LOI crowds in the 70s, 80s and 90s

[Tony Soprano]

how did attendances in those decades compare to today ?

anyone know what type of crowds these teams got in the following years for example -

Waterford late 60s and early 70s (6 league championships in 8 years)

Athlone early 80s (two league championships)

Limerick early 80s (one league and one FAI Cup)

Shamrock Rovers Giles era

Shamrock Rovers mid 80s four in a row

Derry late 80s (after joing LOI)

Shamrock Rovers 1993/94 (league winners)

St Pats late 90s (Pat Dolan era)

anyone know or remember some crowd figures from those days ?

[El-Pietro]

You ask a lot of questions!

I know that when I first started going in 98/99 we used get huge crowds whenever St. Pats came to town. 8/9,000 or so (top of the table clashes), but then we would have far smaller crowds for other teams. Seemed to fluctuate far more back then.

[Tony Soprano]

You ask a lot of questions!

I know that when I first started going in 98/99 we used get huge crowds whenever St. Pats came to town. 8/9,000 or so (top of the table clashes), but then we would have far smaller crowds for other teams. Seemed to fluctuate far more back then.

yes I remember one Cork Pats game at that time got a very big crowd, was on TV too

up there with the Cork v Derry league decider, a Rovers - Bohs FAI Cup game (early 90s, semi final replay ?) and the playoff games (93) as one of the biggest LOI crowds in the last 20 years

edit - forgot Rovers at the RDS. Big crowd (20k?) for first game, and some big crowds when they won the league (94)

[Lim till i die]

Limerick early 80s (one league and one FAI Cup)

Limericks crowds at the time ranged from anywhere between 6500 and 200.

Depending on how you were doing, who you were playing, the weather, the position of Jupiter in relation to the moon, stuff like that.

We're fickle, fickle, people.*





*could be talking about the Irish in general rather than just Limerick people tbf.

[Battery Rover]

Been quite a while and the memory is not so good these days but have a hazy recollection of the first time we won the league and crowds were anything forn 2000 up to 6000. Ithink we secured the league in the Markets Field that year and would have had huge travelling support.

The year after Limerick won the league in St mels Park and the whole of Limerick City must have been in the ground. It was one of the biggest travelling supports I have ever seen other than a semi final of the cup we played in Oriel Park against Finn Harps.

We won the league again the year after that and with the mad points system they had in use that season we were champions very early in the season and crowds fell away with less than 1000 at some of the games in the run into the finish.

Now playing AC Milan crowd was 9000 plus but if you believe everyone that says they were there it was closer 100.000 as every Dublin taxi driver that I have travelled with swera they attended the game

[paudie]

You ask a lot of questions!

I know that when I first started going in 98/99 we used get huge crowds whenever St. Pats came to town. 8/9,000 or so (top of the table clashes), but then we would have far smaller crowds for other teams. Seemed to fluctuate far more back then.

IMO The Cross only had 8,000-9,000 maybe 2 or 3 times since City were formed.
Definitely the league decider v dundalk in 91. Couple of times v Pats. League Cup final v Shamrock Rovers maybe? Cwmbran in europe?

8-9k meant it was absolutely jam packed which didn't happen that often. Probably had 4-5k pretty regularly

[El-Pietro]

I'm talking about the games against St. Pats in 1998/99

The Cross was full all 3 occasions. I was a small fella back then and used sit on the barrier at the front of the shed. The place was so full that the space in front of the shed was full. People standing 4/5/6 deep behind the wall

[Tony Soprano]

wow, 6,000 at Limerick or especially Athlone is hard to imagine

did Waterford get similar numbers in their glory years ?

[pineapple stu]

Now playing AC Milan crowd was 9000 plus but if you believe everyone that says they were there it was closer 100.000 as every Dublin taxi driver that I have travelled with swera they attended the game
Was talking to a taxi driver in Athlone one time going out to a game who said that that he'd retired through injury the year before the AC game. You'd only be sickened...

[SkStu]

Was talking to a taxi driver in Athlone one time going out to a game who said that that he'd retired through injury the year before the AC game. You'd only be sickened...

Shamrock Rovers fan? ;)

[Tony Soprano]

Limericks crowds at the time ranged from anywhere between 6500 and 200.

Depending on how you were doing, who you were playing, the weather, the position of Jupiter in relation to the moon, stuff like that.

We're fickle, fickle, people.*





*could be talking about the Irish in general rather than just Limerick people tbf.

how did the decision to move the Real Madrid tie go down at the time ?

[osarusan]

how did the decision to move the Real Madrid tie go down at the time ?
Financially, a disaster, or so I've heard. Dublin folk stayed away.

[Tony Soprano]

Financially, a disaster, or so I've heard. Dublin folk stayed away.

there was a quote in an article on extratime.ie "This is often seen as a turning point in people's views on senior soccer in Limerick. Only a small minority traveled from Limerick to support their team, while the Dublin crowds also steered clear."

wondering what that meant - were people in limerick ****ed off at the decision to move it ?

