Have our home crowds been disappointing?

[Boanagers]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I find it interesting,that in the years you have highlighted,the side actually leading the league,have only topped that chart once.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think the fact that most of our games can be watched live on Sky is detrimental to increased crowds. The Tuesday night games generally in crap weather are easy to decide to watch at home, together with 12.30 kick off times on a Saturday are turning off the floating supporters.

That's undoubtedly true, but it's the same for the likes of Bolton and Bradford.

[goats]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Haven’t bradford given away ST for kids or something?
I think roughly 20,000 is decent for league 1, what did we average last time we were in this league?

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Bradford City aside who are we benchmarking our attendances against ? I reckon 95% of our support base has only seen two separate seasons of top flight football in their lives - in fact, even if you were to go back to my 1st season of following City, 1962/3, that would be just 2 seasons out of 63. All those teams mentioned - except Bradford, and Huddersfield with a lower average, have had between 24 and 40 years in the top flight during that period, and have grown their core fanbase. Our core base is around the 19000 to 21,000 but I'd expect that a 7 or 8 season spell in the top flight it would probably be around 24,000. Probably just 3k more but a significant jump if you apply those extra fans to this season's attendances.

I think the lack of top flight football is now a bit of a red herring. The days when City were regularly floating around in the bottom two divisions have long gone.

The fact is that Sheffield Wednesday were relegated from the Premier League in 2000 and haven’t been back since.

Ipswich Town were relegated from the Premier League in 2002 and from then until 2019 they were in the Championship before dropping into League One. Nevertheless, when they gained automatic promotion in 2023 their average attendance at this level was more than 26,000.

Derby were last relegated from the Premier League in 2008 (with a record low points tally). Birmingham were last relegated from the Premier League in 2011 and Bolton followed them in 2012. Those clubs have been through some really rough times in the last ten or fifteen years, but their support was (and is) strong at this level.

It's funny, I've spent many years on this message board arguing that Cardiff City is not as a big a club as some of our fans seem to think it is, but I thought we'd be getting bigger crowds than Bolton and Bradford at this level under the current circumstances.

[delmbox]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Ironically the floating fans who might turn up again when we're in the Championship are missing the most fun season I can remember since Warnock's promotion one, relegation was the best thing that could have happened to us

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Haven’t bradford given away ST for kids or something?

No, but they do have cheap season tickets and they are very cheap for the under-12's.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I find it interesting,that in the years you have highlighted,the side actually leading the league,have only topped that chart once.

The winners during the relevant period:

2021/22 - Wigan Athletic
2022/23 - Plymouth Argyle
2023/24 - Portsmouth
2024/25 - Birmingham City

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think the lack of top flight football is now a bit of a red herring. The days when City were regularly floating around in the bottom two divisions have long gone.

The fact is that Sheffield Wednesday were relegated from the Premier League in 2000 and haven’t been back since.

Ipswich Town were relegated from the Premier League in 2002 and from then until 2019 they were in the Championship before dropping into League One. Nevertheless, when they gained automatic promotion in 2023 their average attendance at this level was more than 26,000.

Derby were last relegated from the Premier League in 2008 (with a record low points tally). Birmingham were last relegated from the Premier League in 2011 and Bolton followed them in 2012. Those clubs have been through some really rough times in the last ten or fifteen years, but their support was (and is) strong at this level.

It's funny, I've spent many years on this message board arguing that Cardiff City is not as a big a club as some of our fans seem to think it is, but I thought we'd be getting bigger crowds than Bolton and Bradford at this level under the current circumstances.

Maybe ten years in the Premier League and we would have attached a lot more sticky fans. The one season (twice) getting battered probably didn't give us any long-term growth in hardcore regular fans, ten years would have given us massive growth and more sticky fans.

[ninian opinian]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

During a discussion about City’s attendances before Christmas, a few people suggested the crowds for our League One games at the CCS would be likely to increase significantly in the new year provided the team stayed at the top of the table, but that hasn’t happened so far.

The official attendances for our five home games in 2026 have been as follows:

18,174 v Wigan
19,684 v Stockport
17,841 v Barnsley
19,524 v Luton
18,028 v Wimbledon

While those crowds are not terrible by any means, I think they’ve been disappointing considering the quality of the football the team has been producing and the fact that we’re top of the table on a long unbeaten run, not to mention the popularity of the manager and the local youngsters. Despite all the positivity surrounding the club this season, we’ve only had four league attendances that have topped the 20,000 mark (Plymouth, Bradford, Reading and Exeter), which I’ve found surprising.

I’m also surprised that City are still only ranked third in the League One attendance averages behind Bolton and Bradford, and that situation has shown no sign of changing.

For instance, on Tuesday evening, the official attendance for the Wimbledon game at the CCS was 18,028, which included 889 away fans. Meanwhile, the crowd at Valley Parade for the Bradford v Stockport match was 22,488, including 2,094 away supporters. So, 17,139 City fans turned up (or at least bought tickets) for our game, while 20,394 Bradford supporters showed up (or at least bought tickets) for theirs - a total of 3,255 more.

