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From: J.M.Ross@man0507.wins.icl.co.uk (J.M.Ross)
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Subject: Re: Scotsport, McNee and Cops at matches
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 11:34:47 +0000







Recently mcsdc1jpb@dct.ac.uk (john bell) wrote:

>>compared to the East teams. Just remember the sub 10,000 crowds at Ibrox
>>not long before 83/84/85.
>
ME> Someday I'll post a list of all sub-10000 league crowds at Ibrox. It's a ver
y
ME> short list. The average league crowd at Ibrox was always well above 20000, e
ve
n
ME> during the worst of the bad years in the early 80s, and compared well with
ME> Celtic who were a fairly successful team at the time.

JB>     Rangers v Morton 1983  -  2500
JB>     Rangers v Airdrie 1982 -  3200
JB>     Rangers v Dundee - cup 1984  -  7000  inc 3000 dees fans

Where did you get these figures from, they are *much* lower than the figures
I found, e.g.

    27 Feb 82  Rangers  3 Morton  0  (10200)
    31 Mar 82  Rangers  1 Airdrie 0   (6000)  - midweek
    11 Dec 82  Rangers  1 Morton  1   (9500)
    23 Apr 83  Rangers  4 Morton  0   (9000)
    17 Dec 83  Rangers  2 Dundee  1  (16500)
    17 Mar 84  Rangers  2 Dundee  3  (21000)  - CUP
     3 Nov 84  Rangers  0 Dundee  0  (14588)
    16 Feb 85  Rangers  0 Dundee  1  (26619)  - CUP   
    13 Mar 85  Rangers  1 Dundee  3   (9554)
   
I remember the worst Rangers teams being around 1984-6 and assumed that
attendances around then would be the worst ever. It seems that they'd actually
improved a bit from 1980-3. Between 1980 and 1983 average league crowds at
Ibrox dropped to 17500. I counted around 10 league games with gates below
10000 over those three seasons (source - "The Rangers Football Companion"),
mainly end of season games, but there were a couple round Christmas time and
some in February and March of 1983.

It seems that the disappearing crowd syndrome was not restricted to Ibrox,
though. At Parkhead in the early '80s, the crowds dispersed remarkable quickly
once it was clear the title was heading for Pittodrie or Tannadice, and
sub 10000 crowds were just as common as at Ibrox. In 1983-4 Celtic had no less
than 5 league gates of under 10000 (this is according to "Celtic, A Complete
Record"), and this for a team which finished 2nd in the league.

For both Old Firm teams, whose fans are used to continual success, league crowds

have *always* dipped once the league is out of reach. In the early sixties a
reduced crowd under these circumstances would typically be 12000-15000, but
with declining attendances through the '70s, crowds inevitably slipped to below
10000 on occasion. This does not make under 10000 a typical attendance at
Ibrox in the early '80s as the original (and even subsequent) post tried to
make out.

Anyway, Dundee fans will be able to tell us all about sub 10000 crowds, since
anything else is a rarity at Dens.

Sources:

(1) "The Rangers Football Companion" published around 1987 containing
    all Rangers' results, lines-up etc from 1946-1986.
(2) "Celtic - A Complete Record 1888-1992" published 1992

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