Record Attendance today?

[TFF]

Whatever method they use to arrive at the official attendance figure, there is no way that there were 24,112 people in the stadium today.

The most disappointing thing about that is not that the club have some strange way of calculating this figure, but that there a significant amount of fans that didn't bother to show up.

In fact I'm struggling to think of a home game this season where I haven't seen a number of empty seats. I often notice this on the TV -when you see a goal at the North Stand end, there are often more empty seats than compared to other apparenlty 'sold out' grounds (Brammell Lane, Old Trafford, Anfield, WHL, Goodison, Upton Park immediately spring to mind).

I used to sit just above the Kyocera boards in the North Stand - to the left of the goal looking from the South. A lot of the seats nearer to the pitch seem to be reserved for various members of staff (e.g. megastore) who normally take their seats late and have to leave early. I think the bus drivers sit there also. It would look better on the telly if those seats were in the West.

[tink]

i find it hard to believe it was the highest attendance. looked a lot of empty seats to me!

only explanation i can think of is that at a game like united or liverpool everyone is glued to their seat and doesnt want to miss a second of the action, whereas against villa more people were out of their seat getting food/drink etc. maybe. clutching at straws really.

[Crasher]

Unfortunately my seat was one of the empty ones due to my road being impassable still this morning.

I'm glad i wasn't the only one in this situation

[Only one Trevor Morley]

Of course its based on ticket sales rather than people through the gate. we have 18,000 season tikcet holders - clearly not all of them will attend every match hence the gaps. However from an attendance perpsective we always are near sell out because we only have to flog 6,000 seats per game.

What I dont understand is the 78 seats that remained unsold. I thought this match had sold out so does that mean that there are approximately 75 seats that are never used?

[Glen Little's Nose]

Of course its based on ticket sales rather than people through the gate. we have 18,000 season tikcet holders - clearly not all of them will attend every match hence the gaps. However from an attendance perpsective we always are near sell out because we only have to flog 6,000 seats per game.

What I dont understand is the 78 seats that remained unsold. I thought this match had sold out so does that mean that there are approximately 75 seats that are never used?

Could be that a hospitality unit wasn't taken?

[tink]

did villa sell all their tickets?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Of course its based on ticket sales rather than people through the gate. we have 18,000 season tikcet holders - clearly not all of them will attend every match hence the gaps. However from an attendance perpsective we always are near sell out because we only have to flog 6,000 seats per game.

What I dont understand is the 78 seats that remained unsold. I thought this match had sold out so does that mean that there are approximately 75 seats that are never used?

other than wigan, we've sold out every game. Yet somehow, despite West Ham bringing 200 less fans than Charlton, the Charlton game only got 20 more fans. If it's ticket sold, then those figures just don't add up.

I think we may have upped the number of hospitality places available (or just sold more suites).

[Rawlie19]

Of course some may pass other tickets through the readers if the holder can't attend, assuming they want to keep their points up

You don't get points for attending the game. Only for buying a ticket for the game, or for buying your season ticket.

[Farnborough Royal]

did villa sell all their tickets?

Yes.

They have fantastic support away from home considering their awful away form IMO

[Whore Jackie]

Interesting article from today's Digger column in the Guardian

Arsenal have confirmed the suspicions of many visitors to the Emirates Stadium this season, admitting that the club routinely declares misleading attendance figures for home games.
Regular visitors to the new stadium, including season ticket holders and reporters, have noted that, while attendance figures give the impression that it is at or close to its 60,500 capacity, the reality is that at times numerous seats have been empty. Sunday's game against Wigan Athletic was a case in point, with the official figure of 60,049 at odds with the large number of empty seats.

The club confirmed yesterday that the figure announced was for tickets sold rather than actual attendance and that on average as many as 3% of ticket holders - more than 1,800 people - did not take up their seats. The number of no-shows reflects the increase in corporate season ticket holders at the stadium and the club will trial a buy-back system later this year that will allow fans to purchase seats that season ticket holders are not going to take up. Arsenal have decided to run the system in-house rather than use a ticket agency

[biscuitsrus]

Interesting article from today's Digger column in the Guardian

Arsenal have confirmed the suspicions of many visitors to the Emirates Stadium this season, admitting that the club routinely declares misleading attendance figures for home games.
Regular visitors to the new stadium, including season ticket holders and reporters, have noted that, while attendance figures give the impression that it is at or close to its 60,500 capacity, the reality is that at times numerous seats have been empty. Sunday's game against Wigan Athletic was a case in point, with the official figure of 60,049 at odds with the large number of empty seats.

The club confirmed yesterday that the figure announced was for tickets sold rather than actual attendance and that on average as many as 3% of ticket holders - more than 1,800 people - did not take up their seats. The number of no-shows reflects the increase in corporate season ticket holders at the stadium and the club will trial a buy-back system later this year that will allow fans to purchase seats that season ticket holders are not going to take up. Arsenal have decided to run the system in-house rather than use a ticket agency

Hope their buy back scheme is more successful than ours!

[Rawlie19]

Interesting article from today's Digger column in the Guardian

Arsenal have confirmed the suspicions of many visitors to the Emirates Stadium this season, admitting that the club routinely declares misleading attendance figures for home games.
Regular visitors to the new stadium, including season ticket holders and reporters, have noted that, while attendance figures give the impression that it is at or close to its 60,500 capacity, the reality is that at times numerous seats have been empty. Sunday's game against Wigan Athletic was a case in point, with the official figure of 60,049 at odds with the large number of empty seats.

The club confirmed yesterday that the figure announced was for tickets sold rather than actual attendance and that on average as many as 3% of ticket holders - more than 1,800 people - did not take up their seats. The number of no-shows reflects the increase in corporate season ticket holders at the stadium and the club will trial a buy-back system later this year that will allow fans to purchase seats that season ticket holders are not going to take up. Arsenal have decided to run the system in-house rather than use a ticket agency

Hope their buy back scheme is more successful than ours!

ManUres is pretty good isn't it?

[Huntley & Palmer]

The most obvious question in the world answered simply. Took long enough for HNA to work it out

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

In the days of terracing, clubs used to count season tickets holders as being there whether they turned up or not as they always had to limit the number of people admitted (paying on the day) to the capacity minus the season ticket holders.

If we still do that then it would account for the differences in crowds even when the home and aways ends have sold out, as non-season ticket holders who don't show wouldn't be counted.