I can understand counting Season Ticket holders in the attendance numbers, even if they aren't at the match, as at least the seat has been sold. Most clubs count attendances this way.
With comps, there's no income, so it cannot make sense to to include them in attendance numbers unless the ticket is actually used. Otherwise you are effectively just making up the attendance numbers.
Are there FA/Football League rules on this, as the published attendance figure are used, and could sway a sponsor (or even a player) to one club rather than another?
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Obviously that's unlikely as most of the freebies were probably in the bin come kick off, but they can't sell the ticket again.
Just go out on the street hand out 5000 tickets, tell them they don't need to actually come to the match, and stick 5000 on the attendance.
Hand out 1000 tickets to schools and voila, there's a grand on the attendance. Doesn't matter that the schools are still shut!
Don't kid yourself like they are
As surely come the FA Cup we dont want to say we've got 20,000 fans there and for there only to be half as it would mean we've got to give the visiting side more in terms of gate receipts?
A good rule is to simply ignore any figures reported in a newspaper or on TV!
There are few comps issued for FA Cup matches because the rules make the cost prohibitive and there are no season tickets, so those gates tend to be accurate. The vast majority of people who buy a match ticket turn up, although Football for a Fiver always has a large discrepancy because of the low cash value of the tickets, i.e. people buy too many or change their minds because the cost is so low.
For similar reasons, the shortfall in season tickets used is larger than average at The Valley. That is not (just) about disaffection and it is very likely 20 per cent or more of season tickets were not used last night, probably more.
Of course you would expect higher gate receipts the higher the crowd, but you can only divide up the cash that has come in.
Last night it was £155.
Say 1500 to 2000 for upper and lower west. Jimmy Seed stand was around 2 coach loads, say 200.
That totals between 4700 & 5700 plus the north corners (nearly forgot). Say another 600.
Makes a grand total of 5300 to 6300. Say around 6000 !! Bet you dont tell your boss that eh Katrien. Just my estimates though.
Obviously you'd get a 95-98% turnout for Saturday fixtures against bigger teams especially, but down to 84% for Rotherham at home on a Tuesday, showing that 16% of people who bought a season ticket or match ticket, or were issued a ticket, didn't show up.