win Percentage factor combines regional annual rainfall with each club’s five-season average win rate.