[endabob1]

I vaguely remember being taken to Mels in the early 80's when Athlone were winning titles, the crowds seemed huge to me but I would guess looking back probably 3 or 4 maybe 5 thousand?
When i started going again in the 90's the crowds were mainly in the low to mid hundreds, a decent season would bring them out in bigger numbers, the promotion season was a good one, I remember the Sligo game in St Mels being a very big crowd

[Partizan]

wow, 6,000 at Limerick or especially Athlone is hard to imagine

did Waterford get similar numbers in their glory years ?

The attendance record for the RSC was 8,500 v Shels in the FAI Cup semi final in 1997. About 7,000 turned up for the ECWC match v Bordeaux in 1986 in Kilcohan, the biggest crowd I can remember in Kilcohan following the Blues for the past 25 years. However in our glory years in the late 60s and early 70s we frequently had 10-12,000 in Kilcohan. There were 55,000 v Man U in the European Cup in 1968 in Lansdowne. From mid to late 70s out attendances collapsed to the low hundreds.

[dcfcsteve]

From my memory, crowds at most clubs in the league were very poor in the mid to late 80s. Some of that may have been relative as I would have been travelling with City fans, who in those days were turning up in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Tolka in their thousands. But I particularly remember Cork, Bohs and even Shels having crowds a fraction of what they get now. The only clubs who semed to have any decent support really were Dundalk and Rovers, but the Milltown exodus killed half of that off for a while.

[Tony Soprano]

Were Wateford, Limerick and Athlone full time professional during the years when they were getting those big crowds ?

were Derry full time in the late 80s ? Seem to remember them paying big wages (and getting big crowds) back then

[monkey9]

Were Wateford, Limerick and Athlone full time professional during the years when they were getting those big crowds ?

were Derry full time in the late 80s ? Seem to remember them paying big wages (and getting big crowds) back then

Do you support a team in the LOI yourself???

[Riddickcule]

Do you support a team in the LOI yourself???
Good question. Well Tony, do ya?

[punkrocket]

Don't get lippy there kid, he'll have you whacked

[peadar1987]

He's a Shams supporter IIRC, said it in the "where do fans come from" thread

[Riddickcule]

*Rovers supporter.

[dcfcsteve]

were Derry full time in the late 80s ? Seem to remember them paying big wages (and getting big crowds) back then

Yes - but the big crowds came first.

[John83]

Now playing AC Milan crowd was 9000 plus but if you believe everyone that says they were there it was closer 100.000 as every Dublin taxi driver that I have travelled with swera they attended the game
Jaysus: I thought they were just moaning when they said deregulation had dumped too many new taxi drivers on the market.

[Martinho II]

I vaguely remember being taken to Mels in the early 80's when Athlone were winning titles, the crowds seemed huge to me but I would guess looking back probably 3 or 4 maybe 5 thousand?
When i started going again in the 90's the crowds were mainly in the low to mid hundreds, a decent season would bring them out in bigger numbers, the promotion season was a good one, I remember the Sligo game in St Mels being a very big crowd
I know that in the early eighties when Athlones crowds were huge a lot of those fans were from Longford in the days when we were a leinster senior league side or League of Ireland B side.

[apollo]

From derry joined the loi in 1985 until the season after we won the treble we got massive crowds home and away, examples are cork away at flower lodge cup quarter final 86 we took 8,000 down there and again in 87 we took 7,000 to cork for another cup game and also 8-9000 for a cup game against bohs a dalymount that year. We regularly had home crowds of 7-8000 during that period for league games even when we were in the 1st division.But sadly the novelty for most wore off around 1990 and the reality and grind of following a loi team year in year out took its toll and our crowds fell away badly to the levels of the rest of the loi clubs.Was a magic era for our city but, cause the troubles had made derry by the 1980,s a bleak place to live, going to the brandywell or away trips around ireland to watch colourful players like owen da gama, alex kristic ect was a great lift for a lot of people.

[stann]

From my memory, crowds at most clubs in the league were very poor in the mid to late 80s. Some of that may have been relative as I would have been travelling with City fans, who in those days were turning up in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Tolka in their thousands. But I particularly remember Cork, Bohs and even Shels having crowds a fraction of what they get now. The only clubs who semed to have any decent support really were Dundalk and Rovers, but the Milltown exodus killed half of that off for a while.

Cork had very good crowds for at least some games in the late 80s, which was when I was starting to go to LoI games (at the Cross, a stones' throw from where I lived). I would always stay down weekends when Waterford and Derry were playing, in particular, and well remember very decent crowds, how much of those were away fans I couldn't say, but the total was usually two or three times what was announced over the PA each time, to much hilarity. Was aware though that these were exceptional numbers, and the league elsewhere (including ourselves at home) were suffering badly, as now.
For the Blues, our halycon days were definitely the late 60s and much of the 70s, though numbers will vary in proportion to the nostalgia in the eyes of the teller.