[Albion] What was Attendance

[Weststander]

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

View attachment 139681

The “someone” is Paul Curtis.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/actual_attendances_for_brighton?unfold=1

 

[BN41Albion]

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

Great!

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.

Oh

 

[Weststander]

Great!



Oh

WSU is noisy.
WSL is sedate.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Maybe it was just the WL which was quiet! I have to admit I can't hear the WU as there's a sodding great metal roof below them!

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

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.

It is often the case.
I think that a lot of Brighton fans go to the stadium nervous.
Nervous that something is going to go wrong, that we will lose, that when we do go ahead we are going to let 1 in within 5 minutes, that we are going to lose or draw by letting in a last minute goal.
Sometimes you can smell the anxiety.
All understandable given our history, it's like it's in our DNA that it's all going to go tits up.
But over the past 2 seasons we have a very good manager, some great players and we are playing the best football in my 40 years plus of support.
I still can't believe sometimes that the same club that was at the bottom of division 4 and playing so poorly is now knocking out Premier League quality football.
Maybe our support should relax, not worry quite so much, get pissed, bring back the disco under the stand and just enjoy themselves, sometimes it's all a bit stiff.
We have proved from time to time that we can take the roof off and it definitely helps the players to up their game.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Maybe it was just the WL which was quiet! I have to admit I can't hear the WU as there's a sodding great metal roof below them!

The crowd seemed noisy on the TV and the song 'we're the west stand' came through nice and clear.

 

[Wozza]

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.

It was much, MUCH louder at the capacity-restricted Man City match. Then again, if some on here are too be believed, the attendances weren't that different...

 

[peterward]

Announcement said 29kish.

8k more than the paltry 21k at Selhurst.

Then again…….. who wants to watch anything in a such a rancid shithole..

 

[AZ Gull]

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.

Historically, the "attendance" figure announced was exactly that - the actual attendance (ie the number of bodies through the turnstiles, not the number of tickets sold). That was the case for many, many years, and as such it meant you could do things like compare (actual) attendances from one season to the next, work out (meaningful) averge attendance figures, track the record attendance for a ground and so on.

As soon as clubs start reporting the number of tickets sold (the pre-tendance, as some have dubbed it), you obviously lose any ability to compare the new measure (confusingly, also called the "attendance") with these historical numbers. I'm not sure any club ever actually said "From today, we will report the number of tickets sold rather than the actual number of bodies through the gates", which means we probably don't actually know which numbers are which.

For those of us (well, just me and Tim Carder, I suppose) who actually like to record such things, the change IS problematic. I, for one, would like to know what the actual, true attendance figure is from the game so I can meaningfully compare it with attendance figures from yesteryear (without having to add an annoying asterisk to my records).

 

[Eeyore]

Historically, the "attendance" figure announced was exactly that - the actual attendance (ie the number of bodies through the turnstiles, not the number of tickets sold). That was the case for many, many years, and as such it meant you could do things like compare (actual) attendances from one season to the next, work out (meaningful) averge attendance figures, track the record attendance for a ground and so on.

As soon as clubs start reporting the number of tickets sold (the pre-tendance, as some have dubbed it), you obviously lose any ability to compare the new measure (confusingly, also called the "attendance") with these historical numbers. I'm not sure any club ever actually said "From today, we will report the number of tickets sold rather than the actual number of bodies through the gates", which means we probably don't actually know which numbers are which.

For those of us (well, just me and Tim Carder, I suppose) who actually like to record such things, the change IS problematic. I, for one, would like to know what the actual, true attendance figure is from the game so I can meaningfully compare it with attendance figures from yesteryear (without having to add an annoying asterisk to my records).

Add another one to that. Attendance figures are an important part of our history.

The club publishing that there are more in the ground that actually is ? Why do they do that ?

I still wonder if the actual highest attendance was in the Championship. The Crystal Palace play off match. 29,700 (I think) and everyone had to buy tickets so almost all would have turned up.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Not sure what all the bedwetting is about on this thread regarding attendance.

Bed wetting
Not you H, please no.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Historically, the "attendance" figure announced was exactly that - the actual attendance (ie the number of bodies through the turnstiles, not the number of tickets sold). That was the case for many, many years, and as such it meant you could do things like compare (actual) attendances from one season to the next, work out (meaningful) averge attendance figures, track the record attendance for a ground and so on.

