[Albion] What was Attendance

[Knocky's Nose]

22,000ish I'd have thought.

Looking around (and I did, a lot, wondering) I was at about 22,000 to 23,000 as well. I'm West Lower though so I couldn't see how full it was above me.

Kudos to the North Stand who made it sound like a full house when they piped up!

 

[Deadly Danson]

Was so obvious - you’d think the club would rather have actual people there spending money eh! Time for the club to hold their hands up and scrap that silly scheme - make it free to pass ticket on with a name.

Absolutely agree. The empty seats is obviously not down just to this (holidays and Covid will play a big part) but PB has got it completely wrong on this one. He really needs to hold his hands up and make it easy and more importantly free to transfer tickets to anyone, MyAlbion member or not, as long as that person is named. Anecdotally there are so many STHs who will now just leave their seat empty now. This looks bad, reduces atmosphere, stops very casual fans potentially experiencing the Amex and getting a taste for it and reduces matchday income. Massive OG in my opinion (although I completely accept the reasons for it).

 

[veuve]

Absolutely agree. The empty seats is obviously not down just to this (holidays and Covid will play a big part) but PB has got it completely wrong on this one. He really needs to hold his hands up and make it easy and more importantly free to transfer tickets to anyone, MyAlbion member or not, as long as that person is named. Anecdotally there are so many STHs who will now just leave their seat empty now. This looks bad, reduces atmosphere, stops very casual fans potentially experiencing the Amex and getting a taste for it and reduces matchday income. Massive OG in my opinion (although I completely accept the reasons for it).

Totally agree.
BBC bring back cards.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

A lot more empty seats because of the inability to just pass a ticket on to a friend and you know it!

Three of our group could not attend yesterday and their seats were empty. Normally they would have passed ticket on without surcharge.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Empty seats don’t look good on TV and are maybe costing us financially, but I don’t subscribe to the view that more people necessarily equals better atmosphere, particularly if the extras are casual supporters. 8,000 can create an amazing atmosphere at the Amex and 800 away from home.

 

[warsaw]

Surely the club needs to be proactive about this or risk losing season ticket holders. There will be a range of reasons for absence. Covid wariness, on holiday, inability to pass on ticket easily, parking restrictions. The club needs to engage with those who failed to show to find out the reasons and address it where they can.. And some sort of personal contact from the club would surely be good PR too.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

[BN41Albion]

Looking around (and I did, a lot, wondering) I was at about 22,000 to 23,000 as well. I'm West Lower though so I couldn't see how full it was above me.

Kudos to the North Stand who made it sound like a full house when they piped up!

What did the atmosphere sound like overall? I was in the North so hard to tell. Just caught the last 10 mins or so of a re-run of the game on sky and it sounded terrible atmosphere wise until the last few mins. I guess as we wound down the clock though the game became pretty mundane.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

On telly the North and West still looked really full AFTER THE FINAL WHISTLE when clapping off their heroes...

 

[nwgull]

Certainly case with my neighbour who told me today he didnt go. He has a card , Doesnt miss many games and said shame couldnt give his ticket to someone

Your neighbour can just give his ST card to anyone to use when he can’t go. There’s no more stopping him doing that this season than there was last season.

 

[portslade seagull]

Was so obvious - you’d think the club would rather have actual people there spending money eh! Time for the club to hold their hands up and scrap that silly scheme - make it free to pass ticket on with a name.

Could've passed my sons ticket on yesterday and the club would have benefited from extra drink and food sales. It will be empty again this week as well.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

That’s about right, I think.

We’re both wrong apparently though. It was announced as 29.8k. We must have a capacity of nearing 36k then. Where did they find the space to put all those extra seats?

You should know now how the pretendance works. Tickets sold not bottoms on seats.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

What did the atmosphere sound like overall? I was in the North so hard to tell. Just caught the last 10 mins or so of a re-run of the game on sky and it sounded terrible atmosphere wise until the last few mins. I guess as we wound down the clock though the game became pretty mundane.

It was excellent (I'm in west upper).

Not sure what all the bedwetting is about on this thread regarding attendance. Decent crowd and noise, official atendance is people buying tickets.

It's as if some people have never been to the football

 

[Wozza]

The announcement says "today's OFFICIAL attendance is, not ACTUAL attendance. I think they take the number of season tickets sold, and add that to other tickets sold, to come up with their official figure. As far as the Albion are concerned, a season ticket holder's seat has been sold, whether they attend or not. It's misleading. Far better if they were honest and and broadcast the number of bums on seats.

This is the norm in the Premier League. Have seen some say it's a PL rule, but I can't find evidence of that.

Some folk seem to think that the discrepancy is bigger at The Amex than other grounds, but the BBC found large differences at West Ham (22%!), Watford (15%), Man City (14%) etc.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Imo, it's weird that some Albion fans want the club to announce a lower figure.

 

[Weststander]

This is the norm in the Premier League. Have seen some say it's a PL rule, but I can't find evidence of that.

Some folk seem to think that the discrepancy is bigger at The Amex than other grounds, but the BBC found large differences at West Ham (22%!), Watford (15%), Man City (14%) etc.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Imo, it's weird that some Albion fans want the club to announce a lower figure.

To prove that Tony Bloom was wrong in trying to implement some Covid protocols, deterring attendees. It would make them feel justified and big in the mirror.

Meanwhile in the real world, for a summer school holidays game, the Amex was nearly full and a cauldron of singing.

 

[Invicta]

No way Jose.

North stand looked very full.....West Stand....pretty much like a sell out game
East Stand looked thinner than usual, yes a lot of empty seats.
Away end looked 95% full

So a quick *Gullsworth* calculus gives you


24,391 exactly.

There were loads of empty seats throughout the West stand. A whole empty block at the South end of the West.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

What did the atmosphere sound like overall? I was in the North so hard to tell. Just caught the last 10 mins or so of a re-run of the game on sky and it sounded terrible atmosphere wise until the last few mins.

It was a bit flat, to be honest. I was expecting everyone to absolutely bonkers up-for-it, but I think people were just a bit shell-shocked to be back at the Amex perhaps?

The North was nice and noisy, as ever - especially towards the West corner. The rest of the ground was as vocal as Marcel Marceau for most of the game, but the East Lower piped up a few loud 'Aaaaa-lbiooo-ns'

I'm sure once we're all back into the swing of it all things will liven up.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

There were loads of empty seats throughout the West stand. A whole empty block at the South end of the West.

How does that work?
Individuals or couples not turning up leading to scattered empty seats is understandable but a whole block?

 

[Weststander]

The last time I tried, a few years back, it was rejected as the club don't want the details shared for reasons of commercial confidentiality.

Someone did manage to get an FOI on this answered once many years ago (it would take a lot of searching on here to find it now), but all recent requests have been declined as far as I'm aware.

Took a minute’s googling. For obvious reasons, in the nadir of Hyppia’s football, someone took a keen interest in the real attendance of a midweek game at that time.

Tues 4th Nov 2014, Brighton v Wigan (Bolton in this webpage is a red herring)
Seats sold: 23,044
Real attendance: 16,133

 

[Weststander]

How does that work?
Individuals or couples not turning up leading to scattered empty seats is understandable but a whole block?

It’s a tiny block set aside for example for school groups.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

A lot more empty seats because of the inability to just pass a ticket on to a friend and you know it!

Return to normal passing tickets around for Everton though. There isn’t anyone checking