by john68 » Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:51 pm
Again, just for the record, City are not new to gates of over 70,000. Considering our present capacity at 47,000+ and the fact that from the early 60s Maine Road was limited down, 1st to 65,0009ish) then even lower, we will never really know the true pulling power of City in the more successful years of the 60s and 70s. There were quite a number of occasions when the "sold out" signs were posted at maine Road.
For those reasons, a cursory look at the record shows all 70,000 gates predating 1957 and we had the loss of football for WW2 in the 1940s.
1924...76,166...FA Cup(4)...v...Cardiff City
1934...84,569...FA Cup(5)...v...Stoke City
1935...79,491...Div One.....v...Arsenal
1937...74,918...Div One.....v...Arsenal
1938...71,937...FA Cup(4)...v...Bury
1947...78,000...Div One.....v...the rags
1948...71,960...Div One.....v...the rags
1956...70,640...FA Cup(5)...v...Liverpool
1956...76,128...FA Cup(6)...v...Everton
1957...70,483...Div One.....v...the rags
There were far too many occasions when City topped our present capacity to post here. It seems to show that historically we have always had the potential to attract huge crowds whenever we have had some measure of success. To me, it seems only good planning and logic to increase the capacity at CoMS. I would be tempted to go 80,000 and then work towards attracting them in.
When City moved to maine Road in 1923, it was always the aim of the club to gradually increase the capacity of the ground towards 100,000. To quote Gary James, "To make Make Road into the Hampden Park of England." It seems our earlier owners had vision too. So none of this is new, more a case of City getting back on track after some years of screwing up.
I KNOW THAT YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU THINK I WROTE, BUT I AM NOT SURE YOU REALISE THAT WHAT YOU READ IS NOT WHAT I MEANT