Lowest Ever Crowd

[Maidenhead]

It was Southampton. Attendance 7,148.

Fair play.

I'm not as young as I used to be and memory isn't as good as it once was

 

[Stevo71]

I think our lowest at home might have been 6,900 or so against Palace in the mid 80s. Probably wrong.

Think this might have been against Plymouth also i think the pigs were at home too 40k against Chelsea.

 

[Sheffsteel]

The lowest ever official crowed is estimate at 1,500 back in 1889. In early seasons of the league they didn’t count attendees, just an estimate.

 

[Revolution]

The lowest ever official crowed is estimate at 1,500 back in 1889. In early seasons of the league they didn’t count attendees, just an estimate.

No: as I said upthread about 5 years ago, it's 500 (also an estimate no doubt) for our Darwen home game in 1892-3, our first season in the league.

 

[oldblade]

We've had under 7,000 twice in the modern-ish era of football from what I remember..….The 1980's, when football itself was absolutely dead on it's feet.
They came at a time when most top flight teams couldn't get many more than 10,000 -12,000 and our 8's and 9,000 averages weren't really out of place in the second division, and was excellent in the third division.

We had two attendances under 7,000 in the 1986-7 season. Those were against Crystal Palace (6647) and Plymouth Argyle (6982).

We also had a sub 7000 attendance in the 1987-8 season. That was against Reading (6977).

 

[oldblade]

Another reason was the suspected fiddling of the gate.
My understanding is that some turnstyle operators were letting in fans unofficially and pocketing the money.
Think United caught wind of this eventually and sacked loads of turn style operators.

Also its possible that the United owners of the 80’s were deliberately reporting a lower gate to save on tax payments.
When a stadium has seats it’s very easy to see roughly how many fans were inside the stadium but when it was standing it was much easier to massage the attendance figures.

I think under reporting attendances probably tended to happen more in matches with larger attendances. One that sticks out in my memory is a league cup tie in November 1982 against Barnsley (who were in a higher division than us at the time). The official attendance was announced over the tannoy as 25,000 or so. I didn't really pay much attention until a bloke standing next to me said "Well I'm buggered if I know where the other 25,000 are going to go".

As the 1980s progressed attendances across the board seemed to get smaller and smaller (except for the biggest games) and they reached a point where they were so low I think it would have been very difficult to under declare them.

 

[Bert]

I think under reporting attendances probably tended to happen more in matches with larger attendances. One that sticks out in my memory is a league cup tie in November 1982 against Barnsley (who were in a higher division than us at the time). The official attendance was announced over the tannoy as 25,000 or so. I didn't really pay much attention until a bloke standing next to me said "Well I'm buggered if I know where the other 25,000 are going to go".

As the 1980s progressed attendances across the board seemed to get smaller and smaller (except for the biggest games) and they reached a point where they were so low I think it would have been very difficult to under declare them.

It was always a fiddle when you could pay cash on the gate.
Dodgy Directors, gate men etc.

 

[JJBlade]

The pigs also slipped below 7,000 in that era too, against Colchester I think.

I remember "big" clubs like Chelsea getting under 10k too.

When we played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup in 1992, Chelsea's previous game was at home against Southampton.
Attendance 7148

"Where were you on Wednesday night" was the chant

 

[Pollingtonblade]

We had two attendances under 7,000 in the 1986-7 season. Those were against Crystal Palace (6647) and Plymouth Argyle (6982).

We also had a sub 7000 attendance in the 1987-8 season. That was against Reading (6977).

Christ I was at all 3 of them and we won them all i think.

 

[Deleted member 23679]

Christ I was at all 3 of them and we won them all i think.

I know I was at the Crystal Palace one, and quite probably at the Plymouth one.

From memory the game against Reading in 1987-88 ended up with a 4-1 win with Richard Cadette bagging a couple

 

[JJBlade]

Christ I was at all 3 of them and we won them all i think.

Me too
Typical of United not to get beat when nobody gave a toss

Send 40,000 to Wembley on the other hand