I remember growing up in the late 80's/90's being one of thr only cov fans in school, everyone else supported mainly Liverpool or the likes of Everton, Man United or Villa. We were in the premier and it was a rarity to so see cov shirts. I used to get so much crap for supporting cov. In fact of my group of best friends only 2 support city, 3 support Liverpool, 1 united and the other WBA. All born and raised with city in the top flight and on our door step.
Similar for me (but you can dd Leicester to the other clubs followed... and Forest! instead of Villa, with a fair few Liverpool glory hunters at that time), but then again you could also argue that's part of the reason our gates haven't held up as well as say Sheff Utd and Norwich when we fell down.
We've been pretty diabolical in trying to catch people for all of my lifetime, really!
And sure, the ones that go along love it but then isn't that the frustrating thing? They love it, but the club over *decades* hasn't focussed on the next generation.
(Microcosm of society, that!)