Tag Archives: Attendances

60,332: The Etihad’s Highest

Yesterday Manchester City’s final home game of the season saw the Etihad stage its record crowd for football (any sport actually). It was also City’s highest home attendance for 54 years. The attendance was 60,332 and next year the capacity will increase again as some hospitality areas will then open. The game was also the final emotional match for manager Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

MCFC photo
MCFC photo
MCFC photo

I posted the following the other day, but here is the last home crowd of 60,000+ City attracted at Maine Road (ignoring the Charlton 1985 promotion match which many think was around that figure). There’s also a little bit of history of capacities at City.

The last 60,000+ crowd was for the Manchester Derby on 6/11/1971 and was 63,326. These images are from that game (lots changed since then – the MCFC badge has been redesigned 3 times; Brian Kidd became a Blue, then a Red coach then a Blue coach)

The last 60,000+ home cup attendance was 60,844 v Newcastle on 29/1/1969.

For those wondering about home attendances over 75,000, the last one of those was 76,129 for City ve Everton in the FA Cup on 3/3/1956.

For the first 49 years of its existence the capacity of Maine Road was over 60,000, with the record attendance at the old place being 84,569 (see the story of this elsewhere on this site). Stadium developments, alongside safety changes and legislation, reduced the capacity from that high to about 63,000 by 1967. The Ibrox disaster of 1971 caused a reconsideration of stadium safety and a further reduction and City took the decision to seat the one year old North Stand. That meant the capacity from 1972 was approximately 52,600 (there was an attendance of over 54,000 in 1972-73 which I’ll explain about another day based on an interview – and admission – by the then club secretary Bernard Halford!).

The capacity of Maine Road (based on official records and announcements) over the years is:

1923 – 84,000

1931 – 86,000

1935 – 88,000

1946 – 84,000

1953 – 76,500

1957 – 77,000

1963 – 64,000

1972 – 52,600

1989 – 48,500

1992 – 39,359

1994 – 19,150 (first game of the season; increased gradually throughout the season)

1995 – 31,458

1997 – 32,147

1999 – 34,026

2000 – 34,421

2002 – 35,150

You can read more about Maine Road’s record crowd here:

A National Record – 84,569

And watch Maine Road’s opening game in 1923 here:

Maine Road

Highest Attendance For Over Fifty Years

This weekend’s final Manchester City home game of the season will see the Etihad stage its record crowd for football (any sport actually) and the club stage its highest home attendance for over fifty years. The new capacity is expected to be over 60,000 with a further capacity increase at the start of 2026-27. Detailed below are the last home crowd of 60,000+ City have attracted plus a little bit of history of attendances at City.

The last 60,000+ crowd was for the Manchester Derby on 6/11/1971 and was 63,326. These images are from that game (lots changed since then – the MCFC badge has been redesigned 3 times; Brian Kidd became a Blue, then a Red coach then a Blue coach)

The last 60,000+ home cup attendance was 60,844 v Newcastle on 29/1/1969.

For those wondering about home attendances over 75,000, the last one of those was 76,129 for City ve Everton in the FA Cup on 3/3/1956.

For the first 49 years of its existence the capacity of Maine Road was over 60,000, with the record attendance at the old place being 84,569 (see the story of this elsewhere on this site). Stadium developments, alongside safety changes and legislation, reduced the capacity from that high to about 63,000 by 1967. The Ibrox disaster of 1971 caused a reconsideration of stadium safety and a further reduction and City took the decision to seat the one year old North Stand. That meant the capacity from 1972 was approximately 52,600 (there was an attendance of over 54,000 in 1972-73 which I’ll explain about another day based on an interview – and admission – by the then club secretary Bernard Halford!).

