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Lowland league Attendances


The Faceman

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19 hours ago, Dead said:

Of the 220 odd competitive home matches Shire played from 1980/81 to 1989/90 I am only missing details of the "official" crowds from 6 Stirlingshire Cup matches and 1 Anglo Scottish Cup match. The lowest "official" crowd from that period was 119 v Stranraer on 4/4/1990 in 2nd Division.  The only other "official" crowd under 150 in the 1980s was 130 v Stranraer on 6/9/1986 in 2nd Division....

Those official numbers are surprisingly low because every SFL game had around 150 complimentary tickets associated with it in that era that could be used to make sure nothing under 200 ever had to appear in the papers. Lowest through the gate number for the Shire I am aware of in the 80s was 37 for a midweek game because a journalist highlighted it in one of  Sunday papers from what I remember. 50 or so was nothing out of the ordinary in my direct experience. .

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8 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Those official numbers are surprisingly low because every SFL game had around 150 complimentary tickets associated with it in that era that could be used to make sure nothing under 200 ever had to appear in the papers. Lowest through the gate number for the Shire I am aware of in the 80s was 37 for a midweek game because a journalist highlighted it in one of  Sunday papers from what I remember. 50 or so was nothing out of the ordinary in my direct experience. .

Cheers. Will certainly go back through all the likely suspects. I wouldn't be surprised. 

I started going in 87 and unlikely these crazy low crowds would have be 80/1  or 81/2 so that narrows it a lot.

 

 

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On 12/08/2022 at 15:30, Dead said:

Of the 220 odd competitive home matches Shire played from 1980/81 to 1989/90 I am only missing details of the "official" crowds from 6 Stirlingshire Cup matches and 1 Anglo Scottish Cup match. The lowest "official" crowd from that period was 119 v Stranraer on 4/4/1990 in 2nd Division.  The only other "official" crowd under 150 in the 1980s was 130 v Stranraer on 6/9/1986 in 2nd Division.

Like you what the "official" crowd and what the actual crowd was were on occasion 2 completely different things. I remember going the League Cup match at Firs v Arbroath on 11/8/1988 and been stunned when the crowd was claimed to have been 600 when it though it was nearer 100. Certainly in the 1990s when counting the crowds we included everyone there including the ambulance staff when other clubs in out league did their counting differently.  

I have Shire crowd details all the way back to 1880/81 and the 80 named v Braves is the lowest ever given numbered crowd for a competitive match in our history though I have no doubt there have been lower actual crowds. We just will never be able to find out. In the earlier days crowds were given sometimes as a number but mainly as things like "large crowd", "disappointing crowd" etc. We will never know what was meant by a "meagre crowd" when the same season #Shire would play to home crowds of 1000 or more. There are 2 potential awful crowds that stick out 1) "A few dozen" v Rumford Rovers on 1/11/1890 in Stirlingshire Cup 1st Round and 2) "Bare Handful" on 20/10/1934 v Montrose in Division Two.

One final thing to mention is that the supposed record low crowd of 32 at Firs Park on 15/4/1939 v Leith Athletic in Division Two is an error. The Falkirk Herald actual called the crowd "a mere handful". Then the match comments went onto say that the crowd was counted at exactly 32 5 minutes before kick off, most of them huddled in a little group behind the shelter of the covered enclosure. By the time the game was in progress there was about 100 spectators.  Gate receipts were about £5.

 

Did the falkirk herald not print the supporters names for a game at Old firs Park? 

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8 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Latest update from the @The Faceman

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Having been at BR v ES, I can state with some confidence there were nowhere near 336 in attendance. When this figure was announced over the tannoy, several of the Shire fans expressed doubt at the number and had a go at counting them ourselves. Our consensus was closer to 250, and this included everyone in the stand which presumably would include directors and other "freebies".

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34 minutes ago, Myles Offside said:

Having been at BR v ES, I can state with some confidence there were nowhere near 336 in attendance. When this figure was announced over the tannoy, several of the Shire fans expressed doubt at the number and had a go at counting them ourselves. Our consensus was closer to 250, and this included everyone in the stand which presumably would include directors and other "freebies".

I obviously wasn't there but can only take the number the clubs or contacts are kind enough to send. 

All I can say is the games I have been to this season the number that has been sent to me has been bang on to within 0-10. 

Really can't offer more of an answer than that to you.

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1 hour ago, Myles Offside said:

Having been at BR v ES, I can state with some confidence there were nowhere near 336 in attendance. When this figure was announced over the tannoy, several of the Shire fans expressed doubt at the number and had a go at counting them ourselves. Our consensus was closer to 250, and this included everyone in the stand which presumably would include directors and other "freebies".

Maybe like what some SPFL sides do - include non attending season tickets.

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1 hour ago, cowdenbeath said:

I agree Cowden only include STs who are at the game.

Indeed they do. 

The thing about including NASTs (if there are clubs that do) is that you have to cost for that number attending. 

Stewards (if applicable), catering etc and I also believe that when it comes to players negotiating contracts and clubs claiming to be skint, players are saying 'well you have 500 or whatever at every home game, wheres that money.'

 

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1 hour ago, The Faceman said:

Indeed they do. 

The thing about including NASTs (if there are clubs that do) is that you have to cost for that number attending. 

Stewards (if applicable), catering etc and I also believe that when it comes to players negotiating contracts and clubs claiming to be skint, players are saying 'well you have 500 or whatever at every home game, wheres that money.'

 

I know a few year ago everyone in the Championship did.

Got told by someone who reported on a club not a million miles from me that they stated doing it because everyone else in the division was.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 27/11/2022 at 17:06, grinderbrokeyourhearts said:

Surprised at some of the Bo’ness attendances going below 200. Is that due to there being less local games or potentially Athletic getting a hundred or so through their gate?

A good Bo’ness team I’d expect to be pulling 3-400 easy!

Good as in successful as against a middle of the league team that is nowhere near winning this oddball league never mind a playoff.

Edited by PossilYM
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