Fortress Oakwell A Casualty?

Great in depth read about how home form in football is on the dip not just at Oakwell.

Possesion based football could be a thing of the past

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clynv3x120no

 

I think grounds like Oakwell have become quite drab places for the bread and butter games. Great when there’s a decent crowd and the lads are playing well, but different to how they were.

The old Oakwell could hold 30k plus, but didn’t didn’t seem as empty with 7 or 8k in as it does today with bigger crowds. Huge away end and the West Stand mostly empty and lots of empty seats in the Ponty and East.

Seats galore when you watch quite a few games at different places

 

It looks really bad because rows and rows of seats with no one sitting on them are so terrible for the atmosphere, but in the old days, 7000 or 8000 spread themselves out, so you didn't see vast unpopulated areas. The huge gaps we see today make it seem as though very few people are bothered about the match. Perhaps this leads some players to become similarly lacking in enthusiasm for what's happening on the pitch.

 

I must say, I quite liked to Rotherham’s ground as it was about 80% /90% full. It’s just a shame they didn’t sing. The atmosphere must be pretty good in there if people were prepared to sing. Can’t help but think a similar Oakwell with a capacity of around 16k would generate a better atmosphere than the current setup. I appreciate that is not everyone’s cup of tea though.

 

interesting article, thanks for posting.