“May I Have Your Attendance, Please?”

I’ve always been fascinated by the attendances that teams get. Of course, mostly Sunderland’s but other teams’ gates interest me too, and after looking at the league table or the results, an attendance can give you a good indication of various factors. Firstly, it gives you generally an idea of a team’s catchment area, as how big a club can become — certainly in times gone by — relied somewhat on the size of their fanbase.

Secondly, it’s an indication of how well the team is doing during any given period in history. Are the gates up from past indicators or are they dropping and leaking fans — perhaps from football altogether or even to other local teams as a result of wider social issues? I looked at a case study, namely Carlisle United, before moving onto Sunderland AFC.

It would be very neat and tidy to claim that football attendances have generally been on the rise over the decades, but unfortunately, this isn’t true. During a five-year period after WWII, Carlisle were regularly enjoying average attendances of over 11,000. Obviously, from a social history viewpoint, after the war years, people wanted to get out, follow their team, and try to enjoy life again — but post-1952, these numbers weren’t replicated again Brunton Park until the late 1960s.

Indeed, to this day, Carlisle United have never reached double figures (in thousands) for average attendances since 1968. However, there’s one outlier, and that’s when they were promoted to the First Division in 1975. During their single season in the top flight, they recorded an average gate of 14,530.