Sunday's Crowd - What's Going On ?

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Keen Blade

Keen Blade

Look Sharp !
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Now that we have got the 1000 seats back from Chesterfield , it looks like Sunday's gate might top 30,000.
What is going on ?
That is more than watched us get promoted to the Premiership in 2006 , against Palace - 27,120 - and I remember there were a lot of Palace in the Bramall Lane End , gamely participating in the Mexican waves.
The last time we got promoted from this Division in 1989 , only 15,383 watched the last home game against Swansea , when Agana got a hat-trick in a 5-1 victory.
In fact , the following season - 1990 - we celebrated promotion to the "premiership" in front of only 20,994.
So tell me what's going on !
Naturally I've got my own ideas , but I don't want you to just agree or disagree with me.
Please throw in few ideas of your own about this apparently phenomemal increase in support after 10 years of abject failure 2007 - 2017.
 



Keen Blade said:
Please throw in few ideas of your own about this apparently phenomemal increase in support after 10 years of abject failure 2007 - 2017.
Click to expand...

As always, North Korea Talk will have the answers to this one:

-Cheap tickets
-ALL adults get in on concession
-25,000 free student tickets
-Free schoolkids tickets (7,000)
-Special Chinese student offer (6,000)
-Free tickets to anyone at the snooker (3,500)
-Rotherham and Dingles fans with nothing better to do (6,000)

So the free tickets will amount to more than the actual crowd. This will 'prove' that people won't even come and watch us for free and ergo, Wendy are the bigger better club, with better fans.
 
One question I have on this – given previous "sellouts" have tended to have significant chunks of seats covered for segregation, how have we been allowed to do this on Sunday when previously it hasn't been possible?
 
I should coco said:
As always, North Korea Talk will have the answers to this one:

-Cheap tickets
-ALL adults get in on concession
-25,000 free student tickets
-Free schoolkids tickets (7,000)
-Special Chinese student offer (6,000)
-Free tickets to anyone at the snooker (3,500)
-Rotherham and Dingles fans with nothing better to do (6,000)

So the free tickets will amount to more than the actual crowd. This will 'prove' that people won't even come and watch us for free and ergo, Wendy are the bigger better club, with better fans.
Click to expand...
Think is some of those reasons are true, and we should be proud of it.

The seasons leading up to the more recent Premier League season the club nailed it, with capturing new generations of fans, the promotion to the PL was the perfect scenario for maintaining this.

We have always got it right when looking after the young generation and the prices.

Id be happy for kids to get in for a quid every single match, in fact Id be ecstatic. We need a conveyor belt of generations of Blades.
 
Keen Blade said:
Now that we have got the 1000 seats back from Chesterfield , it looks like Sunday's gate might top 30,000.
What is going on ?
That is more than watched us get promoted to the Premiership in 2006 , against Palace - 27,120 - and I remember there were a lot of Palace in the Bramall Lane End , gamely participating in the Mexican waves.
The last time we got promoted from this Division in 1989 , only 15,383 watched the last home game against Swansea , when Agana got a hat-trick in a 5-1 victory.
In fact , the following season - 1990 - we celebrated promotion to the "premiership" in front of only 20,994.
So tell me what's going on !
Naturally I've got my own ideas , but I don't want you to just agree or disagree with me.
Please throw in few ideas of your own about this apparently phenomemal increase in support after 10 years of abject failure 2007 - 2017.
Click to expand...
We will all have our pet theories. Here are 2 factors I would start with.
1. Discounted season tickets. If you pay for individual matches, you are much more likely to get out of the habit of going to games.
2. The experience of going to football in the 80s was dire. Rubbish stadiums, confrontations between groups of fans inside and outside grounds, aggressive policing. End result - disasters at Bradford and Hillsborough, and people stopped going. I stopped going to away matches when my kids were of an age to be interested - walking down a lane to get out of Mansfield's ground and having bricks and stones lobbed at us from over a wall was the point when I decided it was not worth it.
Connection to other recent threads - do not allow fear of danger to return to our football grounds. It is sport/entertainment. I am not discounting other explanations which will no doubt be offered.
 
This defies some theories. That as places become less local, and more cosmopolitan , loyalty to local clubs diminishes. That more leisure activities are available for the football crowd demographic do instead. That football matches are available to watch live by various forms of media in the comfort of your own home. Maybe us blades are living longer. Maybe the buzz you get from being there far outweighs any other leisure activity on a matchday. Maybe the Blades are highly addictive. Maybe its genetic. Maybe that like some creatures flock back to their spawning grounds every year through whatever tries to stop them, Blades can't help making there way to BDTBL from wherever they are, against the tide. Also I think the pricing has helped us tight folk make ends meet and it is less of a sacrifice to watch fantastic football at realistic prices.
 
Kevin McCabe has made mistakes over the years but one thing he has done is help build the support. We are now seeing the fruits of the £10 season ticket to under 10's who attended with a full ST holder some 6 or 7 years ago. This was extended to under 11's, 12's and 13's if I remember rightly and this built a whole new generation of young fans as these lads are now 15/16/17 and probably go with their mates. Despite a pretty torrid 6 years in the 3rd division, the support has held up and this season has given an indication of the potential, especially over the last few weeks. The general ticketing policy cannot be faulted either (IMHO) and has helped retain many who may have drifted away as United failed consistently to get out of this division.