The top three average attendances for League One during each of the last five seasons were and are as follows (the clubs’ eventual or current positions are in brackets):

2021/22

30,847 - Sunderland (5th)
22,470 - Sheffield Wednesday (4th)
21,779 - Ipswich Town (11th)

2022/23

27,579 - Derby County (7th)
26,184 - Ipswich Town (2nd)
25,378 - Sheffield Wednesday (3rd)

2023/24

27,278 - Derby County (2nd)
21,022 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
18,953 - Portsmouth (1st)

2024/25

26,717 - Birmingham City (1st)
21,235 - Bolton Wanderers (8th)
18,815 - Huddersfield Town (10th)

2025/26

21,574 - Bolton Wanderers (3rd)
20,719 - Bradford City (4th)
19,070 - Cardiff City (1st)

We have six home matches left - Lincoln, Wycombe, Blackpool, Port Vale, Bolton and Northampton. The Lincoln and Bolton games should hopefully attract decent crowds, but given the evidence so far, I’ll be surprised if our average moves ahead of either Bolton or Bradford’s before the end of the season. And whatever happens, we’re definitely not going to come anywhere near some of the previous top League One averages listed above.

(As regards the Lincoln game, I was reading a few minutes ago that they have sold around 1,500 tickets after two days of restricted sales, and their remaining tickets go on sale today.)

There was a special offer on tickets for Bradford v Stockport, “Tenner Tuesday” so that probably boosted the crowd. But still really good support.

I was one of the ones who thought our crowds would increase after Christmas, very disappointing.

[MacAdder]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think the fact that most of our games can be watched live on Sky is detrimental to increased crowds. The Tuesday night games generally in crap weather are easy to decide to watch at home, together with 12.30 kick off times on a Saturday are turning off the floating supporters.

That's undoubtedly true, but it's the same for the likes of Bolton and Bradford.

A very quick piece of research shows that Cardiff City match day ticket prices are considerably higher than both Bolton's and Bradford's.
A big factor IMHO.

Bolton and Bradford:
adult tickets will be £20. Tickets for Over 65s and Under 23s will be £15, with all Under-18s able to attend for only £5.

City v Stockport County 24.01. 26:
Adult £27, Senior (60+) £21 16-21 £18, Junior(U16) £13

[goats]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

I think the lack of top flight football is now a bit of a red herring. The days when City were regularly floating around in the bottom two divisions have long gone.

The fact is that Sheffield Wednesday were relegated from the Premier League in 2000 and haven’t been back since.

Ipswich Town were relegated from the Premier League in 2002 and from then until 2019 they were in the Championship before dropping into League One. Nevertheless, when they gained automatic promotion in 2023 their average attendance at this level was more than 26,000.

Derby were last relegated from the Premier League in 2008 (with a record low points tally). Birmingham were last relegated from the Premier League in 2011 and Bolton followed them in 2012. Those clubs have been through some really rough times in the last ten or fifteen years, but their support was (and is) strong at this level.

It's funny, I've spent many years on this message board arguing that Cardiff City is not as a big a club as some of our fans seem to think it is, but I thought we'd be getting bigger crowds than Bolton and Bradford at this level under the current circumstances.

We will possibly average more by the end of the season…..also, if we carry on like we are and do well next season I can see us averaging around 25 not 20……all subjective mind. Sometimes a boost in crowds can be down to new ownership despite a relegation, didn’t that happen with Ipswich ?

[PontBlue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Maybe ten years in the Premier League and we would have attached a lot more sticky fans. The one season (twice) getting battered probably didn't give us any long-term growth in hardcore regular fans, ten years would have given us massive growth and more sticky fans.

Getting to the premier league may not have helped. I know a few fans that after we got relegated from the top division stopped going as they had completed the bucket list item of seeing us get back.

Plastics buying tickets to see the away side over people who might have hung around possibly wouldn't have helped.

I can't remember if the club did anything that might have helped people especially kids become regulars. The junior bluebirds stand is very sparsely populated, the club should be doing everything to secure the future fanbase

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

There was a special offer on tickets for Bradford v Stockport, “Tenner Tuesday” so that probably boosted the crowd. But still really good support.

Fair play to Bradford, no doubt that did boost the numbers.

City had a half price tickets offer for the Doncaster game in December. That one attracted a crowd of 18,934, including 956 visiting fans.

I'm not sure what the rules are exactly, but I think clubs are allowed to do special offers like that a couple of times a season. I don't think they can do it whenever they choose, I recall there being some limits, although that was some time ago and in the Championship, so the rules might have changed or be different in League One.

Hopefully, City will attempt to give the crowds a boost with some more special offers before the end of the season. The midweek game against Wycombe in March would have seemed an ideal opportunity for reduced ticket prices, but I think tickets for that one are already on sale at standard rates.

[PontBlue]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

That Wycombe game is also on TV according to the live football on TV website.

[fugsyphil]

Re: Have our home crowds been disappointing?

Would anyone know what our average crowd was the last time we got promoted from this division