Brilliant, I've really enjoyed looking at all the pictures here, those pictures of all the old mammoth terraces are excellent. For me a big part of the enjoyment of going to football was standing on the terraces, I haven't been to a football match since the game went all seater. I started off going to Wrexham, they have the largest remaining terrace in the country there now I believe, yet when I stood on it, it was one of the smaller ones around. I was in Wrexham a couple of years ago, and went to the ground just for a look, the old terrace is still there and still looks good, yet the arty farty health and safety people won't let them use it, shame. I was there when Stoke brought about 10,000 fans, they had two sides of the ground, then Sunderland came with around 15,000 fans, they had 3 sides of the ground, most of them standing up. I've been on the Stretford End, that was brilliant, most of the time it was packed, brilliant atmosphere, it was around 1980, its brilliant being packed in like sardines, surging forward when our team is on the attack, the singing was great, most of the singing came from the Stretford End, some from the Stretford paddock, and some from the United Road Paddock, and scoreboard Ends, and you'd get some from the scoreboard paddock as well, non what so ever from the seats. The capacity then was 57,000 with only 24,000 seats. I've stood on the Kippax at Maine Road, during a Manchester derby, I went to St Andrews once with a mate, we were following Wrexham, remember being terrified as we walked to the ground, it looked really intimidating, got near to the away end, and walking past the entrance to the home supporters section in the Tilton Road end, loads of skin heads hanging around looking menacing as fook. Got into the ground, hardly any Wrexham fans in there maybe 20 at most all spread out on this massive corner terrace. Looking towards the home supporters in the terrace next to us, thousands of them, loads of them skin heads, a big net spread out between the home and away ends to stop missiles coming over. Really didn't want to be there, we both left mid way through the second half, couldn't wait to get out of there. Very impressive ground though, massive terrace behind the goal where we were, and an even bigger one running along side the pitch. Been in the Shed at Chelsea, huge terrace that was. I even used to enjoy looking at the terraces on TV when I watched match of the day, always looked forward to seeing a corner being taken so as to get a good shot of the home or away end from the cameras. These stadiums today look good but without the standing they are severely lacking something, and its expensive to get in, when I went to watch United, it was 50p for juniors and a quid for adults to get in the Stretford End in 1980, the price of a pint then was roughly about 50p so it was easily affordable to anyone, how can kids afford to go and watch now, no wonder the average age of supporters is in the 40s, you have to have a full time job to be able to afford to go, its bullshit. There are ulteria motives with this all seater thing, they say its for safety but another reason why they are keeping it that way is just to keep the prices up, anyone could afford to go when I was a kid, not the case now. I think the powers that be will do all they can to prevent standing terraces coming back, and not just from a safety view point, they prefer it as it is with everyone paying through the nose to go and watch a game of football. It was great looking through this thread though, brought back a lot of good memories.
Like any terrace it looks much bigger when its full, its not as big as some of the monster terraces like the Kop or the Kop at Sheffield Wednesday, it made a lot of noise when full to the brim though.
Some good pictures of old Ibrox, these pictures were taken in 1975, when the ground had a capacity of 65,000, this had been reduced down from 80,000 after the Ibrox disaster. Bench seats were installed on one side of the ground after the tragedy, record attendance before the bench seats were put in was 118,567. It would have been an awesome experience to have been there on that day.
Some pictures of the Stretford End. I always used to stand above the tunnel, or just to the left of it as you look at it, between the tunnel and that copper, you can just see his head, he's standing on a platform in front of the large post there. You could never tell by looking at it on the TV or in pictures, but there are actually seats at the back of the Stretford End. Not far behind the post where the copper is standing is a walkway, then after that are the seats. In the above picture you can clearly see where the seating section is at the back of the Stretford End, in the top left of the picture.
I only did it once when I couldn't get into the Stretford End because it was full, I had to go into the Stretford Paddock, it felt a bit odd standing on wood instead of concrete, but it was great big wooden beams we were standing on so it felt safe enough, great view as well, the Stretford End looked amazing. It was a fantastic sight to see the whole of the Stretford End in full voice, with the thousands of fists punching the air during the " ON ON ON" bit of the glory glory Man Utd song. It was great to be in the Stretford End during those chants, and just as good to watch it from another part of the ground. I had to laugh when reading the Sky text today, Man Utd are introducing a singing section, in another attempt to improve the atmosphere at Old Trafford, I was there in 1981 and 82, even though the team wasn't that good and Liverpool were dominating, the atmosphere for the big games was terrific, the singing excellent. Before the match as the players warmed up on the pitch, the crowd went right through the team singing the names of all the players in turn, all you hear now is the players names being cheered as they are read out, and these pain in the arse stadium announcers screaming their heads off trying and failing to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Old Trafford now looks great but its a shadow of its former self in terms of atmosphere and singing, as are most grounds today. This thread has brought back a lot of good memories for me, but it has also brought some sadness to see how football has changed so much. I know that people who are getting on a bit always seem to go on about how good it was in their day, but as far as going to football is concerned it really was, it was a cheap and a good day out, I feel sorry for those who never experienced it. p.s. to all those "experts" trying to figure out a way of improving the atmosphere at Old Trafford, here's your answer, turn the lower terrace of the Stretford End into a standing terrace, simples.
