Why are Everton as popular as ever?

[Minimeister]

Maybe some of the older generation can fill us in about the crowds pre the 80's but I remember crowds of under 20k in the 80's whilst the attendance in the 90's regularly fell under the 30k mark. I can't remember the last time our gate fell below 30k for a league game despite not winning anything for donkeys. Over the years you've seen clubs like Villa who's stands look like their fans are dressed as seats. So my question is, in an era where it's said to be less affordable to go the game, why are Everton as popular as ever with it's own fanbase?

 

[royalbalou]

Maybe some of the older generation can fill us in about the crowds pre the 80's but I remember crowds of under 20k in the 80's whilst the attendance in the 90's regularly fell under the 30k mark. I can't remember the last time our gate fell below 30k for a league game despite not winning anything for donkeys. Over the years you've seen clubs like Villa who's stands look like their fans are dressed as seats. So my question is, in an era where it's said to be less affordable to go the game, why are Everton as popular as ever with it's own fanbase?

Because Tim Howard has gone

 

[BiggyRat]

Nobody wanted to miss Hibberts first goal.

 

[silent bob]

It's the fortnightly meeting place for Masochists Anonymous.

 

[TraffordBlue]

I don't think 30,000 is that big a crowd for a fanbase like ours. Having had a quick look, of all the similar sized clubs, - Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham, Man City, you have to go back to the mid to late 90's when any of them averaged less than 30,000 in a season. For us it was 1994. West Ham and Sunderland have more recently but both have had fairly regular spells in the lower tier in the past 20 years.

http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/england.htm

From looking at that, we were around the 33,000 mark before the arrival of Moyes and the improvement in league position under him boosted our crowds more consistently to the 35,000-38,000 range. In 2012, we went down to 33,000 again, and the introduction of Martinez brought it back up once again. There has been a lot of hope in the past 2 seasons going in to the season, but unfortunately the manager didn't perform. We've now got Moshiri and a bright future ahead and I expect us to stay around the 37,000-38,000 mark next season.

We need a bigger ground though. Obstructed views prevent us from selling out more often.

 

[Zezti]

Well, I didn't exist in the 80s, and was on my mum's teat for some of the 90s and didn't get into football until around 2010.
How to explain more people? Growing population.
What you need to look at is how our growth compares to that of those around us. Spurs are the most similar to us, I'd say.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Maybe some of the older generation can fill us in about the crowds pre the 80's but I remember crowds of under 20k in the 80's whilst the attendance in the 90's regularly fell under the 30k mark. I can't remember the last time our gate fell below 30k for a league game despite not winning anything for donkeys. Over the years you've seen clubs like Villa who's stands look like their fans are dressed as seats. So my question is, in an era where it's said to be less affordable to go the game, why are Everton as popular as ever with it's own fanbase?

Because there's nothing to watch on the TV these days

 

[Zezti]

A club only really loses its popularity when it does a Leeds. But even then, it'll still be popular with local supporters.

 

[Big Neville Southall]

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?

 

[Eggs]

...it's a good question. Generally speaking, I would think gates across the country have been consistently high. Perhaps the amount of live footy on telly has had a positive impact. Everton's away support is first class.

 

[chrismpw]

Maybe some of the older generation can fill us in about the crowds pre the 80's but I remember crowds of under 20k in the 80's whilst the attendance in the 90's regularly fell under the 30k mark. I can't remember the last time our gate fell below 30k for a league game despite not winning anything for donkeys. Over the years you've seen clubs like Villa who's stands look like their fans are dressed as seats. So my question is, in an era where it's said to be less affordable to go the game, why are Everton as popular as ever with it's own fanbase?

Because we ain't fickle glory hunting Norwegians. And hooliganism isn't as prevalent.

 

[CrustySack]

I'm believe the official attendence figures in the 80s we're not accurate shall we say.

 

[Huyton Layne]

Wives are getting more annoying and telly is crap.

 

[Logans run]

post war 40,000 plus even up to 50,000, fell off 70s and 80s there was a lot of ground trouble then and Goodison like many other grounds had their capacity cut.
In a new ground where everyone could see I reckon we could get 50,000 again.

 

[Logans run]

Its worth noting most grounds did not include season ticket holders.