Gradwell’s League Table of Broadband Speeds Near 92 UK Football Clubs

Business ISP Gradwell Communications has recently published a league table of broadband download and upload speeds from around 92 Football League clubs across the United Kingdom. We’re not sure how useful this data is, but it’s certainly a good bit of fun.

Apparently the data was collected from an average area of 500 metres from each home ground of all 92 Football League clubs, although it’s unclear precisely how this data collection occurred and as such it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions. After that the results of both upload and download speeds were combined to produce an overall score.

Overall it’s interesting to note that only two Premier League teams made the upper part of the table, Everton and Bournemouth, while 20 times Premier League champions Manchester United ranked 64th and that’s nine places higher than local rivals Manchester City. The average combined Internet speed for Premier League clubs is said to be 16.2Mbps, the lowest of any division.

Nick Thompson, CEO of Gradwell Comms, said:

“While BT is spending billions on the rights to broadcast, it is still spending pennies on the broadband infrastructure around football stadiums.

Most football stadia are situated very close to homes so it’s even more troubling to see that the broadband speeds in and around some of the biggest clubs, not only in the UK, but the world are more like Conference North standard than Champions League.”

Meanwhile it’s worth remembering that “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) connections are estimated to cover around 91% of the United Kingdom (although most haven’t upgraded yet), while the majority of big football clubs will usually adopt a business leased line or similar form of connectivity (this table seems to be more focused on the surrounding properties rather than the clubs themselves).

A BT spokesperson reiterated the operator’s plan to invest £6bn in their national fixed line and mobile network, before adding that “every football stadium in the UK can access a dedicated ultrafast service with speeds in excess of 1Gbps” (we assume they mean a leased line). Mind you, not every club has enough money to afford such a connection (Football clubs aren’t exactly known for their financial stability).

The full table can be found below and we’ve ordered it by download speed rather than the combined total.