More than that there surely but definitely not the 16/17k they announced
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What did they announce it as ?
Definitely only 6 or 7000 there
Welcome to league 1
More than that there surely but definitely not the 16/17k they announced
12-13k
Yeah exactly. For context, each block in the stadium is about 1000 seats. It does annoy me that clubs aren't made to report the actual attendance (West Ham had thousands of empty seats v Newcastle but still reported 62,000 for example) but there was far more than 6,000 there.
They were all in the top flight, some very successful as well before and during the ‘plastic supporter’ era really took off. We were knocking about the dungeon and lost a generation of fans who wanted a bit of glamour & success while the four you’ve mentioned were rubbing shoulders with the likes of Liverpool, Man U etc and sometimes getting the better of them on the pitch. By and large fans stuck with their local club, ours drifted, our last top flight seasons in the early 60s a distant memory.
Football attendances took off in the 90’s with the introduction of the Premier League.
On average the top flight has seen attendances increase by ~100% over the last 30 years, second tier teams by ~70%, third tier teams by ~50% and fourth tier teams by ~25%. The biggest increase happened roughly between 1992 and 2002. A period where we happened to be languishing in the lower leagues and Derby and Coventry were Premier League teams for almost all that time and Ipswich spent half in the PL and half in the Championship.
In 1992, the average attendance in the Premier League was ~20k, in 1997 it was ~28k, in 2002 it was ~35k. Last season it was 38,500.
If you were a top flight team in 1991, you won the proverbial golden ticket when it comes to future attendances.
Not much to do in those places probably has a lot to do with it.
Sporting wise we have Cardiff Blues, Cardiff Devils, Welsh international football and rugby games on our doorstep, Glamorgan, Welsh Fire.
If you want to watch live sport in Ipswich or Norwich you watch the local football team. Derby have a cricket team and that’s about it. Think it has an impact