As Matt said above we were close to 90% capacity against Stoke with them only taking about 1/3rd of their allocation, roughly 600 visiting fans in an area with close to 1800 seats. It they had sold out we would have been roughly 500/600 short of capacity which is not bad for a lunchtime kick off in West London which does have other attractions that would stop people going to football. Also thanks to the Sky paymasters our capacity has reduced to under 18k due to new camera locations and a new press box......
Sorry mate there were large gaps in the Lower School End and clumps of empty seats in both Ellerslie and South Africa Road. Couldn't see Loft because I was sitting in it. Point is we should sell out (except for away allocation) any Premiership game, no matter what the time of day, on telly or not or what opposition if we only have a capacity of 18,000., if we seriously think we need a 40,000 stadium. Where were the Wembley glory hunters?
Must admit Stan, hadn't realised on Saturday that the attendance was just over 16k it was only when I saw the gaps on telly during MOTD in Lower & Upper School End that game wasn't a sell out. Couldn't see any gaps in Ellerslie or SAR from where we were in back row Lower School End, but they must have been smallish compared to School End.....You are right if we can't get 16000 plus home fans for games then what chance have we of filling a 40k stadium?
As I remember when I first went mid 70's, LR about full was around 30K, part sitting, part standing. Soon it'll be half that. I wish we could rip out All the seats so we could have about 30K in again, with Sky. Then we could watch football how it's supposed to be watched, vastly improve the atmosphere, singing and dancing, and we wouldn't have any immediate need of a new bigger stadium. Safe the whole place with netting and rubbers, and tell the FA to FO.
Sorry, a bit random I know but being this is a thread about crowds I thought id post this old pic of the loft Iv just found. please log in to view this image
Can someone tell me what the official capacity of our ground was before all seating was introduced? I understand we had 35000+ for a Leeds game mid 70s. The reason why I ask, I just can't get my head around how you would cram in 35000 supporters even if there were no seats anywhere at our ground. If any of you were at that Leeds match I bet you were crammed in like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box?
UTR's you have to remember LR was somewhat different in those days, there was terracing at both ends of the ground and none of the corporate boxes under the SAR stand, there was seating going right underneath that stand. http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c63/footybits/Footyhomes/qprreview.jpg Not sure if this has worked but the photo is from roughly 1970 before the Ellerslie Road stand was re-built in 1972, the terracing under the SAR stand was converted to seating around 1974 or so...... Yes it was a crush at the leeds game in 1976, it was also the same in 1973 when they were champions and we played them the last game of the season, Jim Gregory actually banned TV cameras from that game in case it affected the size of the crowd......fat chance as there was near 35k at that game as well. I have posted this before but i never get tires of it, here is that game against Leeds in 1976 from ITV's The Big Match....enjoy. [video=youtube;gnf-DH0qFws]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnf-DH0qFws[/video]
Enjoy again I did, thanks Tramore. That was a great day, one of many back then. It was jam packed in the Loft, as you can see in those highlights.
I was in the loft with my Brother for that game and yes, we were crammed in!! There were around 5k Leeds fans crammed in as well. The attendance was 35k.
It's as close as we will ever come to winning the League Title, I've already resigned myself to the probability that we will not win the title in my lifetime and I'm hopeful that I have another 30 years plus left in me.......
Many thanks to you all for the feedback. Tramore Ranger, cheers also to you, I was only a few months old when that game was played. Top top stuff!
Wow, having just clicked on that picture link you kindly posted Tramore Ranger, the smallish print on the picture says 37000 capacity. I bet the match day vibes back in the day were out of this world. I would have loved to be there then with all you lucky sods who were.
