Jim's column 25.11.23

The recent Stoke home game witnessed the third 25,000 plus crowd of the season (25,003) and lifted the average home attendance to 24,310, up 19% from last season's average of 20,369. Obviously there are more season tickets but it's still a remarkable increase especially as the average following from visiting fans is currently down by 8% at 1,864. With home games against local rivals Birmingham City and Leicester City coming up I expect the overall average to further increase.

If the average remains above 24,000 then it will be the club's highest average attendance for over 50 years - since 1972-73 when the average was 24,623. What a roller coaster ride the club's attendances have taken over the years as the chart shows. Before Jimmy Hill arrived in 1961 the average had been under 11,000 but in his first full season in charge, with the Sky Blue Revolution under way, the crowds increased to 17,908 with another massive jump to over 26,000 in 1963-64 as City won promotion to the Second Division. The gates plateaued in Division Two but leapt again in 1967-68 as City reached the First Division for the first time in their history. That debut season in the top flight saw an average of 34,705, the highest in the club's history, with even the smallest home crowds being 28,000! There were three 40,000 crowds with over 47,000 for the visit of Manchester United. 

The novelty of Division 1 quickly wore off however and by 1970-71 gates were back to the Division 2 levels of 26,000 and although there was a slight renaissance in the late 1970s when Gordon Milne's team were playing very attractive, attacking football, there was a slow, steady decline of attendances. By 1980-81 the average had dropped to under 17,000, prompting Jimmy Hill to controversially make the stadium all-seater with a capacity of 20,000. Within two years gates were back to the levels last seen before Jimmy's arrival – an average of 10,552 in 1982-83.

The re-opening of the Spion Kop, the FA Cup success in 1987 and the Sillett years saw crowds back up to the 16-17,000 level but as the 1990s arrived we were back to 13-14,000. Big Ron's arrival, the new East Stand and the spending spree of the late 1990s boosted attendances and the stadium was pretty much full for most home games with the average reaching almost 21,000 in the final three years in the Premiership.

Relegation in 2001 dealt a blow to attendances and the final seasons at Highfield Road saw gates down to below 15,000. The move to the Ricoh in 2005 saw an initial boost to over 21,000 (the best average since the late 1970s) but the initial gloss of the new ground slowly wore off, not helped by lack lustre seasons on the pitch. Between 2005 and the club's relegation to the third tier in 2012 crowds fell every season and by 2012 the average was only 15,000. 

Another 5,000 fans deserted the club in the first season in League One but that was nothing compared to what happened with the move to Northampton when the average was under 2,500. Despite 27,000 turning up for the return to the Ricoh in September 2014 the average for the season was under 10,000 and although it crept up to 12,000 the following season as City's attractive football under Tony Mowbray brought the fans back. It was a short-lived increase and in the miserable League One relegation season they were back to under 10,000.

Since Mark Robins' arrival gates have soared again – 12,000 in 2018-19 and 19,000 back at the Ricoh in 2021-22 with a blip in the St Andrews League One championship season (6,653) and a fan-less season due to Covid in 2020-21. Last season saw another rise to 20,369, the highest for 16 years and this season, with 19,000 season ticket holders, a 50-year record will be broken.

In 1972-73 the Highfield Road capacity was around 45,000 and the biggest crowd of the season was 42,911 for the visit of Manchester United in late January. The lowest crowd was 16,391 for the Stoke game with a further four attendances under 20,000, three of them in the period before Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne transformed the team with the purchases of Colin Stein and Tommy Hutchison in the October. The local derbies with Birmingham (35,304) and West Brom (31,541) also attracted over 30,000 and there were over 38,000 for the FA Cup tie with Grimsby albeit with 8,000 away fans. The wide variation between the largest and smallest gates demonstrates how, back then, there were far fewer seats and season tickets, and how the team's performances, the quality of the opposition and the importance of the games had a much greater effect on gates than the modern day.