Season 85/86

[spudski]

Average league attendances for football league clubs. 

A real eye opener.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

It fell quite drastically at a lot of clubs in the 1980s for a host of reasons. Bottomed out around 1985ish.

Took a while into the early 2000s to fully recover to levels seen today- talking widely.

How did football in the main avoid bankruptcy then? People who follow it more closely...clearly at a low ebb commercially etc.

[GrahamC]

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

Edited March 24 by GrahamC

[The Swan and Cemetery]

5 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Pretty sure our one at Reading was that year, too.

83/84 I think, Div 4 promotion battle. 

[Three Lions]

4 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

It was also a brilliant time if you had a job. away game beer to london less than a tenner and freedom that doesnt exist now. 

[Bris Red]

13 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

Gone far too much the other way now though IMO, of course we all want to go to a safe and inclusive environment when we go to football but the whole match day experience at 99% of football clubs in this country has become far too sanitised.

 

[Barry Sheene]

It was not only the football league I remember going to Wembley to watch England paying the money on turnstile and watching the match with the ground half full.

[Mr Popodopolous]

8 minutes ago, Three Lions said:

It was also a brilliant time if you had a job. away game beer to london less than a tenner and freedom that doesnt exist now. 

Cheaper travel costs was it? (I know inflation etc also). Ticket prices wwre clearly cheaper then, an argument that certain fans and sectors have been priced our somewhat these days 

1 minute ago, Bris Red said:

Gone far too much the other way now though IMO, of course we all want to go to a safe and inclusive environment when we go to football but the whole match day experience at 99% of football clubs in this country has become far too sanitised.

 

I'd argue things needed to change but yeah too much the other way.

Happy medium there isn't.

[ralphindevon]

As I said on the other thread, our ave attendance now would put us in the top 10 in the country and Torquay have an average almost double now in the 6th tier than they did back then in the 4th.

Amazing that a few years after Hillsborough, football went from being looked down on and the fans treated like scum to being THE place to be seen.

Thatcher hated football fans but I almost preferred that to seeing the likes of Cameron, Osborne, Sunak all trying to get on the bandwagon pretending they’re loyal supporters of teams they know nothing about. 

[Three Lions]

12 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Cheaper travel costs was it? (I know inflation etc also). Ticket prices wwre clearly cheaper then, an argument that certain fans and sectors have been priced our somewhat these days 

 

massively cheaper on the train with british rail and no having to pay in advance couple of quid return to london. Saw City at Southend 3000 maybe there on on a friday stayed over (Cooper sacked) train to London with 20+ City fans to see Arsenal Forest pay on the gate league cup semi on  saturday for £1 on the North Bank and 50000 + crowd. Barely afford a drink now. 

Edited March 24 by Three Lions

[TDarwall]

56 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

Am sure there's a Bowie quote about nostalgia for things that never were.

[Markthehorn]

That was during our best ever era and probably no better  average attendance than what we get now which probably says something .

 

 

[New Dazzler]

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

The Bradford City fire (11/5/85) was just over 2 weeks before Heysel (28/5), 2 horrific and tragic events.  I am pretty sure that we had one of our worst home matches for violence - yes Millwall - only a few weeks earlier.  As you say, violence and dangerous stadia. Grim times.                   

[22A]

I believe that 85/86 was the season when either Burnley or Lincoln would drop out if the League at the end and their attendance figures reflect that.

My memory of 85/86; City were ninth in 1985/86 but did well in the Freight Rover Trophy as the cup competition was known. After winning the pool stage, City had a succession of home ties and reached the Southern final. They lost the first leg at Edgar Street 2-0, but won the return leg against Hereford three nil and became the second local team to play at Wembley. The first had been Almondsbury/Greenway in an amateur competition. The opponents were to be Bolton Wanderers. The two League games had both occurred near the end of the season with City winning 4-0 at Burnden Park and 2-0 at home. At Wembley they split the difference and won 3-0 with Steve Neville scoring two of the goals. Bolton’s best player was Mark Gavin who later joined City.

[Davefevs]

3 hours ago, spudski said:

Average league attendances for football league clubs. 

A real eye opener.

 

You been dusting off the Rothmans Year Book?

[fgrsimon]

York City higher average gate than Wolves!

This was when Wolves were following City in plummeting from Div 1 to Div 4 in consecutive seasons.

[sglosbcfc]

4 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

As I said on the other thread, our ave attendance now would put us in the top 10 in the country and Torquay have an average almost double now in the 6th tier than they did back then in the 4th.

Amazing that a few years after Hillsborough, football went from being looked down on and the fans treated like scum to being THE place to be seen.

Thatcher hated football fans but I almost preferred that to seeing the likes of Cameron, Osborne, Sunak all trying to get on the bandwagon pretending they’re loyal supporters of teams they know nothing about. 

Very unfair, if you remember the days of the Old Dell, Rishi Sunak was seen as one of Southampton's top boys. never missed a game home or away, often jumping on moving trains to avoid paying the fare and climbing over the wall at away ends as he couldn't afford the ticket price.

[sglosbcfc]

4 hours ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

I remember needing a pee at Blackpool away in the 80s and being shown to a wooden wall with a trench underneath, that is what you had to pee against. No taps or basin either. Different world now, even at the smallest League Two clubs.

 

[sglosbcfc]

4 hours ago, spudski said:

Average league attendances for football league clubs. 

A real eye opener.

