You could get over 25,000 in BP into the eighties. They had 28,000 for an eggchasing international even after the North Stand was demolished. As we have discussed before we only had 3 league crowds over 25,000, and none over 26,000 when Terry Neill was here and none after he left.
You and I used to speculate back in the 70's on how many we would get if we were in the top flight and how we would take away large mobs like some teams brought here. You must admit it hasn't quite lived up to our dreams in that regard.
The Liverpool FA Cup game was in the 80's and the ground capacity was set at 22,000. I know because I had it out with the person responsible for making the decision. I remember the eggchasing international but I doubt if the crowd was 28,000. They got a decent crowd once there v Oz when the North Stand was still in use.
I have only missed about four or five away games since we have been in the Premiership and to be honest I have been quite impressed with our away support. We certainly take far more to Sunderland then we used to before we were a Premiership club.
My point is that attending a City home game now isn't as simple as it used to be because of the ticketing arrangements. You cannot now just decide on the morning of a match to go, and if you do with friends who were already going, you cannot sit with them. I think that is a big factor. I also think the capacity of the KC today is about 5,000 too short, 10,000 if we remain in the PL for a decent stint.
City's crowds did tail off towards the end of the 70/71 season, then we had a generation, if not more, when everything possible was done to deter people attending football in this city, and we couldn't handle a decent crowd if we got the opportunity of attracting one because of the reduced capacity and it did happen on a few occasions. But on the bright side we haven't had a crowd under 16,000 for a league game since we moved to the KC.
The world was a different place in the 70's. We didn't expect all seater stadiums, segregation, the cost spiralling, games shown live in pubs within walking distance of the ground, and highlights all over the television of every game, and we didn't know that our club would bob about at the foot of the Football League for the next 30 years. Also everyone we knew in the 70's had a job and that cannot be said today.
We certainly lost a lot of our potential support to other clubs with the opening of the M62 and we lost a couple of generations, possibly forever, because the club seemed to have a death wish about them.
If anything hasn't lived up to my expectations it is the size of the club. We were brought up under Harold Needlers leadership, a proper Hull City fan himself who saw making a profit as an added bonus of the club doing well and not the main reason for taking control.
Needler had visions of a 80,000 capacity Boothferry Park.
I just wish the current owners, and all those before them shared Harold Needlers vision and love for the club.
We should be selling out every week as a Premiership club with a waiting list for season tickets. I put that down to poor marketing and a complete lack of understanding from within the club on how a successful football club is run off the pitch. The club lacks heart and anyone within the ranks who really knows how a football club of our size clicks.
Having said that I've just enjoyed the best season of my life watching them. I only wish we were all as one from the terraces to the Board Room and I don't sense that same bond. Other clubs manage it, we had it under Adam Pearson and before him Don Robinson, it is like driving with the handbrake on down a one way street.................waiting for the inevitable.............