I'm another one who can claim Goal as a big reason. I played football my whole life, but never really watched outside of the 02 World Cup. Champions League was the only thing accessible when I started to take interest, then the 2006 World Cup came and I was fully committed. By April of the season after I realized I could probably watch league games for free on the internet, so spent the rest of that season watching games, trying to find appealing teams. Decided to spend about a month over that summer researching clubs then fully committing to one. Think I always knew it was going to be Newcastle, I had watched Goal months before and really enjoyed SJP, the one club city, stripes, etc. I wanted a club that was not Big 4, but also ambitious () enough, or at least have the potential to be bigger. Think it came down to us, Villa and Arsenal, but I always knew in the back of my mind I was going to pick Newcastle.
Still haven't gotten over there, should've done study abroad but no time ever felt right, and now I'm in my last semester. Hopefully money from graduation gifts will get me over there in the spring.