Attendance

[JellyBaby]

Without checking the stats is our record attendance about 55,000? Or have I completely made that up? It's in my head for some reason. Anyway, with some mentioning the cricket field stand on another thread and the question of we should keep it or not I've always wondered if and how did we get such bigger attendances in the past? Was there a time when we averaged over 30,000? Is it just down to pricing these days or would we need a sustained period of success? For me like maybe half the people on here there has never been such a successful time in my life but it's hard to see how we would get much bigger crowds never mind over 40,000. Would the Turf ever need expanding? P.S. 2-1 win against Watford tomorrow...

[HendricksHair]

Record attendances like that are because they were pre-Hillsborough, so most grounds were terraced and thus allowing more supporters in the stands

[summitclaret]

Even in 59/60 the average home gate was ony about 25,000 for league games I think and that would have often included many thousands of away fans.
In those days there was nowt else to do. The really big gates up to 56,000 were mainly for cup games.

Apart from a few extra thousand (for mainly away fans/corporate) the Turf is about the right size. Empty seats look naff.

[Diesel]

We used to regulary get 45k+ for reserve games, we didn't have toasters and shampoo in them days.

We were so much happier back then.

[Claretforever]

Our record attendance is 54,775 v Huddersfield in the FA Cup 1924. At the time Huddersfield were winning 3 league titles in a row, so despite them only averaging 19-20,000, they were a big draw, as was the FA Cup in general.

We have had a good number of crowds in the FA Cup and league close to or just over 50,000.

Our best ever seasonal average was 33,621, but have had a couple of other seasons averaging over 30,000.

We averaged 26,978 the year we won the title in 1960.

We're a small town, so can't compete fully with city clubs on attendances, plus our populations has actually SHRUNK by around 30% over the past 100 years, and we also have a sizeable minority of ethnic population that don't attend. In other words, we have a smaller pot of fans than previously. We do very well.

[chorleyhere]

Watching Wigan last night, it seemed half the ground's lower areas had seats covered up with giant posters and Wigan badges not a pretty sight - let's hope that never has to happen at the Turf.