Gillingham - average gate around 6000 - allowed season ticket.hokders to buy up to 10 tickets each and anyone with a Kent postcode could buy a ticket.
Don’t get me started on dodgy attendances, Bernard’s time in power etc. I want to think positive thoughts. Oh, it’s about capacities? Phew!@Scaring Europe to Death
Maybe @Gary James can help.
The Hillsborough disaster was only a few weeks before the Bournemouth game but I seem to recall instantly capacities of large terraces were cut. That's why I think the capacity went from 52 to 48 in between the two games.
Happy to be corrected.
Wow. I was in that queue but fully clothed.That was because the league insisted on a 50/50 split of tickets, the wankers. You couldn't make it up. I remember the 6-7 hour queue for tickets that started at the ticket office on the corner and naked up and down 2 terraced streets, pulled a sickie from work to get a ticket. One thing never changes, our ticket office has always been shite.
And the League were quite rightThat was because the league insisted on a 50/50 split of tickets, the wankers. You couldn't make it up.
hahaha, we didn't have a clothing deal with CP back then :)Wow. I was in that queue but fully clothed.
That's not a valid comparison though. 35k each meant we didn't have enough for our average gate and the Gills had 6 times their average gateAnd the League were quite right
Would you have supported United getting 50% more tickets at Wembley last season than City? Do it on average attendance and United would have received 60% to 40% for City.
Gillingham were perfectly entitled to receive the same allocation as City.
Did Maine Road even have 35,000 seats at that stage?That's not a valid comparison though. 35k each meant we didn't have enough for our average gate and the Gills had 6 times their average gate.
Gillingham - average gate around 6000 - allowed season ticket.hokders to buy up to 10 tickets each and anyone with a Kent postcode could buy a ticket.
My dad queued for 8 hours.
I was in the Maine Stand, hundreds without a seat, sat and stood on the steps...how did that happen ?Don’t get me started on dodgy attendances, Bernard’s time in power etc. I want to think positive thoughts. Oh, it’s about capacities? Phew!
Yes, the capacity did drop after Bradford fire. Partly because the Platt Lane was almost condemned. The extensions to it (built in 1931 & 1935) included some wooden flooring/terracing, so that was considered unsafe. The stand was handed over to away fans and the corner near Main Stand was supposed to be additional segregation.
The 52,500 capacity of 1984-85 was dropped to just below 50k if my memory is correct. Of course this all makes that Charlton 85 official attendance look even more ridiculous - we know it was many thousand about 52k but was declared as several thousand below!
Always easy to look back with rose tinted glasses.Utterly ridiculous looking back. The internet wasn't widely used back then but surely a better way could have been found. I laugh when fans complain that the club doesn't listen to them now. Incidents like this are a stark reminder they didn't really give a fuck about us back then either. Remember, in those days we were on the bones of our arse and they desperately needed our support, but we were still treated with contempt.
That game was the tightest packed I can remember on the kippax.I was in the Maine Stand, hundreds without a seat, sat and stood on the steps...how did that happen ?
Did Maine Road even have 35,000 seats at that stage?
The Wigan play off round immediately before had an attendance of 31,305 at Maine Road including the pie eaters.
It is a fundamental principle that for finals should have an even split of tickets. You can’t pick and choose which matches it should apply for.
Over 11 hours for me.Ha, yes great memories. After the 7 hour queue outside I remember the queue snaking into the stadium and there was some very dark humoured graffiti written on the walls by frustrated fans. One was along the likes of ‘Another Bernard Halford promotions/organised event’ and another, with a political twist of the day ‘7 more hours to the Kosovan border’.
Think I got in the stand about 45 mins before kick off and their end was full. No late entry for them. Our end on the other hand was about 30% full at that time with most fans either in the pub, on the concourse drinking or queuing to get in.Our first match in division two against Blackpool ( I was there ) was apparently sold out and the attendance was 32,134. By the time we were due to leave Maine Road our capacity was just over 35,000 I believe. This might have been down to the addition of the Gene Kelly stand.
I understand the reasoning the football league gave with the ticket allocations, they didn't want us vastly outnumbering the Gillingham fans and giving us an unfair advantage. Fair enough but I don't think they could have complained if they got 36,000 given that was 6 times their average attendance. They would still have had great backing and our larger fanbase could have been accommodated. Tickets for that final were like gold dust, I know as I was told no chance when I asked usually good sources if they had any spares. We could have sold Wembley out on our own that day.
Was never an Oldham fan. He worked for them, but City were his club. I played football with and knew his son.Never get the fuss about him. He was a long serving employee, and that’s it. Always seemed like something of a Swales lapdog. How he became a supposed City legend is beyond me; ticket office was worse than it is now when he was responsible for it. Actually thought he started out as an Oldham fan too? (Nothing wrong with that but not the basis of City legend)
Over 11 hours for me.
Definitely NOT an Oldham fan. 100% CityHe always denied that emphatically. Said it was cos he was from Failsworth some accused him of being a Biffo.
Pub we used to see him in every week (The Horseshoe, Droylsden Rd, Newton Heath) had a rag owner then, (and another one now, lol) and many rag customers. To be fair he stood his ground against them when they tried being snide about City.
Always easy to look back with rose tinted glasses.
Think I got in the stand about 45 mins before kick off and their end was full. No late entry for them. Our end on the other hand was about 30% full at that time with most fans either in the pub, on the concourse drinking or queuing to get in.
The pubs around Wembley were just full of City everywhere.
It was just a great day. Shit performance but alls well that ends well!