The capacity of Maine Road (based on official records and announcements) over the years is:

1923 – 84,000

1931 – 86,000

1935 – 88,000

1946 – 84,000

1953 – 76,500

1957 – 77,000

1963 – 64,000

1972 – 52,600

1989 – 48,500

1992 – 39,359

1994 – 19,150 (first game of the season; increased gradually throughout the season)

1995 – 31,458

1997 – 32,147

1999 – 34,026

2000 – 34,421

2002 – 35,150

You can read more about Maine Road’s record crowd here:

A National Record – 84,569

And watch Maine Road’s opening game in 1923 here:

Maine Road

King Colin’s Crown

Today (10 April 2026) marks the 50th anniversary of the day City legend Colin Bell was crowned. The story has entered folklore about the day when a fan – Dave Brammer – ran on to the Maine Road pitch with a crown he had specially made for the occasion and placed it on the head of Colin as the player warmed up just before kick-off.  This photo recently rediscovered captures the moment and you can read more about this remarkable day and see other photos of Colin in action that day below (this is a subscriber article – see below for details).

There’s also plenty of other stuff on Colin throughout the site so why not have a search and see what you can see?

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Double The Crowd: Crerand’s Bet With Allison

60 years ago this week (March 1966) Manchester City announced that their FA Cup quarter final was a 63,000 sell out. Why is this significant? Because the attendance was larger than any domestic crowd at Old Trafford that season, but why is that significant? Because at the start of the season United’s Pat Crerand bet City assistant manager Malcolm Allison that City would never get more than 30,000 for a game again! I interviewed Malcolm back in 1993 when we talked about this and he also mentioned it in he biography. The story…

Basically, Allison was sat at United’s League championship celebration and became somewhat frustrated by the glorification of United that night. While Joe Mercer took a diplomatic approach, afterall it was United’s celebration dinner, Allison decided to speak out. He told Matt Busby’s son Sandy that his dad had a twenty year start but ‘I’ll pass him in three’ and then Allison claimed he got into a discussion with Crerand about ‘little City’ compared to United. Allison claimed Crerand made a £10 bet with him that City would never again get 30,000+ in Maine Road.

A pause in the action (September 1967 Manchester derby) gives Summerbee Crerand and Dunne an opportunity to debate the action so far (Image: The Pride of Manchester, 1991)

On a Wednesday night in October (27/10/65) City attracted 34,091 for the visit of Norwich in the Second Division. Allison told me he couldn’t remember whether he ever got his £10 but he did laugh a great deal when I told him that United’s attendance the previous Saturday was 32,716 for the top flight visit of Fulham.

Malcolm Allison at the launch of Gary James’ Football With A Smile: The Authorised Biography of Joe Mercer, OBE in December 1993. Note Francis Lee appearing behind Allison.

What was even more remarkable was that the City-Everton FAC tie on 26 March 1966 was watched by 63,034 and that was higher than any domestic crowd at United that season. Allison laughed again when we discussed that briefly. As a comparison, United attracted 58,161 for their League game with Liverpool (lowest home League attendance 23,039 v Aston Villa) and they did get 60,433 for their FAC Cup quarter-final replay with Preston. Plus United managed to better all these attendances with 64,035 for their European Cup quarter-final with Benfica.

I did an earlier interview with Allison that can be listened to here:

Malcolm Allison Audio Interview Part One

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102 Years of a National Crowd Record for Manchester City!

Today (8 March) marks the 102nd anniversary of a record Manchester City set – the record is the highest attendance on a club ground! The record set in 1924 saw 76,166 attend City v Cardiff. Keep reading all those who think ‘don’t you mean 84,569 in 1934?’ – City already held the record… City had moved to their new Maine Road stadium in August 1923. The capacity of the venue was estimated at around 90,000 but was actually approximately 83,000 when the stadium opened (it was enlarged in 1931 and 1935).

In its first season the capacity was tested and, on this day (8 March) in 1924 the largest attendance for any footballing fixture (including three FA Cup Finals) in Manchester gathered to watch the Blues. This was also, at the time, the record crowd for any game played on an English club ground. It was beaten ten years later when 84,569 watched City v Stoke – so It’s 102 years of this record for the Blues!

