The cost of empty seats

I saw this and have to admit it was quite surprising to see SAFC at the top.

http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-art...nt-their-place-at-top-of-empty-seats-league/?

Back in February we brought you the findings of a report by BDRC Continental found that found Sunderland were the league leaders when it comes to empty seats in the Premier League.

The findings showed that Sunderland and Villa were way ahead of the other 18 clubs when it comes to lost revenue from missing fans, in terms of lost ticket revenue and what fans could expect to spend on food, drinks and programmes.

Taking into account average crowd attendances, the figures below showed on average how many empty seats each club had on average and what it is estimated to cost that club over the course of a season.

Sunderland 8,829 (£6,542,289)
Aston Villa 8,467 (£6,965,800)
Wigan 6,479 (£4,197,744)
Everton 3,520 (£3,103,232)
Newcastle 2,730 (£2,282,280)
Southampton 2,193 (£1,987,274)
West Brom 2,923 (£1,838,274)
QPR 1,297 (£1,367,686)
West Ham 1,046 (£1,142,755)
Man. City 1,095 (£1,081,860)

Bizarrely Newcastle’s crowds have inched higher as we’ve sunk lower in the league and with an average now of over fifty thousand the number of empty seats per game over the season will be only around two thousand.

In contrast, I couldn’t believe when I switched on the Mackems v Stoke on Monday night and thought they had closed some parts of the ground! For this vital relegation clash they could only get 38,130 along to the game, well over ten thousand empty seats, more than the average empty seats back in February.

 

It was live on sky though on a Monday night, minus Fletcher, Sess etc and we had just lost 6-1. QPR !.They only hold 18,000 how can they have empty seats. And we will still average about 39,000. I bet we get 47,000 when we play Soton.

 

They have the most PINK seats.

 

Must say those tables always make me smile.

Newcastle average twice as many empty seats as QPR. Conclusion: QPR are the better supported club.

 

A much better way to look at this is to look at the percentage of each ground which is empty on average.
Newcastle (2730 seats, capacity= 52387) 5.2%
Sunderland (8829 seats, capacity= 49000) 18.02%
QPR (1297 seats, capacity= 20000) 6.49%
Wigan (6479 seats, capacity= 25138) 25.77%

Conclusion: Wigan have piss poor support and hopefully are on the way out of the league and newcastle are clearly better supported than all 3 clubs above.

 

Umhmm

 

It's amazing what one can do with statistics. Let's say Ashley bought a load of land and managed to put an extension of 100,000 extra seats.

If 20,000 of those 100,000 were filled with more Newcastle fans; would this make Newcastle a poorer supported team or not?

 

You can't have a go at the masses of fans both our teams attract. Especially considering collective crap we've both been fed. Even more so when you take into account the levels of deprivation in the North East compared to the rest of the country. Linked in with this is that yes you do get the odd scumbag who takes things too far, but that says more about the level of affluence within the region as opposed to the nature of the two respective sets of fans. How a shower of ****e that is the club of Wigan, Dave Whelan et al, its enough to make you believe that someone has placed a hex upon our two great clubs.


Agent to another foreign important- 'I've lined you up for a move to an English club challenging for European honours.'
Player- 'Cool. Where abouts in England? London? The North West?'
Agent- 'Well.... It's not quite Manchester, and it's not quite Liverpool...'
Player- 'I thought St Helens was Rugby League?!?!'

 

It might just be the pedant in me or am I the only one who thinks empty seats costs nothing. They are simply empty seats.

It's an accountants argument. The seats are there already and if no-one is sitting there, it's not costing anyone anything for them to stay there. Also there is no lost revenue as there is no-one there not spending.

It's the same argument that gets spouted out about the cost to the NHS of missed appointments or the cost to the Fire Service of false call outs. The figures are usually wrong and inflated. If you miss an NHS appointment does the doctor or nurse sit around doing nothing? of course not.

Therefore there is no "cost" of empty seats they are plain and simple just empty seats.

 

Statistics can say anything you want if you present them right.

Bums on seats depends on economic climate and fan inspiration. with Sunderland lacking both I'm proud of the following as should you guys.

Team Total Average
1 Manchester United 1,359,491 75,527
2 Arsenal 1,081,439 60,079
3 Newcastle United 907,472 50,415
4 Manchester City 845,452 46,969
5 Liverpool 805,432 44,746
6 Chelsea 745,992 41,444
7 Sunderland 728,356 40,464
8 Everton 651,288 36,182
9 Tottenham Hotspur 648,503 36,027
10 Aston Villa 666,135 35,059
11 West Ham United 624,704 34,705
12 Southampton 555,063 30,836
13 Stoke City 483,936 26,885
14 Norwich City 479,925 26,662
15 Fulham 456,852 25,380
16 West Bromwich Albion 455,400 25,300
17 Reading 430,519 23,917
18 Swansea City 366,672 20,370
19 Wigan Athletic 345,126 19,173
20 Queens Park Rangers 320,530 17,807

 

Whats the Boro's ratio !.

 

Also SAFC have since Aug 2000 since the extention, have had 50 gates of over 45,000, including 11 of 48,000+, 21 of 47,000+, 10 of 46,000+ and 8 of voer 45,000 !.