Do recorded attendances matter?

It is no great surprise to learn that published attendances do not reflect those in the ground. Many clubs report attendances on a 'tickets sold' basis which includes season ticket holders which is perfectly legitimate. However, the figures for different clubs are certainly interesting Attendances

Football finance expert Rob Wilson believes publicising 'tickets sold' attendance figures is done for commercial reasons. He says publishing higher attendance figures could 'potentially bring in better sponsors' and generate more interest in season ticket sales by making them appear a 'scarce resource'.

Historic attendance figures are rarely reliable. There were ways of sneaking into grounds that were far less secure than today. It was alleged that some gatemen were involved in fiddles to benefit themselves or friends. Clubs often depressed attendances to reduce their 'entertainment tax' liability which was easy enough to do when almost all transactions were in cash.

Even today there are a lot of uncertainties relating to attendances, for example how does one treat complimentary tickets? Some people are entitled to them, e.g., match sponsors or the referee who gets them for his mum. Indeed, I once saw someone I know at a non-league match whom I would not have expected to see at any football match. It turned out that the lino was her boy friend and she was admiring his action with the flag.

The interesting question for me is why are fans so interested in attendances? In part it is because claims to be a 'big' club are based on attendances. Falling attendances may be seen as a vote of no confidence in the owners.

At Charlton it has been claimed by fans with some justification that reported attendances have been inflated, possibly to help facilitate the sale of the club. However, given that owner Roland Duchatelet is bent on austerity measures it could be counter productive as my recollection is that the Football League claims an attendance based levy on clubs.

I should now point that a Ramsgate fan has contacted me to point out that the levy is actually based on receipts rather than attendance. In days gone by the press used to publish receipts as well as attendances. Of course, in those days the away club got a share of them. Thus there is no penalty in inflating the attendance through comps which may not even be used in order to give the impression that things are going better than they actually are.