You can read about the remarkable day in 1924 below:

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You can read about the attendance that broke this record (again by City at Maine Road) here:

A National Record – 84,569

Other record crowd articles can be seen here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/record-crowd/

Manchester City v River Plate at Maine Road

On 2 February 1952 Manchester City were defeated 4-3 by Argentinian football club River Plate in a friendly at Maine Road, watched by a crowd of 34,974. Here are some interesting images from an official record book showing details of entertainment tax paid by City and turnstile records. I’m not certain if anyone has ever researched how much money football clubs paid in entertainment tax over the years but if anyone’s interested then hopefully the following will help.

You can see from the above photo a few match details such as HT/FT scores, weather and referee details. In addition the various admission prices can be seen (not all shown on this image) and the record book also includes details of how many fans attended within these prices per turnstile. A summary of the attendance per price and the amount of tax paid can be seen in the next image:

For the record City’s goals were scored by Don Revie, Jimmy Meadows and Roy Clarke. The two images below show the name of the turnstile operator and the admissions via that turnstile and the second image shows the total attendance and income details.

The series on the 1950s includes some free articles and some subscriber only features. If you’d like to know more on this period then why not subscriber and enjoy the following article on the 1951-52 season.

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Manchester’s Support

Here’s a map I published in my book Manchester A Football History. It shows the spread of support for both City and United across Manchester as recorded in an academic study back in 2002 (using data from 2001). Basically this was based on season ticket holders in each postcode area of Manchester and shows whether a postcode area was Red or Blue at that time. You can see that back then City had more season ticket holders in almost every district of the city centre and east Manchester while United tended to have more in western districts. However, this was based on the number of season ticket holders in 2001. Since then of course the numbers attending games at both clubs have increased significantly.

In my chapter I made a comment about how this analysis might change:

Screenshot

Top Two Divisions Attendances and Table From 40 Years Ago!

Last week I posted the top flight attendances for this last week forty years ago and this led to a number of comments/questions and so to answer some of those I’ve now posted the top two divisions attendances together with the two League tables AND the end of season average attendances. People asked for clarity on how the figures compared to the second tier and whether League position played its part in affecting crowds. As a reminder here’s last week’s attendances…

And here’s this week’s (published 24 November 1985) and the League table too.

Obviously, these are only snapshots from that season but to add a bit more context here are the end of season averages here are the top 46 best supported clubs in order that season (hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first):

A few notable League positions for those who do sing ‘Where Were You?’… The top eight clubs in the League were: Liverpool (champions), Everton, West Ham, Man Utd, Sheff Wed, Chelsea, Arsenal and Forest. Manchester City (who were 4th best supported club) were 15th (only 4 points above relegation zone), Spurs were tenth, Newcastle 11th and Aston Villa 16th.

In the Second Division best supported club Sunderland were 18th (avoiding relegation by 4 points); the top four were Norwich, Charlton, Wimbledon and Portsmouth.

If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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Attendances 40 Years Ago!

These two results tables for top flight football in November 1985 make interesting reading. I’ve included the details published today (17 November, for games played the previous day) in 1985 and also the week after’s details too. This gives an idea of what the top clubs were attracting back then. Notice West Ham’s game attracted more at home than Arsenal’s and that Liverpool were over 26,000 less than Manchester United. Arsenal’s crowd was 6,000 less than struggling Manchester City and Tottenham attracted more than Arsenal too. Reigning League champions Everton were some way ahead of the London clubs and only about 600 behind Liverpool. Obviously, these are only snapshots from two weekends but hopefully it might make those who sing songs like ‘Where Were You?’ think about the crowds at their own clubs first.

the Marwood scoring for Sheffield Wednesday was of course Brian Marwood who went on to play a key part in Manchester City’s modern return to glory. If you’d like to know more about Manchester City at this time, here’s a 2,500 word subscriber feature on the 1985-86 season. Enjoy!

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The Days When Televised Games Led To Claims For Compensation

Here’s an interesting cutting from 39 years ago today (15 November 1986). Back then live televised football matches were deemed to have an effect on attendances at games and clubs could put in a claim for compensation if they could prove their gate would normally have been higher. This article talks of Liverpool’s home game with Sheffield Wednesday… The attendance was 28,020.