I was reading an article about the Scottish Cup and it mentioned a final in 1937 between Aberdeen and Celtic which Celtic won 3-1. The thing that astonished me most though was the attendance watching this match in the stadium was 147,365.
The top British sides get nothing close to this now, why was the attendances so large in football years ago?
I do not know for sure but I would imagine the stadiums were so full of people as there was no seating so everyone could stand. Also there was not as much things going on back then in life so a father maybe take his 6 children and wife along with him to the football match. I would also imagine that very little health & safety rules were in force, so everyone could just pile into the stadium, maybe some without even paying. I do not know for sure if anything I thought is actual fact, I am just guessing at why the football attendances were so huge compared to nowadays.
Makes sense, and probably why football stadiums are now trying to bring back safe standing areas in stadiums as they will get more people inside which will bring more money, and I think it brings a better atmosphere as most people like to stand at a match. If you can imagine the stadiums today that hold 65,000 people seated, when a stadium this size was the same but it was all standing it would easily hold in excess of 120,000 people.
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