FA Cup Attendances

[Pinkie]

We got our lowest since 60s but was still bigger then I had anticipated

Watching Cardiff Fulham on the box now and the ground is empty as it was across the country at most games when historically 3rd round used to pull some clubs biggest gates

What can FA do to turn this apathy towards the cup around

As i said on i think the match thread westy, they need to start dishing out punishment or fines to the big clubs for fielding weaker teams, they need to get the cup back to what it was!

[Kit]

Whilst all the clubs disrespect the FA Cup the Supporters will not attend in numbers. People don't want to watch Bournemouths reserve side or Liverpools youth team or QPR's fringe players etc and it disrespects the fans who turn up paying money to basically watch a friendly.

[72bus]

Watched the Preston #### game and tbf to the gunners they took some numbers up there considering it was on the box

because most arsenal fans never get to see them play away

[TBLOCKRANGER]

Attendances dropped when clubs lost interest in the competition and the TV rights were sold to the highest bidder.

Very difficult to force teams to play strong teams now even those in lower leagues like us and shouldn't have let Man U pull out one year to chase more money in South America, if the FA don't care about there own competition why should the fans. TV controls fixtures now so no chance of getting all but 1 or 2 games played at 3pm on a Saturday, football is run for the TV generation now I'm afraid not the fan who attends.

Totally agree about man Utd and never mentioned when SAF retired. Rio in Rio for me was when the decline started.
as to how how to improve it, think champions league place is a good shout but don't think big clubs will allow it, also big clubs will just play their best team so you won't see many upsets which has made the FA cup exciting. Like Liverpool/Plymouth it is funny ...saying that even a reserve team should beat a full strength Plymouth team.
I think if a lower league club wins the cup (or gets to a final and plays a premiership club ) it get an automatic promotion to the league above plus a big payment (less if it doesn't win). If a premiership club wins it stays at it is.
This will give lower league teams an increased incentive and premiership teams are left in no lesser a position & they generally put out weaker teams in any event so they can't complain.
Reckon more would have gone to LR yesterday if this was in place.

[MattyRangers]

The FA Cup is no better than the League Cup these days. The whole "magic of the cup" is rubbish and a thing of the past. I was born in 1990 and have never viewed the FA Cup as much more than a 2nd League Cup tbh.

[Alanwycombe]

Attendances dropped when clubs lost interest in the competition and the TV rights were sold to the highest bidder.

Very difficult to force teams to play strong teams now even those in lower leagues like us and shouldn't have let Man U pull out one year to chase more money in South America, if the FA don't care about there own competition why should the fans. TV controls fixtures now so no chance of getting all but 1 or 2 games played at 3pm on a Saturday, football is run for the TV generation now I'm afraid not the fan who attends.

Spot on Gary, Auntie gets plenty of stick but one thing they did best was cover the FA Cup. Also, games were all played at once - 3pm on a Saturday - which is how a knockout competition should be. Replays were a few days later not a couple of weeks. Third round day was the chance to see a top team or a star you would never see any other time. I remember MOTD starting when most of us were still black and white and they only showed highlights from ONE match. There was a massive fuss about how just that would hit attendances. This is a fairly recent thing - didn't we take 9k to Old Trafford when Wilkins was manager?

[LoftusRoadLad]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_record_home_attendances_of_English_football_clubs

lots have their record home attendances in FA cup games