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Where are the empty seats at Pride Park?


ram59

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Much discussion occurs regarding the attendance figures at Pride Park, with yesterday's virtual sell out being 1,731 below the record set against Rangers for Ted McMinn's testimonial. There were a few seats in the lower Gordon Guthrie corner, but were the really 1 in 20 seats free for yesterday's game or were the original capacity and record attendance figures incorrect?

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1 minute ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Segregation between home and away fans

Without segregation the official capacity is 33,597. Never going to happen in a competitive match.

Its only happened once and that was the England v Mexico international in 2001.

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13 minutes ago, Sufferingfool said:

Three in the row in front of me in the NotthStand have never been occupied. Can only assume ST’s never used!

 I imagine there are such examples scattered about which all add up!

Or perhaps they might clows old seats

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2 minutes ago, Boycie said:

To be honest my seats have been empty for most of the season too, but I’ve been back recently.  They count all ST seats sold and tickets sold no matter if they don’t enter the turnstiles.

Offical attendance figures are exactly that. Bums on seats (or standing in front of them)

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1 minute ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Offical attendance figures are exactly that. Bums on seats (or standing in front of them)

They count Season Tickets wether they’re there or not. I doubt they leave out paid for match tickets either.  Don’t forget it’s for tax reasons too,

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Quite a few in the front two rows across West Stand Upper were empty. These count as restricted view, and only went on sale at the very last minute. 

There were families in some of them, presumably because it was one of the few areas of the ground were you could still buy seats together.

It's a pretty good view for "restricted". I've had far worse at away grounds not even classified as such.

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9 hours ago, Boycie said:

They count Season Tickets wether they’re there or not. I doubt they leave out paid for match tickets either.  Don’t forget it’s for tax reasons too,

HMRC aren’t interested in whether clubs include people that have bought a ticket but don’t attend the game are included in the announced attendance or not.

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The two seats next door but one to me in the North stand are always empty.  Two senior fella’s used to sit there.  One died just pre covid bless him, and the other (his brother in law I believe) came to one match after covid, but never again.  One or the other seat is never up for sale, and the rest being season tickets along our row always leaves the other as a single.  I wonder if one of the families keep their seat in memory?  There must be more like that…

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19 hours ago, Boycie said:

They count Season Tickets wether they’re there or not. I doubt they leave out paid for match tickets either.  Don’t forget it’s for tax reasons too,

I thought Sam Rush took a finger wagging for that, and the club then changed the attendance figures to match the turnstile clicks?  🤷‍♂️

Obviously, you'd expect financial paperwork to count tickets sold.

Two different figures.

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11 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

I thought Sam Rush took a finger wagging for that, and the club then changed the attendance figures to match the turnstile clicks?  🤷‍♂️

Obviously, you'd expect financial paperwork to count tickets sold.

Two different figures.

Indeed they did, Derby report bums on seats now....

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14 hours ago, angieram said:

Quite a few in the front two rows across West Stand Upper were empty. These count as restricted view, and only went on sale at the very last minute. 

There were families in some of them, presumably because it was one of the few areas of the ground were you could still buy seats together.

It's a pretty good view for "restricted". I've had far worse at away grounds not even classified as such.

Restricted views in pride park?! Really?! Cant imagine it. Remember my first season as a season ticket holder, last season at the BBG, sat in the popside, had to stand up to see around the pillar to be able to watch play down in the corner of the pitch where Toyota stand met the Ossie end. Definitely wasn’t classed as restricted 🤣

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On 30/04/2023 at 22:46, DerbyRevolution said:

there were about 450 empty seats yesterday, a sell out these days is around 32,200 not 33,475 

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/match/2021-2022/championship/derby-county/birmingham-city/395391

 

If the capacity is now only 32,200, that's approximately 1,400 below the official capacity, which equates to around half of the away allocation. No way does the areas lost to segregation amount to that proportion of the away end. 

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What's the reason for this non use of seats, I've missed it .  Saw some fan footage of the Everton -Newcastle match the other night.  Only thing separating them was a line of police and a cigarette nub. Literally 3 feet. Must cost a fortune in lost revenue.  Could easily have sold more tickets to home fans  for some games and at least a third, probably more, of the away teams would happily have taken more tickets.  Equates to another sold out game over the course of the season.

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A few seasons ago I remember hearing that the directors’ box was expanded so I think seats were removed then.

When the away end was moved to the corner I know some seats in front of the wheelchair platform were removed so that those using the platform can see when fans in front are standing.

Edited by Will the Ram
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14 hours ago, Mihangel said:

Indeed they did, Derby report bums on seats now....

Do you know that for a fact? I think the OP makes a good point and it certainly feels like they have gone back to the attendance = tickets sold rather than attendance = turnstiles clacked

And why wouldn't they - it makes no odds to anyone if the attendance is reported as the number of tickets sold. It's actually a far  more reliable and consistent way of calculating the attendance than wasting time trying to reconcile data from an unreliable turnstile system. Hundreds of people don't even go through the turnstiles for one reason or another

On 01/05/2023 at 08:22, Tamworthram said:

HMRC aren’t interested in whether clubs include people that have bought a ticket but don’t attend the game are included in the announced attendance or not

Hmm - maybe not, in as much as I'm sure they don't check every club, every game, but if they are looking into a club's financial affairs and see that they are consistently reporting ticket sales that don't match the reported attendances then that could be a red flag for money laundering?

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