Valley Home Attendance

[tornado]

I really dispute this, and I am certain you are going to have a hard time convincing me otherwise...
...based only on the totals that I have seen reported at games where there was NOBODY there!!

When ISU routed UIS last season they reported well over 4000 in attendance...just go look at their photo galley!

[SaintLouBrave22]

Yeah, where are you getting this information? I would be very surprised if they reported this way... Nor do I understand how it could be actually accurate, electronic readers have come a long way, but the error is still large.

Actually you should be able to count based on tickets scanned...


If your ticket wasn't scanned then what were you doing and how did you get in the arena in the first place?

[amckillip]

Actually you should be able to count based on tickets scanned...


If your ticket wasn't scanned then what were you doing and how did you get in the arena in the first place?

Schools WOULD NEVER do that, scanned tickets are ALWAYS lower than actual attendance. People slide by without having there tickets scanned all the time. Not because they're trying to cheat the system, either because they don't want to wait in line, or honestly forget. The margin is often as much as 15-20% lower... I know it seems crazy that 1 in 5 could get by, but its not that uncommon actually.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Schools WOULD NEVER do that, scanned tickets are ALWAYS lower than actual attendance. People slide by without having there tickets scanned all the time. Not because they're trying to cheat the system, either because they don't want to wait in line, or honestly forget. The margin is often as much as 15-20% lower... I know it seems crazy that 1 in 5 could get by, but its not that uncommon actually.

Um...this confuses me because I thought they went to the electronic scanners because they were more accurate than the turnstiles.

[Da Coach]

ISU reports attendance based on actual butts in the seats, unless it is a sell out, since it doesn't make any sense to say its a sell out, but there were less then 10,200 people there...

I do not believe this is true. I have been told it is the official policy of the MVC to report attendance on ticket sales.
I have been to ISU games where the actual number of fans at the game was thousands less than the reported attendance.

Now that tickets can be scanned electronically (not all stadiums have this technology) it is possible to report actual tickets scanned. But few, if any, teams do this. This is a technology that has only been around a few years, and many smaller, on-campus arenas don't have this capability. Many of the road games I have attended, including several other MVC schools like SIU, just view the ticket, or tear off a stub upon entry (I don't think many places use turnstiles any more). Maybe eventually the scanning technology will be used everywhere, but I doubt you will see many schools use those numbers as the official attendance.

As I said above, what is more relevant to the school is the number of tickets sold and the revenue generated. That is the only important number.

[Nacho]

Based on the number of season ticket holders and size of the announced attendance, I know that ISU does not count tickets sold- but actual tickets taken. This one reason why students now have to have a hard copy ticket to get into all games- no more flashing a RedAlert pass and student ID like it was 4 years ago...

[cpacmel]

Based on the number of season ticket holders and size of the announced attendance, I know that ISU does not count tickets sold- but actual tickets taken. This one reason why students now have to have a hard copy ticket to get into all games- no more flashing a RedAlert pass and student ID like it was 4 years ago...

Nacho is right. Red Alert had over 5000 members in last year. If they counted them for tickets purchased (which each and everyone has purchased a ticket) how does one explain games where we have had less than 5K as our listed attendance? Butts in seats.

[amckillip]

I do not believe this is true. I have been told it is the official policy of the MVC to report attendance on ticket sales.
I have been to ISU games where the actual number of fans at the game was thousands less than the reported attendance.

Agreed, a quick eye-test can bust this myth. The may do something like is being said for students at such. But I still maintain there is now way they count butts in seats.

[BuAlum03]

If it's true about ISU, then I would be shocked.

I spent several years in the major event promotion business, and promoters everywhere, from major league teams down to low-level act concerts always inflate their numbers to the public for non-sellouts. Always. i've never met a promoter who doesn't.

There's no shame in it. I don't see why it's a big deal. Getting "offended" because you believe that a crowd estimate is off seems a bit silly and over sensitive to me.

Frankly, comparing our attendance to other teams seems futile, but that's just my opinion. I want our program to sell out every game. It's not realistic until we improve the quality of the product. I firmly believe that if we consistently finished in the top-3 of the Valley and found ourselves in the big Dance or at least on the bubble every year, we would "legitimately" average near-sellout crowds.

[FanOfTheGame]

Nacho is right. Red Alert had over 5000 members in last year. If they counted them for tickets purchased (which each and everyone has purchased a ticket) how does one explain games where we have had less than 5K as our listed attendance? Butts in seats.

I am pretty positive it is at SIU too. The numbers were always much higher when they used the old fashioned, serrated edged tickets. Now that they switched to the barcodes I am 90% sure it is butts in seats. But that could be because of our 2 off years also- although the eye test would suggest it has made an impact. Who knows?

[Chico]

Does it matter whether there are 5 or 7 or 9 anyways?


The majority fall asleep in their seats during games and leave before the games are over...


Sadly, I jumped up when Sammy hit the 3 with a minute left and there was a couple in front of me that I believe were BOTH basically asleep and that pretty much woke them up and proceeded to give them heart attacks (theoretically speaking).


I'm almost starting to believe that pumping in fake crowd noise might be better sometimes...

If they pipe in crowd noise make it loud enough to wake the band up also. Kind of hard for anyone to stay awake while all the PA announcements are going on during the timeouts. Turn the band and cheerleaders loose like most other arenas.

[shaunguth]

ISU reports attendance based on actual butts in the seats, unless it is a sell out, since it doesn't make any sense to say its a sell out, but there were less then 10,200 people there...

If this is the case, then why does it make sense in all instances other than sellouts? THAT doesn't make sense to me.

[Nacho]

If this is the case, then why does it make sense in all instances other than sellouts? THAT doesn't make sense to me.

Because if you turn people away who are trying to get tickets (because they are sold out) but only report a crowd of 10,000 (200 less than capacity), there will be people upset that it wasn't a "sellout" and should have been allowed in. There will NEVER be a game where every sold ticket will be in attendance... Make better sense for ya now???

[shaunguth]

Because if you turn people away who are trying to get tickets (because they are sold out) but only report a crowd of 10,000 (200 less than capacity), there will be people upset that it wasn't a "sellout" and should have been allowed in. There will NEVER be a game where every sold ticket will be in attendance... Make better sense for ya now???

Yes, but there's still a difference between "sold out" and "full capacity".

The official attendance at last Sunday's Bradley game was 9,000. That means there were approx. only 2,000 tickets available, and not the 6,000+ that some are claiming.

[MacabreMob]

Wow.

That's all I can say for how this discussion over attendance has so many people worked up.... basically from "Tornado-Hate".