17-02-2022, 09:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 17-02-2022, 09:30 AM by Rick Pumpkin.)
(17-02-2022, 12:08 AM)West Australian Portsmouth Fan Wrote: In the mid 90’s we averaged roughly 9,000 per match. For a city the size of Portsmouth how could this happen? But it did
My first game was home to Millwall in the 71/72 season and I know the crowd that day was about 15,000, and that was typical for the time. It seemed to gradually drop through the decade and I'm sure in the late 70s one game (possibly against Doncaster) we just shaded 5,000. But then shortly afterwards we were seeing great crowds for Div. 4 matches and those of us the wrong side of 50 will remember 32k against Middlesbrough in the cup, 24k against Bradford and not a lot less the same season when Huddersfield visited.
I spent the 80s in the RAF and didn't get to see as many matches as I would have liked, but recall large areas of empty NSL terracing even during the promotion seasons under Campbell and Ballie, so it's always been cyclical. Obviously the ground work doesn't help but I see similar this season with lower attendances after a few decent years where despite what happened on the pitch people still turned up in greater numbers than you'd expect. But that's a different thread entirely!
The economy will always affect crowd numbers and the 70s/80s weren't too great in that respect and I imagine it's also why numbers are a little down now too.