Curious Orange
Punxsatawney Phil
you can hardly talk about percentage of capacity as a defence , if it was a 3000 capacity and 2700 turned up would you be quoting those figures ? The point is , that yolu have acquired lots of new fans since bloom turned up and the stadium got built , you can talk about returning fans all you like , but if you do then the same could be applied to chelsea.
I have not talked about returning fans, or whatever - and I really don't care about that argument at all as it just seems like willy waving to me. I'm just pointing out that the argument that 'we didn't fill Withdean' is a rather spurious one to make, because for the first few seasons we categorically DID fill it. You also have to bear in mind that when we were there the club did actually report the actual attendance rather than tickets sold - there was always a high proportion of season ticket holders at Withdean, and rather like at the Amex not all of them turned up every week, add that to away support in the tens rather than the hundreds and you start to have a reason why the ground wasn't 'full' in later seasons.
I would also agree with previous replies to this thread that Withdean should not be thought of as a proper football stadium, as the experience was more often than not, unpleasant. I should know, I was a season ticket holder for the duration. I happily take my four year old son to the Amex, I wouldn't ever have taken him there though.