Those 6,000 are mostly from the Withdean era. Sure, there's a lot of young Albion fans who are very passionate and insist on staying until the end. When I was young the thought of leaving early horrified me "But we might miss a goal, Dad".
A generation was lost over that period replaced by...
I was watching Arsenal on Match Of The Day and the number of seats empty at 1-1 with five minutes remaining was staggering. How I laughed when Arsenal scored a last minute penalty to win it 2-1. Serves them right!