As soon as clubs start reporting the number of tickets sold (the pre-tendance, as some have dubbed it), you obviously lose any ability to compare the new measure (confusingly, also called the "attendance") with these historical numbers. I'm not sure any club ever actually said "From today, we will report the number of tickets sold rather than the actual number of bodies through the gates", which means we probably don't actually know which numbers are which.

For those of us (well, just me and Tim Carder, I suppose) who actually like to record such things, the change IS problematic. I, for one, would like to know what the actual, true attendance figure is from the game so I can meaningfully compare it with attendance figures from yesteryear (without having to add an annoying asterisk to my records).

Explained perfectly for those that don’t get it.

 

[Nitram]

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 :shrug:

A ghost attendance figure certainly leans that way as long as they are there in spirit it counts!

 

[Dick Swiveller]

If you said just over 22000, you were correct.

 

[loz]

Historically, the "attendance" figure announced was exactly that - the actual attendance (ie the number of bodies through the turnstiles, not the number of tickets sold). That was the case for many, many years, and as such it meant you could do things like compare (actual) attendances from one season to the next, work out (meaningful) averge attendance figures, track the record attendance for a ground and so on.

As soon as clubs start reporting the number of tickets sold (the pre-tendance, as some have dubbed it), you obviously lose any ability to compare the new measure (confusingly, also called the "attendance") with these historical numbers. I'm not sure any club ever actually said "From today, we will report the number of tickets sold rather than the actual number of bodies through the gates", which means we probably don't actually know which numbers are which.

For those of us (well, just me and Tim Carder, I suppose) who actually like to record such things, the change IS problematic. I, for one, would like to know what the actual, true attendance figure is from the game so I can meaningfully compare it with attendance figures from yesteryear (without having to add an annoying asterisk to my records).

When I go down all the leagues looking at scores I then check the attendance then goal scorer ….back in the 70s it’s all there was to do on a Sunday morning!

So for me it’s a stat that for some reason I find interesting?

 

[Brovion]

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.

When our debt is millions the additional income to the club from one or two more pies sold is below negligible. The real value in not having empty seats is to enhance the 'Matchday Experience'. Empty seats just look poor on TV; at the Oscars apparently they employ people to sit in the seats if people vacate them for any reason so that when the TV cameras pan over the crowd it's always full. A full Amex gives the impression that, wow, watching the Albion is THE thing to do. Everybody else does it, I don't want to miss out, so I must go there / come back here. It's one of the reasons why they announce the 'attendance' as tickets sold, to big themselves up. Empty seats and low 'attendance' give the impression that it's not that fashionable and you start to wonder why. Perhaps the tickets are over-priced?

That's why ...

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

... is a good point.

 

[rippleman]

All this speculation would be unnecessary if the club just posted the number of fans who pass through the turnstile.

I can see no point or reason for exaggerating the attendance unless it is to satisy the sponsors - but surely they aint that daft.

attendance

the number of people present at a particular place or event.

It isn't difficult. It really isn't..

 

[Hotchilidog]

For me the August start to the season is tricky. First day always coincides with Bloodstock, second week my birthday and Beautiful Days festival. Sadly this Saturday I had to take a PCR test and isolated whilst waiting for the rest `(thankfully negative). I think Covid and holidays played a part in the empty seats Saturday. Looking forward to taking my seat next weekend though!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

All this speculation would be unnecessary if the club just posted the number of fans who pass through the turnstile.

I can see no point or reason for exaggerating the attendance unless it is to satisy the sponsors - but surely they aint that daft.

attendance

the number of people present at a particular place or event.

It isn't difficult. It really isn't..

Tickets sold, so they have to declare the income. There were only 1000 home tickets left for sale.
There was a full block and a half for Watford not filled, but still used as a divider.

In the end, does it really matter? People are free to go or not go.
Who cares what television viewers think? It's up there, with what will the neighbours think.

 

[nwgull]

I’m another that is perplexed by the issue that people have with the club announcing attendance using the same method as every other club - ie tickets sold. We can all have a good guess at what the actual attendance is, but it doesn’t matter in terms of points or anything, so why the need to know?

Number of factors at play for Saturday’s empty seats. One will be electronic tickets on phones and also misconception of ID being cross checked against ticket name will have deterred unofficial sharing of tickets. Once people get the hang of it though, they’ll realise you only need to have one Albion+ friend and family. This is because the club email you (the original ticket holder) the amended e-ticket for download, so you can actually distribute it to whomever you want. As for those who’ve retained ST cards, these can still be unofficially shared as previously.

I can also see quite a few STs being transferred using the official method by fans contacting each other on social media.