Our crowds early 80's

[McEwan's Lager 30,881]

I’ve got a picture somewhere of my Dad standing in the old East Enclosure about 1984. Games going on in the background and there’s about 10 people watching ?

I remember asking him why the attendance was so low and he replied no one went to watch us in those days then when Souness came along tickets were like gold dust for some matches.

[Moody Blue Legend 61,995]

My parents hardly had a pot to piss in early 80's but when they could muster up money for me to go to the games the crowd was as bad as the team!  

Signing Souness changed Scottish football.

[lerxst 99]

11 hours ago, pcbear said:

DI was looking for a midweek game v Dundee Utd when we got humped 4-1 but could not find it, on wiki it gives you the crowd/scorers in all the games I was looking at seasons  80-83 and our attendances outwith the scum games were shite, anything from a low of 6-7k to regular 15-20k and an odd 40 odd v them was pretty much the norm, no problem getting a seat then, when Souness took the job 86 ish  we were getting crowds for non of games of 30-40k and I could not believe it, it all seems pretty small fry now but these were huge crowds to what we were used to.

Just when you try to erase that time from memory

[LochendBilly 8,423]

1 hour ago, LochendBilly said:

I remember being up the old Rangers end and we beat the sheep 5 or 6 -1, it was a midweek game possibly a cup replay. I can't remember what year it was but I think it was a really low attendance. Anyone any info on this?

Don't know what is wrong with my memory  I can't find any game even close to the one I mentioned. I remember it but it couldn't have been v Sheep. The score is about right and it was a night game at Ibrox. Maybe a dream! I think Martin Henderson was playing or maybe even a sub.

[Billy1984 6,314]

Was born in 84 so grew up in good times. Hard for me to imagine the pre souness days and the crowds we got although my dad and uncles have told me about them. Guess I was a lucky one, was 14 before I knew anything other than Rangers Winning the league and even then it was only one year then advocaat came along!

[Ozblue 4,332]

11 hours ago, pcbear said:

I was looking for a midweek game v Dundee Utd when we got humped 4-1 but could not find it, on wiki it gives you the crowd/scorers in all the games I was looking at seasons  80-83 and our attendances outwith the scum games were shite, anything from a low of 6-7k to regular 15-20k and an odd 40 odd v them was pretty much the norm, no problem getting a seat then, when Souness took the job 86 ish  we were getting crowds for non of games of 30-40k and I could not believe it, it all seems pretty small fry now but these were huge crowds to what we were used to.

Our attendances in the 1980's were certainly varied. Our lowest home crowds during that period were as follows, which takes in League, Scottish Cup, and League Cup games.

Season 1979-80. Kilmarnock:  7,655 (League)

Season 1980-81. Morton: 7,000 (League)

Season 1981-82. St. Mirren: 6,000 (League) Brechin City: 5,000 (League Cup)

Season 1982-83. Dundee: 8,500 (League)  Kilmarnock: 5,342 (League Cup)

Season 1983-84. Dundee Utd: 7,500 (League)

Season 1984-85. Dumbarton: 8,424 (League)

Season 1985-86. Clydebank: 12,731 (League)  Clyde: 11,350 (League Cup)

Season 1986-87. Dundee: 22,992 (League)

Season 1987-88. Dundee: 31687 (League)

Season 1988-89. Hamilton Accies: 33,684 (League)

Season 1999-2000. St. Mirren: 31,797 (League)  Arbroath: 31,762 (League Cup)

Talk about being up and down like a whores knickers, over those 11 seasons

[LochendBilly 8,423]

Fucking found it  My memory is gubbed though as the crowd was 25k. We also won the 2nd leg 3-1 

 

 

[Ozblue 4,332]

3 minutes ago, LochendBilly said:

Fucking found it  My memory is gubbed though as the crowd was 25k.

 

 

It certainly was; Our home League games against the sheep that season were 40,000 and 34,500.

[mearns loyal 2,755]

Remember being at a midweek game and a crowd in the region of 6/7000 and at halftime we were talking and wondering if we’d ever see the stands full. A bit like watching the pish we’ve endured over the past few years and wondering when we’d win the league again. 

Wont be long...

[pcbear 10,924]

12 hours ago, blueballss said:

http://www.fitbastats.com/Rangers/club_records_league_attendance.php

 

Check out the season where we had our record attendance of 118,567 the other attendances that year must have been awful as the average was poor.

[bluedylan 11,555]

1 hour ago, Moody Blue Legend said:

My parents hardly had a pot to piss in early 80's but when they could muster up money for me to go to the games the crowd was as bad as the team!  

Signing Souness changed Scottish football.

We would travel over from Belfast and you would be lucky if there were 20 Rangers fans on the boat

[pcbear 10,924]

56 minutes ago, Ozblue said:

Our attendances in the 1980's were certainly varied. Our lowest home crowds during that period were as follows, which takes in League, Scottish Cup, and League Cup games.

