Crowd sizes

Like a few old timers on here I sometimes ponder crowd sizes in the modern stadium compared to the old standing times of the 80s. I know back in the day we were all under the illusion, at all clubs, that there were more in the ground than officially declared for tax / finance reasons. You follow my drift? We have all been at games where you think it is a decent crowd only to hear an attendance announcement that is way below what you thought.
So there was a tweet on Twitter yesterday (where else would it be Andrew?) of our home game v Bolton, 2nd tier, 1981. Looking at stats, it was 13,844. Image below. Probably typical for the day. And it got me pondering, cos our last home game was something similar, albeit all-seated.
So the Ponty end is bigger now than it was, but ........ in 1981 it will have been packed with people standing.
East Stand definitely bigger now and arguably holds far more than the Brewery Stand did.
North Stand is humongous now compared to the open kop. Bolton were traditionally good travellers so I assume the open muck-stack was probably holding similar to Brum a fortnight ago.
But it's the West Stand that intrigues me. In the image below, it is PACKED - both sides. Now with modern seating, going by images, it is 15 rows deep and give or take 82 seats wide (per half) therefore 'about' 1,230 folk each side, 2,460 folk if we were allowed both sides.
Against Brum, the half that was open was sparsely populated. Yet in 1981, I am guessing the side of the WSL closer to the Ponty was just as full as the side in view.
Far more than 15 rows deep, and I would hazard a guess far more than 82 folk wide.

I just find it interesting, and am not saying either the Brum game or the Bolton game 40 years ago (I was there) are wrongly documented, it's just the stadium logistics for two similar size crowds that fascinate me.

 

Everton in 2015 was only given as 12,000 and you couldn't move in the Ponty. The East Stand looked full and Everton looked to have fetched a fair few.

 

I was there for the famous Man City 33.5k crowd, which averages out at 8,400 people per side of the ground. Bonkers.

Nostalgia fascinates me but it is not what it used to be

 

A good few would have got over the wall at the back of the brewery stand

 

All 4 corners of the ground were available. Hazard a guess at least 4k+ in those spaces

 

For that game I seem to recall Bolton only possibly had 600 at the most.
Official capacity of the Spion Kop when they covered the "muck stack " bit with proper terracing was 6,700. For big games, away clubs usually got 500 seats in the old Main Stand.
What puzzles me; with those figures, how come we gave Everton 8,500 tickets back in 1989? No wonder it looked so squashed in there

 

I was at college in Leicester at the time. I drove up with a couple of mates for this game. Standing in the crush of the West Stand.

 

.

 

I was in the Brewery stand which was completely rammed. The only bits if the ground where you could actually see the terrace were the corners either side of the slag heap.

 

Alas I only started going to games at the end of the 83/84 season so I was all about the 3500-5000 crowds in the 80s

 

Just as an aside ... I seem to remember in the old 4th division days we used to get crowds of less than 2000. This was probably around the late 70s early 80s.
I could be wrong but I think I was at a game where 1600 turned up. Someone may know better than me.

 

I started going in 73/74 but don’t think I ever saw a crowd under 2000.
Think the smallest crowds were in the early 70s before that.

 

You could be right, I don't know.
Where's Biglil ?

 

There was a spell in mid 70s and 80s when the club was struggling as was the area and crowds were very low.
http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/league/bars.htm

 

We had one or two occasions during the 1972/73 season in Division 4 when the attendance dropped below 2000.

 

One thing I don't understand about these big attendances in the old stands is how did the toilets and refreshment stands worked? There can't have been much room for all those people considering there weren't upper tiers generally

 

Well in the old Paddock/ Brewery stand, now East stand, you could get around the back of the stand, you could see lines and lines of males peeing. There was a West stand bog back there as well.

 

The bogs between 78 and 83 were a joy to behold. There used to be a right old queue for the one at the back of the main stand (north side)...people squeezing in desperately with a busting bladder. Away fans from the seated section looking mortified! Lol.... those definitely were the days!

 

You have got it wrong Mr Badger, our crowds of under 2000 were in the early seventies & the time you are mentioning around the late 70"s was when the crowds went through the roof , after Alan Clarke took over & the subsequent promotion from the old 4th division the crowds rocketed & that period was followed by the Hunter period where promotion to the second division brought about very decent gates , it wasn"t until the inevitable slump in 1984 that crowds started to decline with the obvious nose dive when the miners strike was on but gradually they picked up a little & then took off around 1996, I wonder why

 

Fair enough. I was guessing at the dates.
However I do remember standing in a near empty Grove Street.
Times weren't too good then.