Ballpark figures: clubs 'inflating attendances'

[Hindyscrack]

What do they base the inflation on? Do they just randomly pick a number a few thousand, or a few hundred higher than the original one depending on the base size?

Usually it is on issued tickets that will be given as the gate (as opposed to number of clicks on the turnstiles)

 

[MsStorm]

At Storm games, the Olympic Park Trust Authority employees man the turnstiles and post the attendance figure on the scoreboard at the end of the games, but I have been to many Storm games where the side gates are often opened if the queues are really long, and the side gates are opened where they let in people without scanning their tickets, so in actual fact the attendance figure should have been bigger than what was posted on the scoreboard.

 

[mattyg]

no surprise about skilled park...the place always looks less than half full yet they announce a crowd of 18-20k every week. If parra are inflating their figures i'd hate to know how bad they really are.

 

[Teddyboy]

What has happend to the Gold Coast Titans support?.

 

[Brutus]

no surprise about skilled park...the place always looks less than half full yet they announce a crowd of 18-20k every week. If parra are inflating their figures i'd hate to know how bad they really are.

Rubbish.

The ground holds 27k and the stadium is such that any spare seats would stick out on TV. I think they are pretty much spot on. 9k spare seats in that grounds looks poor on TV.

I did question it the night they played the Dragons when the crowd was initially posted at 24k, but that turned out to be an error.

 

[tiger_nick]

wasnt it proven that the swans count every member as attending in their crowd figures whether they are there or not?

 

[Timmah]

As long as the $$ are coming in, that's the main thing.

 

[VictoryFC]

I find it amazing that sold tickets aren't counted. If someone puts down money on a seat, and doesn't show up, hes paid for a ticket and should therefore be counted. It seems strange not to include this group.

 

[Coaster]

I find it amazing that sold tickets aren't counted. If someone puts down money on a seat, and doesn't show up, hes paid for a ticket and should therefore be counted. It seems strange not to include this group.

They cant i guess, because they would have to count all members that have paid for seats also.

Titans last few home games, have had low attendances round 16k but the side that was empty was the Foundation side, these are all sold seats. If counted would have pushed the figure up to 20k and that is not a true reflection of attendance.

 

[Man_of_Steel_1982]

Any minor inflation at WIN would balance the number of people who get in for free. Corporates are specials at cramming more guests into their boxes than they have tickets for. The old, walk out with 6 or 7 peoples tickets and give to people to walk in with trick - "we're coming back in" they say as they go "back" through the gate. ;-)

 

[LazyDreamer]

This is news? Jeez - what next? 'Western Suburbs Magpies & Balmain Tigers to merge'???

 

[franklin2323]

No big deal. Say a sponsor gets tickets and gives them away in a comp and the people don't turn up. The club marks them off as gone because the club sold them. Gave them away. Same in a box if it holds 20 people and 6 turn up. But the box is sold out it has to count or we wouldn't get crowd figure til wednesday

 

[meltiger]

would you like to dispute the claim? because it's true.

Of course it is.


It is a well acknowledged fact in Melbourne that Etihad count all Medalion Club & Access One membership seats in the crowd total regardless of whether anyone shows up or not as "The seats were sold". I was at a Footscray/Collingwood Friday night game two weeks ago where the crowd was announced as >52k and there were plenty of empty seats up in the stadium membership sections.


So any AFL game there, any Rugby Test, any Melbourne Victory game can potentially be 5,000 higher than the actual attendance on the day.


I don't *think* the MCG do it, but it's well known that Etihad do it.

 

[meltiger]

Sometimes they underdo it too. I recall Ellery Hanley's first game for the Magpies against Souths at Campbelltown and the crowd was so big they were behind the in-goals at both ends, yet it was reported as something like 10k..

I remember it being rampant up until 4-5 years ago too. Clubs were understating attendances and therefore gate takings for financial (tax) reasons.


Certainly there were a few Leichhardt/Cambelltown games I went to where the crowd was no where near as low as what was announced. That Cronulla game someone referred to is one, I also remember a Warriors game at Campbelltown in either '02 or '03 where the hills weren't quite full but there was enough people there to have made us think the crowd was higher than announced.

 

[j5o6hn]

Don't you think its about time the clubs and the NRL got real and stopped this kind of rubbish, it,s a bad look and hands ammunition to the anti RL people.
I think it should be stopped and the true figures published, at least you know where you stand then,if others want to do it fine why should we.

 

[myanonymoususername]

wasnt it proven that the swans count every member as attending in their crowd figures whether they are there or not?

Doubt it - they have 26k members and average crowds of 30k.

May have been the case in the Edelstein years?

 

[myanonymoususername]

Don't you think its about time the clubs and the NRL got real and stopped this kind of rubbish, it,s a bad look and hands ammunition to the anti RL people.
I think it should be stopped and the true figures published, at least you know where you stand then,if others want to do it fine why should we.

I agree. Its not a big deal really, but its bullsh*t and just another stone for anti-NRL critics to throw at the game.

 

[Sans Souci Sainter]

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=328983

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7946016.stm


Since we are talking about inflating crowd figures.