Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Complimentary Tickets Fail To Compliment SLeague
at·tend·ance (ə ten′dəns)
noun
- the act of attending
- the persons or number of persons attending
- the degree of regularity in attending
a
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
When Gombak United defeated Woodlands Wellington the other day the official attendance was 1,775. Coming from England I was brought up to understand the definition of attendance to be as above. Not, apparently, in Singapore. There, attendance can mean anything people want it to mean including but not exclusively people not, umm, in attendance.
Despite the 'official' attendances given for SLeague games this season, which I post on here, actual ticket sales per game have averaged out at 238. For comparison:
Year Average Attendance Ticket Sales
2009 2,050 200
2008 1,851 226
Where do the other 90% of the 'crowd' come from? Freebies! And even then they don't always turn up.
Of course this is nothing new. It has been 'well known' that SLeague attendances bear no relation to reality but until recently everyone has gone along with it.
The Singapore FA loves to boast about being one of Asia's top 10 leagues. They love to go on about a grandiose Strategic Plan. But when 'official attendances' are way off the mark people are right to stop and ask what the hell is going on?
Coming soon the AFC Champions League will require participating nations to boast a league that averages a minimum of 5,000 fans per game. I guess in Singapore they will just increase the number of comps handed out each game, irrespective of whether people come or not.
If they're going to announce attendance figures then they FA need to release the number of people who actually attend the game. If it's 134 then say it's 134. Don't sit there with a straight face and say 1,983. Treat your customers with disrespect and guess what?
Anyway, enough of these bloody freeloaders. Why are so many comps issued anyway? If these people like football then make them pay for a ticket. If they don't wanna hand over 5 bucks then tell them to take a run and jump. They're no fans of Singapore football.
And how do you think those guys feel? The ones who are actually prepared to stump up the cash only to find out that most of the people around them got in free. Or, as i saw once, when a father got in trouble for giving a drink to his son while all around him 'regulars' did what the hell they wanted?
Source - Some of the facts above come from Today
