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ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:44 pm
by ClaretTony
Local paper joins outcry at price increase and scrapping of concession prices for young and old back in 1981

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/fans-stunn ... 981-prices

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:56 pm
by martin_p
For this very reason I missed the first half dozen or so home matches of this 3rd division championship season as my dad refused to pay the significant price hike for the two of us. With concessions abolished he was suddenly having to fork out for two adult tickets at much inflated prices. It took a significant amount of nagging from me (and an improvement in form) to get us on the beehole end. We’d been season ticket holders in the cricket field for the previous three seasons.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:01 pm
by Claretforever
Was the increase also to do with extra costs of ground upgrades in light of the Safety at Football Grounds Act of 1975? I notice in the Rothmans books that our capacity dropped from 38,000 in 1980-81 down to 23,000 in 1981-82, before going back up to 25,000 not long afterwards.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:01 pm
by ClaretTony
I remember the outrage Martin and then we started the season really badly which made things far worse. It wasn't the first time Lord had done this, removing kids prices, but thankfully it's never happened since.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:03 pm
by ClaretTony
Claretforever wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:01 pm
Was the increase also to do with extra costs of ground upgrades in light of the Safety at Football Grounds Act of 1975? I notice in the Rothmans books that our capacity dropped from 38,000 in 1980-81 down to 23,000 in 1981-82, before going back up to 25,000 not long afterwards.
No, it was Lord trying to get money into a bankrupt club which he'd all but destroyed. There was a point in time when our capacity went down to around 8,000. I think that's when we split the Bee Hole and Longside with a fence from top to bottom.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:07 pm
by UnderSeige
My Dad stopped going to the matches when this happened. He never went to a match again.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:08 pm
by Claretforever
I know the capacity dropped to 13,000 for a number of weeks/months one summer in the early 90’s, and we had to add extra exit gates at the from and paint them yellow, but I’ve never read anything about capacity dropping to 8,000?

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:22 pm
by Stalbansclaret
Interesting article...and how we longed to compete with "the Shrewsbury's and Cambridges..of this world" !!!

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:18 pm
by bfcjg
Terrible time I remember it stopped a few of my friends at the time attending. We are light years away from those days.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:48 pm
by tiger76
bfcjg wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:18 pm
Terrible time I remember it stopped a few of my friends at the time attending. We are light years away from those days.
We are,fortunately i'm too young to have experienced the early 1980's,the late 80's and much of the 90's was bad enough,we're in a good place right now,but we can't take our success for granted,recent history shows how quickly fortunes can change,for us and for many other teams.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:29 pm
by Pstotto
£1.90 to stand on the Longside? They saw us coming...

To put the uproar in perspective, what is that in today's money, I wonder?

In actual fact 81-82 was a good season to watch Burnley on the Longside with some real drama and really loud carousing.

It wasn't a 'bad old days' season and it certainly wasn't a poor atmosphere.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:03 pm
by whentheballmoves
Interesting reading, that, Toby. Thanks!
I'm pretty sure my debut was in 1980 or 81. 0-0 home to Swindon Town in the old Division Three...?

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:04 pm
by whentheballmoves
I just googled it. 4 April 1981, just before all this nonsense!

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:19 am
by Dressinggown
ClaretTony wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:03 pm
No, it was Lord trying to get money into a bankrupt club which he'd all but destroyed. There was a point in time when our capacity went down to around 8,000. I think that's when we split the Bee Hole and Longside with a fence from top to bottom.
The 8,000 capacity seems a bit strange when the official capacity following the completion of the new Bob Lord Stand during the 70's was 38,000.

Closing the entire Longside & Bee Hole End in 1981 would still have left us with an all seated capacity of around 8,000.

Was it due to ground safety legislation or lack of employed Police / Stewards ? I definitely had a 'Ground' Season Ticket at the time.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:46 am
by bfcjg
Dressinggown wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:19 am


Was it due to ground safety legislation or lack of employed Police / Stewards ? I definitely had a 'Ground' Season Ticket at the time.
Always being a progressive forward thinking club we were self isolating way before it was necessary or even thought about.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:40 am
by ClaretTony
Dressinggown wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:19 am
The 8,000 capacity seems a bit strange when the official capacity following the completion of the new Bob Lord Stand during the 70's was 38,000.

Closing the entire Longside & Bee Hole End in 1981 would still have left us with an all seated capacity of around 8,000.

Was it due to ground safety legislation or lack of employed Police / Stewards ? I definitely had a 'Ground' Season Ticket at the time.
It was all down to ground safety. Maybe it was 8,000 on the terraces.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:17 am
by Dressinggown
bfcjg wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:46 am
Always being a progressive forward thinking club we were self isolating way before it was necessary or even thought about.
Apart from a few mentalists up at the top of the Longside, Social Distancing was far from being a problem at the Turf in those days. Me, my Dad and a couple of random blokes had the entire Bee Hole End to ourselves.

The football was even worse.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:27 am
by Dressinggown
ClaretTony wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:40 am
It was all down to ground safety. Maybe it was 8,000 on the terraces.
Hope you are keeping well. I think you are right about 8,000 terrace capacity. A total of around 7,000 seats in the other 2 stands.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2020 8:20 am
by groove
Pstotto wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:29 pm
£1.90 to stand on the Longside? They saw us coming...

To put the uproar in perspective, what is that in today's money, I wonder?

In actual fact 81-82 was a good season to watch Burnley on the Longside with some real drama and really loud carousing.

It wasn't a 'bad old days' season and it certainly wasn't a poor atmosphere.
It's about £6.75 in today's money. It costs nearly 30 quid now for the equivalent. Perspective indeed.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2020 8:56 am
by Rowls
Pstotto wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:29 pm
£1.90 to stand on the Longside? They saw us coming...
Going by the Bank of England inflation calculator it's a whopping ...

....

....

£7.34

Which goes to show how much wealthier we are, on the whole, than even in 1981.

Re: ARTICLE: Fans stunned at 1981 prices

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:12 pm
by Pstotto
Not at all, it shows how much wealthier the players are at our expense.