With regards to the Barcodes, I think they are a bit of an anomaly.
I think Newcastle had/have the advantage of the team being seen by their fans as representing their 'parochial pride'. Whether through being the only team in the city, (despite Sunderland being just down the road), or being more 'passionate' folk than those further south (clichéd I know, but the reaction to Keegan's departures/Shearer's signing etc. shows the, er, slightly unhinged football-mad inhabitants they have up there).
The coinciding with Sky's early years of loading the game with cash and Newcastle actually becoming quite good meant that when the foreign flair of Ginola, Tino Asprilla etc. ''rocked up'' - to use a h&vism, on Tyneside it just increased the fervour of a large population of top-level football starved Geordies.
Their 80's-early 90's attendances may have been a quarter or less of those who came from the Prem era onwards but watching the likes of Mickey Quinn trudge about wasn't ever going to attract the fair-weather type, which in essence is what we are talking about if we want bigger gates.
The nearly-era under Keegan gave Newcastle an astonishing amount of credit in terms of fanbase support. The mid-90s was their adrenaline-rush, which all who were present have spent the last decade trying to replicate. Mike Ashley and the other bumbling idiots in charge had the fortune to inherit a captive market that, as I said, are a bit different to most clubs. Luckily they've largely made a pig's ear out of truly utilising the advantage of being in that position.