 

Wrexham 1800, where were Hollywood film stars then? And the glory hunting North Wales boyos were off to Anfield or Goodison on a Saturday.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Wrexham being Wales and relative proximity to Merseyside. That will have been one of the harder bit areas in the 1980s..think I heard a stat that a lot of the jobs were lost in a given area. Wales would've been one, parts of the North another, Scotland likely another, Midlands to some extent.

As well as hooliganism and decaying facilities, this was another factor in specific areas.

[sglosbcfc]

8 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Wrexham being Wales and relative proximity to Merseyside. That will have been one of the harder bit areas in the 1980s..think I heard a stat that a lot of the jobs were lost in a given area. Wales would've been one, parts of the North another, Scotland likely another, Midlands to some extent.

As well as hooliganism and decaying facilities, this was another factor in specific areas.

I remember City supporters in the 80s at away games up north, particularly the likes of Tranmere, singing 'we got loadsa money, loads and loads of money' and waving £5 notes at their supporters. Bristol certainly had it better than many places under Thatcher's Britain.

[Mr Popodopolous]

45 minutes ago, sglosbcfc said:

I remember City supporters in the 80s at away games up north, particularly the likes of Tranmere, singing 'we got loadsa money, loads and loads of money' and waving £5 notes at their supporters. Bristol certainly had it better than many places under Thatcher's Britain.

London and South East had it best of all..parts of the wider South West too, Bristol probably split somewhat. I'd have thought Somerset and Gloucestershire some of which feed into our wider fanbase did alright in that era.

East Midlands probably did alright but not exclusively. Northern Ireland who knows.

Either way a knock-on effect of unemployment would have been one factor (not the only one) in plummeting attendances.

All IMO of course.

Edited March 25 by Mr Popodopolous

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

6 hours ago, 22A said:

I believe that 85/86 was the season when either Burnley or Lincoln would drop out if the League at the end and their attendance figures reflect that.

My memory of 85/86; City were ninth in 1985/86 but did well in the Freight Rover Trophy as the cup competition was known. After winning the pool stage, City had a succession of home ties and reached the Southern final. They lost the first leg at Edgar Street 2-0, but won the return leg against Hereford three nil and became the second local team to play at Wembley. The first had been Almondsbury/Greenway in an amateur competition. The opponents were to be Bolton Wanderers. The two League games had both occurred near the end of the season with City winning 4-0 at Burnden Park and 2-0 at home. At Wembley they split the difference and won 3-0 with Steve Neville scoring two of the goals. Bolton’s best player was Mark Gavin who later joined City.

FGR won the FA Vase in (82?) at Wembley.

[Oh Louie louie]

We played Plymouth in the freight rover that season and I'm sure the gate was under 2000, I sat in the red seats in the dolman for the first time, 

[ashton_fan]

I remember when we were at our lowest ebb in Div 4 we had a hard core of 4000 fans who would turn up for home league games no matter what. It puts into perspective our current 'problems'.

Edited March 25 by ashton_fan

[Sir Geoff]

36 minutes ago, ashton_fan said:

I remember when we were at our lowest ebb in Div 4 we had a hard core of 4000 fans who would turn up for home league games no matter what. It puts into perspective our current 'problems'.

In what way does it out our current problems in to perspective ?

Different era, different problems.

I was part of the 4000 whenever I wasn't playing on a Saturday and loved my football and the experience much more than now.

[spudski]

10 hours ago, GrahamC said:

If you were around then (& I was), not really.

This was the year of Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton on TV. Pretty sure our one at Reading was the year before.

Football was seen as violent, an almost exclusively male pursuit in crumbling, dangerous stadia. Definitely not cool.

A lot of the 80s was like this.

Whatever any of us think about the Premiership, Sky’s influence & the rest, the rose tinted nostalgia for that time is to a great extent, misplaced.

 

I guess many of us on here were there back then. And we all remember how it was...but it's an eye opener as to how many more people now attend imo.

Your second paragraph could still be a reflection of many football clubs/ stadiums around the world. Less so in wealthier Europe, but in other football mad countries it applies. 

Misplaced nostalgia...sometimes...but we had no alternative. That's how it was. If our part of the world hadn't changed, we'd still be going, and still enjoying it. Like many do in those same circumstances in say the likes of South America and Eastern Europe. 

I know I have fonder memories of those times than I do from more recent times. And have enjoyed visiting foreign stadia in the those conditions now. 

You mentioned it was exclusively a male pursuit...which made me wonder...is there anything in this country that males do exclusively as a collective anymore? 

I can't think of anything. 

 

 

[GrahamC]

25 minutes ago, spudski said:

 

You mentioned it was exclusively a male pursuit...which made me wonder...is there anything in this country that males do exclusively as a collective anymore? 

I can't think of anything. 

 

 

Absolutely not my thing but gaming, the Warhammer/ Dungeons & Dragons stuff apparently is.

Trainspotting still exist? Maybe fishing?

[spudski]

Just now, GrahamC said:

Absolutely not my thing but gaming, the Warhammer/ Dungeons & Dragons stuff apparently is.

Trainspotting still exist? Maybe fishing?

I don't do any of those so wouldn't know. Although the thought of fishing, just being away from everything in nature is appealing. 

[steviestevieneville]

1 minute ago, spudski said:

I don't do any of those so wouldn't know. Although the thought of fishing, just being away from everything in nature is appealing. 

Fishing is brilliant for mental health , relaxation . I haven’t managed to get out yet this year .I  Have a weeks holiday booked end of April , fishing . Cottage , close to the lakes . Bliss.