Why are Everton as popular as ever?

[Seathestars]

Because 'once Everton has touched you, nothing else is ever quite the same'

Alan Ball

 

[Jeff Jones]

What were the away followings like then mate?

WBA 2- 3 30,000
Spurs 10-4 37000
Blackpool 1-1 19,000
Villa 2-4 27,000
Notts For' 2-1 26,000
Wolves 1-0 27,000

They're the away matches tucked into the home games I posted but I couldn't tell you how many
Blues travelled. Nowhere near as many as these days, though, I know that.

All those matches were played leading up to Christmas and these next two games were.

Dec 26 Everton 1 Bolton 0 61,000
Dec 27 Bolton 0 Everton 3 37,000.

 

[Hong Kong Bluey]

Our home attendance is pretty consistent these days but over time there were things like population, price, hooliganism
and even ground constructions to consider as factors.

Here are some attendance statistics at Goodison from 1959/60 which I'd struggle to explain.

Burnley 2-1 50,000
Leeds 3-2 31,000
Birmingham 3-1 39,000
Man Utd 3-2 64,000
Blackburn 2-2 52,000
West Ham 2-2 40,000
Chelsea 3-1 30,000
Portsmouth 2-1 23,000

These are consecutive matches.

Why the great fluctuation in crowd size then? I was probably at all those matches and I've no idea.

The club used to report some bizarre attendances in my early match days 70s and 80's.
Cos majority stood on terraces best estimate used to be looking at front corners of St End and the corners of Upper Bullens and Main Stand behind pillars to get a 'feel' of how close to capacity.
We used to play guess the attendance and were some bizarre ones from the club sometimes whr ground looked almost full yet official attendance would be 30-35000 - days of 58000 full house.
Never really understood why - maybe turnstile guys letting 2 through and taking cash, maybe club tax dodging. Prob the former.

 

[Seathestars]

Because 'once Everton has touched you, nothing else is ever quite the same'

Alan Ball

 

[AndyGray]

The club used to report some bizarre attendances in my early match days 70s and 80's.
Cos majority stood on terraces best estimate used to be looking at front corners of St End and the corners of Upper Bullens and Main Stand behind pillars to get a 'feel' of how close to capacity.
We used to play guess the attendance and were some bizarre ones from the club sometimes whr ground looked almost full yet official attendance would be 30-35000 - days of 58000 full house.
Never really understood why - maybe turnstile guys letting 2 through and taking cash, maybe club tax dodging. Prob the former.

And the latter...

 

[Deleted member 24970]

It jumped up from the Wimbledon game 94 and carried on from there. Before then we had loads of sub 20k crowds you'd often get a cheer when it was announced at 20k plus. The weird thing was the ground, well the Gwladys Street did, still feel packed, even at some of the League Cup games when we had less than £10k there.

Another thing that helped loads was the £99 Season Tickets for juniors. A lot of younger Blues got into the match going habit through that. That was around 10-15 years ago it first came out I think?

Massive factor. I think the price of going to see our neighbours means a lot of people cannot afford to get their season tickets, ours are a little more modestly priced.
I think a lot of people are more 'aware' of Everton thanks to the TV exposure compared to the 90's. Our better league performances and trips to Europe over the last few years have also helped us gain attention.
Considering we have a new investor, it would of been so easy for Farhad to boost up the prices, as far as im aware though he is a great believer in bum on seats more than money. Not sure how long it will last but lets enjoy it while we can.