Holte End v South Bank (Molineux)

[London Villan]

Wasn't it the mid-70s when grounds first had to have proper safety certificates and crush barriers across the whole stand? From this point they had a proper capacity I guess, which was calculated based on size, access etc rather than guesses and estimates.

[Brazilian Villain]

Interesting discussion and my memory when growing up was that the South Bank was the largest (if rundown) but the Holte End was more famous/prestigious and hadn't heard of the Spion Kop at Hillsborough being in the frame. Happy to go with Rico/Wiki that the Holte End was the largest although it may depend on the estimate at a given time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spion_Kop_(stadiums)

[Brazilian Villain]

You can still see some of the old terrace at The Valley, behind one of the newer stands.  It’s absolutely massive.

Wasn't The Valley in the 70's and 80's the largest club ground in England? I'm sure it once held around 75,000 at that time.

I recall my Panini albums in the late 70s listed the capacity as 66,000 which stuck in my head as it seemed a bit mad for Charlton. Their record crowd is 75,031 for an FA Cup tie against Villa in 1938.

[eamonn]

My brother worked in Woolwich last summer in the local Credit Union. He's Villa but Charlton are his second team.

He strolled down to the Valley during one lunch-break and bought an office-friendly jumper (black, tight-knit, with a small Charlton badge on it) from the club shop. His new colleagues all thought he was crazy.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Charlton played a couple of seasons in Lewisham, at Catford South End’s ground, which only had a 50,000 capacity……

[PeterWithesShin]

I think it was only ever used for football for a short time by Bradford after the fire, but the Odsal always looked as though it would have been a sight and a half when full at its peak. Record attendance was just over 102k.

[DB]

The South Bank was split between home and away. It wasn't even their end.

Was that always the case though? I stood on a few occasions back when it was split. Never had the class of the Holte End of course!

They split it as the north bank and other shitty stand were condemned to accommodate away fans. After Bradford disaster I think. Also, they built a new stand that was miles away from the pitch and no-one wanted to go in it.

It was before then. I remember going there in 1979 and it was split.

OK, maybe the North Bank was closed earlier than I thought. But th main stand was closed as it was made of matchsticks

[Kevin Dawson]

You can still see some of the old terrace at The Valley, behind one of the newer stands.  It’s absolutely massive.

Wasn't The Valley in the 70's and 80's the largest club ground in England? I'm sure it once held around 75,000 at that time.

I recall my Panini albums in the late 70s listed the capacity as 66,000 which stuck in my head as it seemed a bit mad for Charlton. Their record crowd is 75,031 for an FA Cup tie against Villa in 1938.

I remember exactly the same thing!

[nigel]

I'm sure that I have read somewhere that the Holte End was designed to hold 40,000 people. Wether it ever did is anyone's guess, but when I started going in the 70s capacity had been reduced to 26000 for safety reasons, and then after the Taylor Report it was reduced further to 19000.

I’m sure I read somewhere that originally the Holte was going to be built for 60k, but changed when they realised how far back they needed to go.

Disclaimer:
I may have misread or even dreamt this

[Rico]

Largest Bank of terracing according to the Last Day of The Holte End certificate.

Doug said it was true - so it must be true!

[Meanwood Villa]

I'm sure that I have read somewhere that the Holte End was designed to hold 40,000 people. Wether it ever did is anyone's guess, but when I started going in the 70s capacity had been reduced to 26000 for safety reasons, and then after the Taylor Report it was reduced further to 19000.

I’m sure I read somewhere that originally the Holte was going to be built for 60k, but changed when they realised how far back they needed to go.

Disclaimer:
I may have misread or even dreamt this

Might have been part of Rinder's plans for us to have 100k plus capacity which were derailed by WW1 I think

[Brazilian Villain]

Largest Bank of terracing according to the Last Day of The Holte End certificate.

Doug said it was true - so it must be true!

The veracity of that "certificate" may be somewhat undermined by its closing statement of 'The Evening Mail loves the Villa'.

[nigel]

I'm sure that I have read somewhere that the Holte End was designed to hold 40,000 people. Wether it ever did is anyone's guess, but when I started going in the 70s capacity had been reduced to 26000 for safety reasons, and then after the Taylor Report it was reduced further to 19000.

I’m sure I read somewhere that originally the Holte was going to be built for 60k, but changed when they realised how far back they needed to go.

Disclaimer:
I may have misread or even dreamt this

Might have been part of Rinder's plans for us to have 100k plus capacity which were derailed by WW1 I think

Ahh, that’s the one, thanks 👍

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Imagine trying to boast about having a huge stand whilst getting crowds as low as 2,500.

The ultimate for small crowds in a big ground has to be Queens Park.

[algy]

Imagine trying to boast about having a huge stand whilst getting crowds as low as 2,500.

The ultimate for small crowds in a big ground has to be Queens Park.

I can't find the news article for it now, might have another look later, but in the late 1940s (1949/50 season?) and following promotion to Division A and a sell out (26,000-ish) crowd for their game against Rangers, Cowdenbeath had plans to build a 40,000 capacity stadium. In Cowdenbeath. A town with a population of 12000. It'd have needed something crazy like 1 in 7 of the entire county of Fife - every man, woman, and child - to become regular match-going Cowden fans to fill it.