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Crowd trouble?

Below we have a table of last season's gates, and Burnley finished in a comfortable mid-table position. On the plus side, remarkably we finished above two of the three promoted sides, Bolton and Fulham. Really Bolton can have no excuses. They are from the same neck of the woods as the Clarets, although they are now part of Greater Manchester, which may give the Trotters' potential support an excuse to identify with all the other bandwaggoners in the world and follow Manchester United. However, it is a very satisfying result. The Clarets also finished well above another play off contender and local rival, Preston, though their capacity was limited at times through ground re-developments. Our other near neighbour, Blackburn, finished second only to Birmingham, which put to rest one of the myths about the rivalry that we have more and better supporters than them. Well, if we have, they don't go and watch as many home games as theirs. Of course all the usual playground banalities may be trotted out, like they buy their fans, but don't forget that a large portion of Burnley's crowd consists of kids taking advantage of Barry's £35 season ticket deal for kids.

Average gates, 2001/01

Birmingham City (5)	21,283
Blackburn Rovers (2)	20,740
Nottingham Forest (11)	20,615
Sheffield Wednesday (17)	19,268
Wolverhampton Wanderers (12)	19,258
West Bromwich Albion (6)	17,657
Sheffield United (10)	17,211
Crystal Palace (21)	17,061
Norwich City (15)	16,525
Burnley (7)	16,234
Bolton Wanderers (3)	16,062
Fulham (1)	14,985
Preston North End (4)	14,617
Barnsley (16)	14,465
Watford (9)	13,941
Portsmouth (20)	13,533
Huddersfield Town (22)	12,808
Queens Park Rangers (23)	12,013
Gillingham (13)	9,293
Tranmere Rovers (24)	9,045
Wimbledon (8)	7,901
Stockport County (19)	7,031
Crewe Alexandra (14)	6,698
Grimsby Town (18)	5,646

One oft-quoted complaint about Stan's approach is the lack of 'entertainment'. Personally, I don't classify football as entertainment; it’s a battle which you can win lose or draw. To me entertainment is watching a film or play or the Morecambe and Wise Christmas shows where you know what's going to happen, because somebody else has seen it before.

Maybe a musical concert is a bit less certain, but if you see any show twice, you'll know that even the ad-libs are rehearsed. Football is about going to watch Burnley win. If there is any pleasing play, this is an added bonus. I want to see the Clarets maintain a stranglehold on the middle, defend well and then bang in some goals. If this can be done with some flourish or style, great. However 1-0 to the Bernerlee from one chance will do me. The Bristol Rovers game with Little's goal was the ultimate. No fancy football in this apart from Glen's winner, but a match I will always remember.

Maybe next season Stan will open out a bit more. Certainly the 4-4-2 deployed against Preston and West Brom towards the end of the season made for two brilliant matches, and the two best Burnley performances that I have seen for many years. However to make any significant inroads into crowd figures Burnley need to provide this kind of thrilling football week after week, which won't happen as First Division football is mainly about breaking down tough defences. Few teams will have the confidence of Albion and Preston to make a game of it.

Burnley also lack the Premiership effect, evident in the gates of two teams above Burnley, Norwich and Palace, who spent the majority of their season in the bottom of the table and also lacked any really significant derby matches. It seems that promotion to the Premiership creates retention, even if most of the Norwich crowd just enjoy going along to play their game of sack the manager.

Another feature of the Clarets' home gates was some of the relatively poor away followings. I wonder how much the attempts by the psychos in the crowd to turn us into the Millwall of the North deters opposition fans from coming to the game? As for the home fans, since the ground re-developments, as with many all seater stadiums, sometimes there is more atmosphere on the moon. Not every all seater stadium is like this. The games at Albion and Birmingham were loud, noisy and boisterous, as the home fans really gave it some welly. Portsmouth also provided a wall of noise throughout, despite a lacklustre first half performance.

Something needs to be done at Burnley, and I believe we desperately need an 'End'. The family block on the top of the Jimmy Mac has prevented this from developing. Basically we need a cheap seats section without reserved seating, or even better, terracing, but this will never happen now that Kate Hoey has got the chop. Personally, at nearly 6' 5", I am in favour of standing. For me, most grounds have really uncomfortable seats, with the worst by a mile being Queens Park Rangers. I seem to recollect that Forest, Portsmouth and Albion weren't much better. Of course I feel sorry for any short arsed runt, and for me that means 99.9% of the population, stood behind me, but usually I try and stand on the back row if possible.

Indeed, looking at it objectively, we are about as well supported as we ever were, with a hard core of around 13,000, which we used to get when we were an average (old) First Division side, or even doing well in the old Second. Unless we get promoted, I cannot see the club extending beyond the current level, given that it's £18 a time for a decent seat on the Longside, which is a lot of money in a relatively low wage area like Burnley.

With not much loss from the relegated clubs, and the two local 'derbies' replaced by visits from Bradford and Man City, the club are bound to have to increase revenues from other sources.

Igor Wowk
July 2001