“May I Have Your Attendance, Please?”
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I’ve always been fascinated by the attendances that teams get. Of course, mostly Sunderland’s but other teams’ gates interest me too, and after looking at the league table or the results, an attendance can give you a good indication of various factors.
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Firstly, it gives you generally an idea of a team’s catchment area, as how big a club can become — certainly in times gone by — relied somewhat on the size of their fanbase.
Secondly, it’s an indication of how well the team is doing during any given period in history. Are the gates up from past indicators or are they dropping and leaking fans — perhaps from football altogether or even to other local teams as a result of wider social issues?
I looked at a case study, namely Carlisle United, before moving onto Sunderland AFC.
It would be very neat and tidy to claim that football attendances have generally been on the rise over the decades, but unfortunately, this isn’t true.
During a five-year period after WWII, Carlisle were regularly enjoying average attendances of over 11,000.
Obviously, from a social history viewpoint, after the war years, people wanted to get out, follow their team, and try to enjoy life again — but post-1952, these numbers weren’t replicated again Brunton Park until the late 1960s. Indeed, to this day, Carlisle United have never reached double figures (in thousands) for average attendances since 1968.
However, there’s one outlier, and that’s when they were promoted to the First Division in 1975. During their single season in the top flight, they recorded an average gate of 14,530. So maybe not rocket science, but more people will go through the turnstiles not just if their team is doing well, but also if the standard of opposition is enhanced. It’s a minefield trying to fit attendances into neat little boxes.
In 1962, when Carlisle were promoted to the third tier, their attendances dropped because during that season, they came straight back down again! So despite a better standard of opposition, fans still want to see their team win a few times.
So, what of Sunderland? Obviously, we’re generally talking larger numbers and it would also be easy to assume that Sunderland have always been well supported — yet some of the average attendance figures would suggest otherwise.
In the 1890s, after the first Football League was formed, Sunderland were getting average gates of between 5,000 and 8,000 at Newcastle Road — this during a period when we were crowned champions three times, so we’re talking about the early stages of our footballing history.
When we moved to the relatively magnificent surroundings of Roker Park in the 1898/1899 season, we almost doubled our average gate to 11,000, compared to the season before. This figure (generally) slowly grew to 18,000 when we were crowned champions for the fourth time in 1913, and nearly 21,000 the following season before the Great War devastated lives and communities.
After the war, as with Carlisle (and every other club, I assume) attendances rose significantly and after football started again in 1920, our average gates went up to 25,000 and then 28,000 — yet there seems to be a strange anomaly in 1933.
Our average attendance dropped by over 6,000 from the previous season to just 18,269. Oddly, it was also the year of our record-breaking gate when 75,118 turned up to see the FA Cup match against Derby County. These were the days, of course, where fans would be packed in to see the match and The Roker End seemed to go on forever into the sky.
I’m at a loss as to why our numbers fell for two seasons as performances on the pitch were reasonable enough, but generally, these numbers continued in a similar vein until the outbreak of WWII.
Post-war, the numbers increased dramatically, with an average of 35,000 in 1947, and then 42,888 in 1948.
Our average gate remained in the high thirties and low forty thousands for the next decade, until disaster struck and we were relegated for the first time in our history. We lost nearly ten thousand fans for the next three years but as we pushed for promotion — and on our return to the top flight — it went up to 40,000.
For me, the most poignant and noteworthy social history comment is noted during the 70s and 80s.
Although there was a slight peak in interest after the 1973 FA Cup win and promotion in 1976, the mass unemployment of the time, increase in football violence and the Taylor Report vastly reducing the capacity of the once-proud Roker Park made much of the last twenty five years at that ground pretty grim.
The capacity of the iconic Roker End stand was notably reduced from 17,000 to 7,500. A full stadium could now hold just 22,500 fans and for nearly all of the 80s and almost all of the 90s, our average attendances didn’t get over 20,000.
Looking at individual game numbers makes for even stranger reading.
In a 1983 First Division game, for example, only 15,000 turned up to see the Lads play Arsenal — the same number versus Spurs. During our barnstorming burst out of Division Three in 1988 — a time when we could field the ‘G Force’ — only 11,000 watched us play Fulham, and when Peter Reid came to save us during the 1994/1995 Division One season, only 12,000 saw Sunderland tackle Stoke City.
Numbers like this are still difficult to take in.
Was it the general state of the game, or the reputation it had made for itself? There was certainly apathy on the terraces so on the evidence of this lengthy period, no, we haven’t always been a well-supported club.
There were many grumbles over leaving the old stadium but when looking at the injection of enthusiasm and crowd numbers alone, it made it an absolute no-brainer.
We were relegated during our final season at Roker Park, with an average gate of 20,865.
During our first season at the brand new Stadium of Light, average crowds surged to 33,492, and once we were back in the Premier League, we were back up to an average of 40,000 for the first time in thirty five years — almost my entire Sunderland life at that point. Indeed, I was born in 1958 when our first relegation took place, so maybe it’s all my fault?
Attendance-wise, our most turbulent period happened from 1965 to the Stadium of Light era.
Even during more recent dark times of a second visit to the third tier, gates of around 30,000 held their own. In fact, this season — and given the varying figures of what constitutes ‘capacity’ these days — we’re on course for one of the highest average attendances in the club’s history.
With talk of a Roker End extension in the pipeline, things are certainly looking up for our club, and long may it continue.