Everton F.C. supporters

Everton has a large fan base by virtue of being an original founder member of The Football League and contesting more seasons in the top flight than any other club.^{[citation needed]} For the first nine seasons in the football league, Everton had the highest average league attendances of any team in England.^[1] The club recently^[when?] averaged attendances of around 36,000 to 38,000 in league games at their home stadium Goodison Park, which has a capacity of 39,572, despite having some obstructed views and poor sight lines.^{[citation needed]} A 2006–07 fan survey by the Premier League listed 15% of Everton fans as being unhappy with sight lines at Goodison Park, and only 19% described match views as "very good".^[2]

For the 2009–10 season, Everton sold over 24,000 season tickets.^[3] For the 2016–17 season, this had been upped to 31,000.^[4] In the same season, around 7,000 Evertonians travelled to Lisbon for a match against Benfica.^[5] The highest ever season average attendance at Everton was in 1963 with 51,603, the best of any club in that particular season.^[6] The following season, the club was once again the best supported side in England.^[7]

The 2004–05 Premier League survey, which asked almost 1,400 Everton fans various questions, found that 30% of those fans lived in Liverpool.^[8] The 2007–08 survey found that Everton fans on average live 44 miles away from Goodison Park, three miles less than the average and a huge difference compared with fans of rivals Liverpool and Manchester United, who were on average 82 and 78 miles from their respective stadiums.^[9] Everton draws the vast majority of its support from Merseyside, Cheshire, Southern parts of Lancashire, Western enclaves of Greater Manchester and North Wales.^{[citation needed]} Everton also has a notable number of supporters in countries such as Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

The 2003–04 survey found that 71% of Everton fans earn under £30,000 a year, the lowest average income in the league.^[10] The 2002–03 report found Everton had the highest number of season ticket holders from the two lowest social classifications with 16%.^[11] A study in August 2012 by property website Zoopla found that houses around Goodison Park were the cheapest of any Premier League club, averaging £66,000, almost £30,000 less than the entry above it.^[12]

A 2003 survey by The Football Fans Census found that Liverpool are still Everton's main rivals.^[13] The Merseyside derby (the intra-city rivalry between the two teams) is commonly referred to as "the friendly derby" as it is common for families and households in the city to have both Everton and Liverpool fans. Whilst performances on the pitch are heated and passionate, the off-pitch behaviour of fans is largely amicable in comparison to other rivalries, and it is one of the few Premier League match-ups that does not require the enforcement of total fan segregation during the matches.

Everton have fan clubs located all over the world. The three largest clubs outside England are Emerald Everton Supporters Club in Ireland, ESCNI in Northern Ireland, and the Everton Supporters Club on the Isle of Man.^[14][15][16]

• Ken Loach's 1968 docu-drama The Golden Vision concerned a group of Everton fans and was named after Alex Young, who also appears on-screen.^{[citation needed]}
• The Rutles, a parody of Beatlemania, sees Eric Idle interviewing respected Liverpool poet Roger McGough (a real life Evertonian). He introduces him to the camera as "he was born in Liverpool, grew up in Liverpool, drank in Liverpool, wrote about Liverpool and his football team is of course... Everton".^{[citation needed]}
• The 1997 television drama The Fix told the story of the exposure of a match fixing scandal in 1963 that centred around Everton player Tony Kay. Jason Isaacs (himself a Liverpool fan) played Kay while Colin Welland portrayed then manager Harry Catterick with a broad Liverpool accent, despite the fact Catterick himself was from Darlington. The drama also featured lifelong Liverpool fan Ricky Tomlinson playing Gordon, a fictitious character and Everton fanatic.^{[citation needed]}
• A 1972 episode of BBC Sitcom The Liver Birds, "Liverpool or Everton", which features future Everton chairman and actor Bill Kenwright playing a Liverpool supporter dating Sandra who has to endure Evertonian Beryl and her friends returning home celebrating a derby win.^{[citation needed]}
• Coronation Street villain Pat Phelan was revealed to be an Everton fan, to the extent of having Gary Lineker's face tattooed on his bottom.^[146]
• 2017 ITV drama Little Boy Blue focused on the murder of Rhys Jones. The series recreated the Jones family appeal for information and the minute's silence and applause at Goodison Park.^[147][148]