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Why run attendance?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by trifectarich, Sep 4, 2008.

  1. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    The National League used to report the turnstile count and the American League figures were tickets sold. The NL was told to use tickets sold because MLB likes to brag about attendance and the tickets sold figure serves that goal better.

    The last year the NL had actual turnstile attendance figures was 1992. This makes a lot of team attendance records inaccurate, too.

    I agree that the attendance figure is clutter in most game stories unless there's something noteworthy about it.
     
  2. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    No question those figures were made up.
     
  3. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    I agree. Most of the time, it's just a number, without much import.
     
  4. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Call me a geek but I like seeing attendance figures, especially those at the end of the season with teams that aren't in contention.
     
  5. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    That's always been my rule, too.
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

  7. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I know am I am but what are you? ;)
     
  8. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    My thoughts are 100 percent like yours, and you save me the typing.

    I know guys who put the attendance in game stories before the friggin score.
     
  9. ServeItUp

    ServeItUp Active Member

    I go through and delete it from boxes to make the boxes fit, along with umpires and time. Doesn't take that much time.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I worked at a place where the attendance had to be in the first three graphs of every gamer, with the only exception being prep games.

    We used to joke:

    The Eastside girls' soccer team beat the Westside girls' soccer team 2-1 in front of a crowd of 10 at County Stadium on Friday.
     
  11. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    There are some papers that simply changed "A-" in a box score to "Tickets sold-" which makes it accurate. That's really what the figure represents, not the number of fans in the stands who paid for tickets.

    I know one writer who feels compelled not only to put the attendance in the end-of-story notes IN EVERY GAMER, but he also gives the total attendance for the season and the number of home dates. It doesn't always make print, but it gets submitted. This same writer does this despite being skeptical enough about the figure to always write "the attendance was announced as ..."
     
  12. bueller

    bueller Member

    I'll use "before an announced crowd of ..." for the rare times I mention the attendance for a pro team I cover. A few years ago, when the team was new, some radio hosts at my 'burg questioned my motivation for the word "announced."

    "What is he trying to say? Is he saying the team is lying?"
     
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