Carrying on from previous discussions about season ticket sales and ground capacity ...
Yesterdays attendance was quoted as 7221. But I'm sure this equated to tickets sold, rather than the actual number of people there. (nothing wrong with that per se; most other clubs do it.)
I reckon there were about 500 empty seats in the East Stand. This goes along with what some people were concerned about earlier. In that we've sold so many season tickets at really low prices, that many of those might not be bothered to turn up.
It's one thing "giving away" season tickets when you have a massive ground with no chance of filling it. But it's a different matter when you have limited capacity, and demand exceeding what's available. There's obviously a fine line to be drawn, but I'm just wondering if we've got it slightly wrong and sold too many season tickets at really knock-down prices.
(btw, I would also have capped ST sales at 95%, say, in each area. Just to give match going fans a chance to buy tickets in the North Terrace for example. Even if you held back 100 tickets for each league match, it just gives you the chance to stand there rather than down the side.)
Now in fairness, it might be that many of those who didn't attend last night's 8pm were youngsters and it was past their bed time. And there may have been a few others who can attend Saturday/Sunday games but not Friday night ones. But it's still a bit concerning there were so many spare seats.
You might also have to add some ST holders from the North and West terraces who didn't attend. Obviously, hard to tell with standing, but there might've been a couple of hundred.
So I'd guess the actual attendance was probably nearer 6500 than 7221. That's still an excellent crowd whatever it was. I'm just concerned we're going to be turning away potential paying customers, whilst ST holders just don't bother attending.
But not wishing to sound grumpy. It was a great crowd, and a great night, Although I got wet and cold!
