Crowd v Tranmere

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Originally Posted by TWREX

We lost 6500 jobs at Shotton steel works 31/03/1980 the biggest single loss of jobs in Western Europe to this day .I was one of the lucky ones to carry on, hard times.

Agree with above comments - after WW2 there was a phase of recovery and rebuilding - the 60's were probably the best years for employment.

By the late 70's the traditional heavy industries were on the rapid decline - I remember as a teenager in school being 'made' to sign a petition with all my class mates against job losses at Shotton. I don't think there were many families in the area at the time who didn't have someone be it father, grandfather, brother or uncle - working there. But in addition the collieries were closing down, brickworks were going and of course Cortauld's of Greenfield who were also a large employer.

I can recall going to matches in the 80's when attendances were really low - less than 2,000.

The knock on effect of mass redundancies is catastrophic - just an example and going back to the steelworks at Shotton - think of the hundreds on their way to work calling in at the newsagents early morning and at the end of the afternoon shift the Ferry Hotel at the works entrance would be heaving with foundry workers replacing their fluids in what was an extremely hot and highly dangerous atmosphere - suddenly 6,500 workers are gone - and that's just one example.

[panda23]

Originally Posted by redone

agree with all that, plus fans wernt too happy at selling our best players, my mother went ballistic when mickey t got sold ha great days tho

Agree, got a bit disillusioned watching these new players who were not my childhood heroes, went to every home game in the 77-78 season but this dropped dramatically in the next 4 seasons, started going regular again when we dropped back to division 4

[Alan Attack]

Our support is fantastic. I’m not talking about the lot who turned up 40 years ago to be spoon fed decent football. I’m talking about this generation who turn up in their thousands week in, week out watching 5th tier stuff. At times, it’s bloody terrible too (and expensive).

[Hometown Unicorn]

Originally Posted by Alan Attack

Our support is fantastic. I’m not talking about the lot who turned up 40 years ago to be spoon fed decent football. I’m talking about this generation who turn up in their thousands week in, week out watching 5th tier stuff. At times, it’s bloody terrible too (and expensive).

Agree with this. If we were in the 2nd tier now we'd be getting over 10k on the regular.

Our support is fantastic.

[davewilli]

Originally Posted by owain94

Agree with this. If we were in the 2nd tier now we'd be getting over 10k on the regular.

Our support is fantastic.

It doesn't necessarily work like that, fans turn up to watch successful football, but the novelty wears off after a while as our history has proved.

However fan ownership has made a difference as I think there has been more buy-in over the last few years. The fans are better appreciated now by the club, the fans trust the people running the club more and fans can appreciate their collective efforts are needed if we are to get back in the FL, sooner rather than later.

Saturday's gate should give the board the confidence to allow DK a bit more scope in his last minute negotiations with more confidence that money spent this week above the original budget, can be recouped through the gate.

Hopefully, Saturday was the start of some bumper gates with only 7 home fixtures remaining and more casuals getting back in the habit of attending games.

[Old Paddock Man]

Great thread. Great memories. Great crowds.

[Hometown Unicorn]

Originally Posted by davewilli

It doesn't necessarily work like that, fans turn up to watch successful football, but the novelty wears off after a while as our history has proved.

The evidence isn't just there with us, it's there with other clubs. After rising to the 2nd tier, most clubs see a staggering increase in their average attendance. We wouldn't be any different so I have no doubt that our crowds would massively increase if we were to get up to that level, though it's not something I ever expect to see. It's not as if the fans would come from nowhere too, we have a large bubbling fanbase all across North Wales. You'd also have to factor in the large away attendances that we'd get here on the regular.

I don't quite understand what you're getting at when you say 'when the novelty wears off'. The longer the period of successful football lasts, the more the crowd increases. Fans don't get sick of watching good football, they'll continue to flock to the racecourse until the football's crap again and we're back down to our base of 3.5k. If we were to go up a level this base would probably increase to 4k.

[Funny_Old_Game]

Originally Posted by owain94

Agree with this. If we were in the 2nd tier now we'd be getting over 10k on the regular.

Our support is fantastic.

We’ve a rock solid hardcore of 3,000 who would turn up if we were playing Sunday League football. It goes up to 4,000 when we are going reasonably well.

[davewilli]

When I say novelty I don't mean if the team keeping winning, but the novelty of playing in a higher league only lasts for a period.