Crowds in 85/86 season

Just seen this pic on Facebook. Look at some of these crowds.

 

Barnsley had practically lost two thirds of their crowd due to the Miners Strike,
Edit: I remember that game with Aylott scoring

 

Yes but that doesn't explain all the other incredibly low crowds across the country shown there. Was there a big recession that year?

 

Can’t remember that game at all but will have been there. That was one of our lowest gates of the season, but we were safe mid table with nowt to play for.

 

Hooliganism I'd say. The game had been dragged into the doldrums thanks to the morons.

 

No it’s just the way football was going, run- down stadiums, poor quality football, lack of leadership football hooligans didn’t help

 

Yes just checked and both the Heysel tragedy and Bradford City fire happened in May 85. Bad times for football in those days,with hooliganism still rife as well.

 

I don’t think there was a great deal of money around in the early 80s. I left school in 81 and didn’t get properly into work until about 87. Government schemes all the way for lot of youngsters.

Also football hooliganism was rife in the mid 80s, maybe some were just staying away?

 

Just looking at the scorers in both divisions quite a few of them had links to BFC at some point, including Jan Molby at Liverpool
Edit: Spackman, Andy Ritchie and John Hendrie, former managers

 

Trevor Aylott had played the last month on loan at Barnsley without scoring. Then, in the week leading up to the game, he returned to Palace. Quite naturally, he then scored against us.

 

Yes the whole football world was down in the dumps at that time. Hard to see how everybody survived it, but obviously the wages were not in the obscene bracket then so I suppose clubs just about absorbed a lack of gate money.

 

15 of the teams in the 2nd Division aren't in there now, how times change.

 

Correct as usual mate. I missed a few games that season as I was skint and at college but I managed to make this game as it was the last game of the season. Quite a low crowd considering. I think it was our lowest of that season

 

Thatcher in full swing in the eighties , not just the miners . Unemployment was rife .

 

Beat me to it mate. Our crowds suffered due to the 84/85 miners strike. Stunned it was that low though.
Edit
Just seen tarntykes response. Must have missed it 1st time round.

 

In the years before the strike I'm sure we were averaging around 15k. It took years to recover. It was undoubtedly the strike that caused the crowds to suffer. I never realised it went down to that level. I remember crowds of 2 thousand under Iley but that was dire and in the 4th division.

 

14,000 for an Arsenal 1st division game.

 

Was a terrible time mid eighties , Steelworkers, Shipbuilders, Dockers ,car workers , Miners . The construction industry ,etc etc . There were many programmes made on tv about these eg Boys from the blackstuff, Auf Wiedersen Pet, etc etc
UB40 took their name from the unemployment form at that time .
It doesn’t surprise me the low crowds at these times .

 

It's worth remembering that the gates had already begun to drop after the highs of the 1981/82 campaign. Our attendances were dropping during the 1982/83 season, which was one of the reasons given as to why we lost so many players in 1983, eventually leading to Norman Hunter getting sacked. The gates dropped quickly due to the board's actions and the miners' strike added to this. But it's wrong to claim the strike was the only reason for much lower gates.

 

Yes that attendance is very surprising. 2800 at Fulham in the 2nd division as well. Don't forget this was also the loadsamoney era,with the City boys coining it in under Thatcher's privatisation schemes. Wasn't recession all over the country.
Somebody could probably do a sociology degree based on those attendances