I live in an area that is probably a decent indicator as to the support in Sheffield (always slightly more from the other side) and Little BB started a football training session on Saturday mornings some 8 years ago when he was 5. At the time, there was about an even split between SWFC and SUFC shirts among the youngsters with SWFC just edging it. Tomorrow, SUFC shirts will amount to about 60% to 70% of the kids attending and SWFC shirts will be about 20% (with 10% being "others"). There are even lads whose fathers are SWFC but peer pressure has turned their youngsters into Blades. It's been both interesting and highly encouraging to watch this progression over the last 8 years or so in this small microcosm of young Sheffield football fans.

Long may it continue and again, well done SUFC! There is nothing quite like a full and rocking BDTBL:)
 
Dunno but im not looking forward to que outside south stand before kick... unless the weather is nice.
 
Last edited:
It's cos, for once, we are playing an exciting and competent brand of football as well as winning with it, in style. Secondly, it's because........."He's one of our own, CHRISSY WILDER, he's one of our own!"
Thirdly, it's cos Billy Sharp is nearing yet another record and we have a team and backroom staff that believe in what they (and us) are doing and, finally it's because us blades are talking about it and that word of mouth is making others want to come and see what all this fuss is about!

COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WILDER'S WIZARDS
 



Considering capacity is 32700ish then with about 1400 on BL lower empty and minimal first couple of rows on BL upper the attendance should be about 31000.

No reason for it to be lower.
 
Bayingblade said:
Kevin McCabe has made mistakes over the years but one thing he has done is help build the support. We are now seeing the fruits of the £10 season ticket to under 10's who attended with a full ST holder some 6 or 7 years ago. This was extended to under 11's, 12's and 13's if I remember rightly and this built a whole new generation of young fans as these lads are now 15/16/17 and probably go with their mates. Despite a pretty torrid 6 years in the 3rd division, the support has held up and this season has given an indication of the potential, especially over the last few weeks. The general ticketing policy cannot be faulted either (IMHO) and has helped retain many who may have drifted away as United failed consistently to get out of this division.

I live in an area that is probably a decent indicator as to the support in Sheffield (always slightly more from the other side) and Little BB started a football training session on Saturday mornings some 8 years ago when he was 5. At the time, there was about an even split between SWFC and SUFC shirts among the youngsters with SWFC just edging it. Tomorrow, SUFC shirts will amount to about 60% to 70% of the kids attending and SWFC shirts will be about 20% (with 10% being "others"). There are even lads whose fathers are SWFC but peer pressure has turned their youngsters into Blades. It's been both interesting and highly encouraging to watch this progression over the last 8 years or so in this small microcosm of young Sheffield football fans.

Long may it continue and again, well done SUFC! There is nothing quite like a full and rocking BDTBL:)
Click to expand...

As you rightly say Kevin McCabe should be applauded for his decisions years ago regarding making football affordable to the young supporter.

In addition the Blades through the club are 'singing from the same hymn sheet' as Wilder, Knill and the players have put together a quality product on the pitch. Plus the unprecedented bond that now exists between the players / management and fans have assisted in making a trip to see the Blades a memorable experience.
 
Been asking myself the same question for a few seasons now, how have we managed to hold onto such good support ?

Well, for a kick off the pricing structure, I'm 63 and have benefited from Seniors ticket prices for three years now, whereas at other clubs e.g. Barnsley you have to be 65. Can't evidence it but I would guess more women and girls are attending matches as facilities and amenities have improved and the amount of safety measures has increased leading to a better atmosphere where people feel safer. Perhaps I'm open to contradiction here as I have no first hand knowledge in this respect for obvious reasons. Paradoxically the behaviour and tribalism of fans seems to have gotten worse, I'm contradicting myself here.
I also think the Cup runs in recent seasons have galvanised interest in the club.
Our attendances have been the talk of football for a few years now and I've heard them mentioned on TV football programmes on several occasions.
I'd guess that a large percentage of our support lives in Sheffield and around, therefore a bit less fickle or "glory hunting".
 
Not forgetting the easy availability of smerk berms, flares,ketchup and mustard, sniff,blow and easy access to other recreational drugs. And they didn't have air-conditioning units:)
 
cahill said:
.
I'd guess that a large percentage of our support lives in Sheffield and around, therefore a bit less fickle or "glory hunting".
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's still the case but more people used to walk to Bramall Lane to see the match than any other ground in the country so that would back up what you say.........

Either that or we're a bunch of tight gits who won't pay the bus fare;)
 
My guess is that youngsters got hooked during the Warnock years,triple assault,promotion to the Prem,Prem season and have hung around despite the decline years,because of the bond they feel to United and also the sensible pricing.

Just my theory
 
Davalon said:
Considering capacity is 32700ish then with about 1400 on BL lower empty and minimal first couple of rows on BL upper the attendance should be about 31000.

No reason for it to be lower.
Click to expand...

I believe the front 2 or 3 rows of the lower tier are also netted off
And also a few 100 in the South stand bottom corner.

I might be wrong but I believe our current capacity is about 30,500.
So I expect to see over 2,200 unused seats.
 
Cheap tickets for children over many years has given parents a family day out and a fan base that has stayed loyal and is increasing. A lovely ground and a good match day experience. This season we have actually watched highly entertaining football, the word is out on the street that at last we have a team that is great to watch. This is now a fantastic opportunity to build on what we have, keep prices on match day affordable and keep on attracting more fans and keeping the ground as full as possible.
 



Sheffsteel said:
I'm sure the 27K versus Palace was an official sell out at the time.
Part of the Bramall Lane end was closed down due to building work on the away end.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, so it's a bit misleading to say there's more fans turning up for this promotion game.

Our attendances have been pretty steady since the triple assault season I'd say, relative to the division we're in. Which probably tells you that a lot of people got hooked that year and have hung around ever since.
 
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