Prem clubs lying about match attendance figures, City by 10k a match

Jippy

Sleeps with tramps, bangs jacuzzis, dirty shoes
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This is odd- the Sun has gotten the police's figures of crowds at matches and compared them to the official ones. City inflate their official ones by 10,000 a game on average and the police say the Barca match only got 44,757, not 53,340 as club stated.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/5858...m-premier-league-southampton-watford-arsenal/


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But the Metropolitan Police - which polices Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham and Crystal Palace - claimed it does not collect the figures.

When Scotland Yard responded to a similar request in 2014, figures showed Arsenal's actual average attendance was 53,788 compared to an official average of 60,338.

Manchester United, West Brom, Stoke, Bournemouth and Burnley all had broadly similar official and actual attendance figures.

Forces covering Liverpool, Everton, Leicester, Newcastle, Brighton and Huddersfield all claimed not to hold the figures.
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To be fair the traffic was really bad around Manchester in the aforementioned dates.
 
You have only to look at the crowds when watching SKY to see they are clearly not full, despite what the clubs might say.
 
City cook the books on most things. This comes as no surprise.
 
Don't all clubs do this? It's on tickets sold and not bums on seats. United have declared attendances to be above 70,000 despite there being visible patches of empty seats.

How do the Police count every person around a football ground?
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Don't all clubs do this? It's on tickets sold and not bums on seats. United have declared attendances to be above 70,000 despite there being visible patches of empty seats.

How do the Police count every person around a football ground?
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Aren't clubs supposed to actually count the gates in case of incidents and these numbers will be available to the police?
 
This is normal for literally every major professional sports team. Tickets sales are counted and not everyone with a ticket attends the games.

Far from a conspiracy.
 
MackRobinson said:
This is normal for literally every major professional sports team. Tickets sales are counted and not everyone with a ticket attends the games.

Far from a conspiracy.
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Yep. In the NFL teams actually often release attendance. The Packers make a big fuss about setting new record attendances quite regularly. Not every season ticket holder attends every game.
Those City numbers look terrible, though. I highly doubt the discrepancy there is normal.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Don't all clubs do this? It's on tickets sold and not bums on seats. United have declared attendances to be above 70,000 despite there being visible patches of empty seats.

How do the Police count every person around a football ground?
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Yes, that's my impression as well. I reckon clubs publish tickets sold. In Germany (pretty much) all the clubs have electric turnstiles that scan your ticket, so I reckon police uses those numbers.
 
MackRobinson said:
This is normal for literally every major professional sports team. Tickets sales are counted and not everyone with a ticket attends the games.

Far from a conspiracy.
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HTG said:
Yep. In the NFL teams actually often release attendance. The Packers make a big fuss about setting new record attendances quite regularly. Not every season ticket holder attends every game.
Those City numbers look terrible, though. I highly doubt the discrepancy there is normal.
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10k is a hell of a lot of people having a ticket and not going, whichever way you look at it. How many season tickets have City sold?
 
Jippy said:
10k is a hell of a lot of people having a ticket and not going, whichever way you look at it. How many season tickets have City sold?
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I think with City those empty seats might very well be going to sponsors all over the world and to the family and friends of the owners. I'd highly doubt they attend a normal game regularly. At least that would be my guess.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Don't all clubs do this? It's on tickets sold and not bums on seats.
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City are known to inflate their ticket sales as well by offering all sorts of 2-for-1 deals and other things that come to count as a sold ticket without anyone actually paying for one or, often, even going to the game. While all clubs offer promotional tickets and such, there was an article a while back about how City do it specifically to make it seem like more were sold, not because there's a demand for the promotions, and that these tickets aren't expected to be used. Like setting aside a thousand places for all sorts of UAE dignitaries vaguely connected to the owner, on the off-chance that one of them is in the country at the time of a game. These then get to count as sold tickets. While another club might allot a few hundred seats to promotions and guests, City will have thousands that are "sold" to people who never intended to go. All part of their mission to appear a popular and beloved club to match the results they've purchased.
 
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Jippy said:
10k is a hell of a lot of people having a ticket and not going, whichever way you look at it. How many season tickets have City sold?
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Maybe the stadium itself is inflated?
 
The CL numbers must be even more shocking.

The only time they sell out the council house is when they play United. More than likely United fans picking up the tickets and sitting in the home section just to see the game.

They still doing 2 for 1 tickets and free school tickets? Joke of a club. :lol:
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Don't all clubs do this? It's on tickets sold and not bums on seats. United have declared attendances to be above 70,000 despite there being visible patches of empty seats.

How do the Police count every person around a football ground?
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How does that account for the difference being so huge so often for City though?
Are City selling the tickets but 10k aren't turning all the time?

Don't believe that Scouse police don't have the numbers. They'll just not want to release them and show their beloved clubs up.
 
Schmiznurf said:
Of course City lie, they can't admit they're a tinpot club so need to act the big I am.
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City fans often quote the same source to challenge your constant 74k reports when there are patently 1000's of no shows (mostly away from the TV cameras) so as others have said it's the same for all clubs but don't let the truth get in the way of your umpteenth bitter swipe at us.

City may be "tinpot" but they're currently sticking in your craw, aren't they?
 
VeevaVee said:
How does that account for the difference being so huge so often for City though?
Are City selling the tickets but 10k aren't turning all the time?

Don't believe that Scouse police don't have the numbers. They'll just not want to release them and show their beloved clubs up.
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Take it from one who attends every home game. The empty seats vary from 1-5k per home League game.
 
HTG said:
I think with City those empty seats might very well be going to sponsors all over the world and to the family and friends of the owners. I'd highly doubt they attend a normal game regularly. At least that would be my guess.
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Apparently those people couldn't even be bothered to show up for the Barca game either though. Seems like city is just full of shit, as always.
 
Cooking the books! I guess it would be one way to generate 'revenue' if you're pumping in 10k ghost fans and their ticket prices, albeit far-fetched.

In fairness, you'd need to compare this to every other PL club & validate the police figures. Given the source is the Sun it's probably nonsense.
 
Gentleman Jim said:
Take it from one who attends every home game. The empty seats vary from 1-5k per home League game.
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You wouldn't even notice 1-3k empty seats on TV if they were spread out over the stadium.

whatwha said:
How do the police get their figures?
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I would expect that the clubs have to confirm how many go through the turnstyles so the police get a picture of the kind of crowds they have to prepare for throughout the season.

It seems pretty important data from a crowd control point of view.
 
IBleedRed said:
Apparently those people couldn't even be bothered to show up for the Barca game either though. Seems like city is just full of shit, as always.
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Not surprising, though.
 
Gentleman Jim said:
Take it from one who attends every home game. The empty seats vary from 1-5k per home League game.
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You don't have to go to the games to see that there are way more empty seats than that for pretty much every game bar United.
 
Has a City ever admitted that reports like these could be true or is it just a hobby to dig heels in every single time?
 
Is it really outright lying or are they just reporting the sold tickets, while the police numbers are the actual attendance?
 
Dont most teams inflate their attendance? But it's understandable from a lip service point of view if you're Burnley or Stoke or something. The idea that City aren't selling out that stadium with the amount of stars and the football they play is criminal. I guess you cant polish a turd.
 
This is what the Colombian clubs did when they were owned by kingpin drug dealers, to launder money :D
 
Biggest floodlights in the league... :lol:
 
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