The club expect all 20,000 tickets for the match to sell by Friday, bringing memories of earlier "full house" games. Attendances for the first two home league games this season are already up by more than 30% on 2005-2006. Supporters' club spokesman Vince Alm said: "People like to spend their money on things that are going well." Cardiff City said it was close to selling all its tickets for Saturday's game against the West Midlands visitors. It expects to have sold out by 1900 BST on Friday.
Birmingham City's official website says it had only 300 tickets left from the club's allocation of 1,800. The busy turnstiles at Ninian Park follows a period of financial uncertainty and cutbacks at the club, as it looks to build a £35m new 30,000-seat stadium nearby. Last season Cardiff had the fifth lowest average attendance in the Championship despite climbing into the play-offs places. In November last year, Bluebirds boss Dave Jones pleaded for more fans to attend home matches so he could afford to buy new players.
Vince Alm said he thought supporters had been encouraged by the more business-like approach of the new faces in the club's boardroom. He said decisions such as declining to sign Wales midfielder Jason Koumas from West Brom for £2m, in order to protect the finances of the stadium project, had convinced fans the club was on a firmer financial footing. He said: "The word-of-mouth has got round that the football we're playing this year is entertaining. People want to be entertained, just as if you went to the cinema. "It has been all good news so far, the team is doing well on the field, the business plan is in place - and this is a top-of-the-table clash." Cardiff, like many other football clubs, has seen its capacity reduced over the decades due to crowd safety considerations and the onset of more seating. In the early 1960s, the stadium could hold well over 50,000.
Club archivist Richard Shepherd has compared Saturday's match to another crunch game with a capacity turnout, against Aston Villa on Easter Saturday 1960 when 55,000 people filled the stands. It was the last time Cardiff won promotion to the top flight, after winning the Division Two top-of-the-table game 1-0. Mr Shepherd was 16 years old and paid five shillings to stand just to the right of the players' tunnel. He said: "It was a fantastic atmosphere. I could see the whole pitch. I remember the goal. Graham Moore scored it at the Grange end. "It was quite unbelievable. You stood shoulder-to-shoulder. There was no trouble of any kind. There were a lots of Aston Villas supporters there, and they stood amongst the Cardiff fans. Everybody had a great time." | |||||