Was "ground-side" the bit in front of the seats? For a traditional "end", its capacity must have been quite small, less than 10,000 even pre Taylor. Did Stretford Paddock not count as the "End", did it have a different clientele? I thought by the 1980s a lot of the vocal element were either in the seats behind the other goal, or the United Road paddock, and the Stretford End wasn't really all that.
I can't remember it being called ground side, but that probably does mean the standing section in front of the seats. I think the capacity of the Stretford End was 12,000 including the seats at the back. The Stretford Paddock did have separate turnstiles, and it did not count as part of the Stretford End, it also cost a bit more to get in, only pence at the time, there was a metal fence separating the two, as far as clientele goes, in the Paddock they looked similar to folk in the Stretford End, but if you wanted to sing and surge around and make as much noise as possible you went into the Stretford End not the Paddock. I can definitely tell you though that when I went there, the majority of the vocal element inside Old Trafford came from the Stretford End, then it was the United Road paddock, the Stretford Paddock, the Scoreboard End terrace, and the Scoreboard End Paddock, in that order. None from any of the seats, and when I mean none, I mean no singing or chanting. In fact looking at the Stretford End from the Stretford Paddock or any other part of the ground, and you could clearly see that all the vocals were coming from the Stretford End standing section, and none from the seats at the back, you can see that because of the hand clapping above the heads and fists going up. So from my observations when people talk about the lack of atmosphere or singing at football grounds I always put it down to standing terraces or the lack of them, for some reason when fans are all packed together standing up, they lose their inhibitions and feel free to make as much noise as possible, unlike the fans who are seated, it seems to me that they feel a bit self conscious about singing or chanting. In the picture above if you look at the nearest corner flag, then go back towards the Stretford end in a straight line, you can see the red metal fence that separates the Stretford End from the Stretford paddock. The front sections of both terraces were concrete, at the back where the seats start its wood, great big thick wooden beams, there were no seats at the back of the Stretford paddock.
Looked through all of the pictures on this thread and the only terrace I've been on is Peterborough (I'm only 16 sadly). I really hope they bring in safe-standing. I'm not sure if Charlton would do it though as it is all-seater. Shame, I would of loved to have been in the Covered End back then.
Good pics of Vale Park, where from? The Railway Paddock has been "redeveloped" in the sense that it is now exactly the same, but with seats.
[video=youtube;Vw5Zy1BORVI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5Zy1BORVI[/video] Here's a video of The Valley in 1979 I've found of YouTube. On this person's channel there are other grounds too if you want to look.
In the 50's mate. Yeah the Paddock and Bycars (Besides the Bycars roof) are exactly the same as they were in the 50's but with seats. Quite mad to think that every time I walk along the Paddock the people throughout the ages that have done the same. Must be said though, us young'uns have missed out on footballs golden era!
You probably need to be nearer 60 to have seen a real golden era. Grounds may have been mainly terracing in the 80s, but crowds were poor and terraces were rarely anywhere near full except for really big games. The very first game I went to Was Spurs v Aston Villa in 1984. WHL held 48200 then. The crowd was just over 18000, and Villa had about 400 fans there. As an away fan, you also didn't always feel grounds were that great, especially when the weather is like now, and you are stuck out of some open away terrace, with a big fence at the front making an already poor view border on diabolical. That said, I'd love to see terraces back. You just feel more part of a crowd on a terrace than in the seats.
Fantastic thread fellas, every word a true one. Modern football sucks, modern grounds suck. A 'singing' section?..LOL...has it come to that!
Yeah its a joke isn't it, they didn't have to emplore fans to sing and create an atmosphere in the old days, they just massed together and did it. You can't have both, you can't have sterile all seating grounds charging the earth to get in, and expect fans to get behind their teams like they used to, you have to make football accessible to all sections of society, not just those who can afford it at todays prices, and when fans are all seated, they just don't generate the type of noise they do when they are all standing in a big mass. They are talking about safe standing areas now, maybe the penny has finally dropped.
The only thing dangerous about the old terracing was the "pack 'em all in" mentality and the fences erected to "control the hooligan element". All you need to do to provide safe terracing is control access by making terracing all ticket.
