Quote ="Dantes Inferno"We all know it's around the 3k mark, the only reason it seems they're falsifying these attendances is because it's very concerning when your first year in a new stadium and your crowd levels are lower than the willows. So the management add these attendances on vastly to save face
'"
Plagiarized this from the other forum.It relates to a Salford game and is from Ian Lenaghan in 2007
[iAn information note from the Chairman of Harlequins, Ian Lenagan, to Harlequins fans on the subject of crowd numbers at the first two home games ' Salford and Warrington.
This note was to appear last week but for some problems with the Message Board on this web site.
A number of fans have queried the home attendance figures for the Salford and Warrington games. Since I am responsible personally for the reporting of these statistics, this note is in response to those queries.
There is no standard approved method for the reporting of crowd figures in Rugby League. Different clubs report different ways ' some reporting people actually in the stadium via the turnstiles, some reporting total tickets 'sold' as opposed to 'used', some reporting total tickets issued including complimentary tickets and possibly, in years past, some reporting 'upwardly massaged' crowd figures. I have been determined from the start that Harlequins RL would not massage their figures.
However, considerable estimation and approximation is necessary because the attendance figures are announced near the end of the game when only the actual turnstile number in the stadium is available but not a ticket stub count or an analysis of which issued tickets have not been used. This detailed data is only available during the following week.
Our Club's principle of reporting attendance is to report actual attendance on the day plus other tickets sold but not used such as Season Tickets. This is the method used by the majority of Super League clubs, many football clubs and, incidentally, by our Rugby Union partners, NEC Harlequins.
Just before the end of a game, I am handed the actual number of spectators attending on the day as recorded within our turnstile system. This figure is not accurate since quite a lot of spectators do not go through the turnstiles including many box-holders, guests and Directors plus the fact that when, subsequently, collected ticket stubs are counted, there is often a surplus of 200-300 over the turnstiles figure. Also, this turnstile figure clearly does not include the number of paid Season Tickets or advance ticket sales where the purchasers do not attend on the day. Based upon last season's experience of attendance, we normally add on 300 ' 600 (dependent on the visiting team) to allow for the number of non-attending Season Ticket Holders plus non-turnstile attendees.
For the Salford game, the number of people in the stadium was 2505 which, together with an approximate 500 non-attendees and non-turnstile attendees, 'should' have resulted in a reported total ticket sales of 3005. On the night of the Salford game amidst the frenzy of the last five minutes, the reported figure was 'confused' in radio electronic communication from myself through to our media manager, and my 'three-oh-five' was misheard as 3505.
Future crowd figure reporting on match day will rely on 'written' advice rather than using mobile communications technology from the back rows of a very noisy grandstand!
This confusion about what I had said and what was officially reported came to light this week, well after our Warrington game, as we investigated the apparent inconsistency between the Salford and Warrington attendances.
For the Warrington game, when I was given the 'turnstile figure' of only 3132 people in the stadium, I was so annoyed at what I thought was a poor level of support, that I instructed the actual 'turnstile figure' of 3132 to be reported as the official attendance, rather than adding on 500 as would have been consistent.
I certainly succeeded in drawing attention to it!
To further illustrate the sometimes inaccurate nature of 'turnstile' reporting, the Warrington figure of 3132 actually increased to 3378 when all ticket stubs had been accounted for the following week. A further 390 for sold Season Ticket Holders not attending plus approximately 100 for non-turnstile attendees gives a revised official crowd figure of 3868.
Our official records will be adjusted to reflect the following crowds: Salford 3005 and Warrington 3868.
Having last week at the Super League Chairmen's Meeting discussed the methods of reporting attendances at length with the RFL Chief Operating Officer, Nigel Wood, we will continue to report our attendance figure using the principle outlined above
[/i
Will you be volunteering for the role of reporting attendances or taking up your complaint with the RFL ?
I take it you weren't there,yourself.
I believe some people stay away from sports events when some of the 'stars' aren't available through injury.
Can anyone explain to me why Thaler allowed play to continue while Ashley Gibson was writhing on the ground in agony leading to their first try yet later in the half just as SCR were in the ascendancy and had some momentum he stopped play when one of their players went down,but wasn't seriously injured ?
( It confused me )