Season 1979-80. Kilmarnock:  7,655 (League)

Season 1980-81. Morton: 7,000 (League)

Season 1981-82. St. Mirren: 6,000 (League) Brechin City: 5,000 (League Cup)

Season 1982-83. Dundee: 8,500 (League)  Kilmarnock: 5,342 (League Cup)

Season 1983-84. Dundee Utd: 7,500 (League)

Season 1984-85. Dumbarton: 8,424 (League)

Season 1985-86. Clydebank: 12,731 (League)  Clyde: 11,350 (League Cup)

Season 1986-87. Dundee: 22,992 (League)

Season 1987-88. Dundee: 31687 (League)

Season 1988-89. Hamilton Accies: 33,684 (League)

Season 1999-2000. St. Mirren: 31,797 (League)  Arbroath: 31,762 (League Cup)

Talk about being up and down like a whores knickers, over those 11 seasons

Check the link on my post three below courtesy of blueballss its a goodun.

[Parlaneloyal 353]

12 hours ago, blueballss said:

http://www.fitbastats.com/Rangers/club_records_league_attendance.php

 

Can't believe how low some of those averages are.

 

[roboscot 1,178]

13 hours ago, superallysbears said:

Probably one of my earliest memories going to ibrox is a midweek game with my dad back then, and it was a midweek game against dundee utd we got beat, now I'm not saying it was that very game your talking about but as I was reading your post the memory came back, we were sitting in the brown seats and I can also remember the big blue tube tunnel coming out at half time. 

The tube tunnel was definitely after Souness arrived. 

[gmcf 34,647]

3 hours ago, RS4_wul said:

Remember being at Ibrox for a game v sheep 84 or 85 I think and black scored for them and Shuggy Burns scored the equalizer for us. If memory serves that game was pay at the gate.

Don't remember having to buy tickets for games as Ibrox during that period, always pay at the gate £1 for juveniles.

Might have been different for Old firm games as didn't go to my first one till 87.

Yeah , back then , pre Souness , it was pay at the gate except for the c....c games . Even away from home was pay at the gate except for the sheep ( probably because it was all seated ) and tarriers iirc .

[broomloanjamie 256]

14 hours ago, The Ibrox Derry said:

What’s the building where the old flats used to be mate? Cool pictures

[Real Ranger 3,195]

14 hours ago, The Ibrox Derry said:

The Govan Rover ticket? Anyone remember that?

Thought it was just called the rover ticket. 20 quid for boys and included all league and cup games as well as reserve games.

[superallysbears 7,847]

54 minutes ago, roboscot said:

The tube tunnel was definitely after Souness arrived. 

Your probably right mate about tube, iv got alot of memories of that era but I couldn't tell you dates and times and stuff. 

[rfc_watp 1,503]

36 minutes ago, broomloanjamie said:

What’s the building where the old flats used to be mate? Cool pictures

Think the pictures been flipped round mate so it's actually the Ibrox primary school from the opposite side. Just above it is Edmiston House.

[hammer93 15,128]

14 hours ago, Fred H Crawford said:

The Dundee Utd game was in march 81 , the crowd is given as 14 000 which would be about normal for a midweek game around then . Jim Stewart made his debut that night .

  Pre Souness it was not unusual to roll up at the stand of your choice , or the smallest queue , at ten to three . You then paid your cash and had time to have a pish , buy a pie/Bovril and still be in a seat before kick off ? Even the first few home games of the Souness era while a lot busier , were still only watched by the types of numbers we were used to when facing the tarriers or the sheep . Took a few months and the realization that this might be more than some of the previous false dawns before we were facing the prospect of sell outs and all ticket games . 

Spot on, in those days we came up on the local bus from Killie and get the tube from bridge street, it was generally a £1 to get into the govan or Copland in those days, I was still at school and remember being in Ibrox with the crowds around 12/13k....the lowest crowd I remember was 7,500 last game of the season against Dundee Utd we drew 2-2 and the sheep won the league that night also.

[Thermopylae 15,287]

What were the average attendances each season? I think too much is made of lows for individual games 

[pcbear 10,924]

9 minutes ago, Thermopylae said:

What were the average attendances each season? I think too much is made of lows for individual games 

79-22k

80-20k

81-18k

82-17k

83-22k

84-21k

85-25k

86-36k (Souness time)

87-38k

[Thermopylae 15,287]

2 minutes ago, pcbear said:

79-22k

80-20k

81-18k

82-17k

83-22k

84-21k

85-25k

86-36k (Souness time)

87-38k

Really not too shabby at all ... also worth remembering the whole of Scottish football took a dip at that time 

[eejay the dj 31,964]

 

Having been pretty much a diehard all throughout the late 70s and 80s 

For the life off me .I can never remember us ever having an attendance lower than 10,000 that I actually witnessed 

The only one I can remember and I wasn't there was the game against Patrick in 78/79 season where we lost 2-4 in the infamous championship decider and few days later .The official attendance was given as 2000

Not once did I ever feel there was less than 10 at any of our games at Ibrox 

Maybe cenility is kicking in early here ? 

Some of the stuff on this thread is simply not true IMO 

[harlands plater 17,065]

The day before the replacement of Jock Wallace by Graeme Souness was announced, we played Spurs in a friendly at Ibrox. A sunny Sunday afternoon in April 1986.The attendance? 12,000.