The Crowd.

[luke95]

According to the official stats there were 7,000 empty seats in Villa Park tonight. There was an audible WTF? when they announced the crowd. I can't remember the game but it was the same last season when they announced exactly 37,000. The ghost of Deadly still looms over us!

Very noticable there many empty seats in the Doug Ellis.

[kippaxvilla2]

I wanted to go tonight.  But was advised it was sold out.  According to the beeb there was less than 35k there.  Where is the sense not giving the season ticket holders a deadline and therefore reselling.  Also I hear today that despite the sold out signs up for Saturday tickets are still available. 

It was sold out in the sense that the club sold all the tickets they knew they could sell without issue.

All season ticket holders got the match free. Until people actually get in the ground, there is no knowing how many of those will turn up so all they can do is sell capacity minus number of ST holders minus away fans (much larger allocation than normal).

The reason tickets occasionally come up for sale for home league matches which are declared sold out is because, once the match sells out, the club gives ST holders the chance to sell their tickets for them.

I don't see the controversy in any of the above. Free CC ticket is obviously part of the deal to make ST purchases more appealing. What's wrong with that?

Im not a season ticket holder and have every respect for those that are.  But even though the tickets were free to ST holders couldn’t they set a deadline for them to claim their seats?  Then resell any not claimed? Or genuinely am I missing something?

[saunders_heroes]

8k empty seats? Not a chance. There were empty seats on both sides of the lower north and a block of about 50 in the upper north but other than that the place was packed out.

[Villafirst]

No way you would get 8k more in the ground. 34k ? Sounds dodgy for whatever reason??

[Ad@m]

8k empty seats? Not a chance. There were empty seats on both sides of the lower north and a block of about 50 in the upper north but other than that the place was packed out.

This. I'd estimate 2 or 3 thousand empty seats tops. Where they got 34,000 from is an absolute mystery.

[shirley_villan]

They also quoted the Swanses FA Cup game in Jan as being circa 30k which was blatantly wrong. Not sure how they work it out..

[saunders_heroes]

8k empty seats? Not a chance. There were empty seats on both sides of the lower north and a block of about 50 in the upper north but other than that the place was packed out.

This. I'd estimate 2 or 3 thousand empty seats tops. Where they got 34,000 from is an absolute mystery.

Tax fiddle!

[PeterWithesShin]

Assuming Wolves sold their full allocation there would still have been around 1800 empty seats in the North.

[AVH87]

I don't think 35k was far off.

Like PWS said the North was segregated there's 2k, Doug Ellis had 2k empties at a guess, a few hundred scattered across the Holte, couldn't see the Trinity as was sat in it, but that takes you down to 37-38k straight away and then there's probably a few people who paid a tenner and then went away for half term so didn't go in the end.

[Legion]

Didnt this happen in the cup last year too?

It did. Swansea, I think.

[AlexAlexCropley]

As ST holders were free entry any that didn't turn up won't be counted, unlike league games. This will be to do with having to split gate money. As far as I know even though the tickets were free for ST the club has to pay out on them.

Is my guess.

Yes looking across from Trinity Witton Lane was half empty as season ticket holders opted not to be there. So if we’re not counted in 34K is about right.

Half empty? ¾  full more like

[olaftab]

Assuming Wolves sold their full allocation there would still have been around 1800 empty seats in the North.

As Wolves had both upper and lower tier I didn't understand why the first 3 rows of seats in the upper were closed off?

[QuintonVilla]

As I said on here the other day, the fact the club didn't give season ticket holders a date to claim their seat by and then put the remainder on sale was utterly bizarre. As predicted it resulted in thousands of empty seats when other fans would have filled them and resulted in returned tickets yesterday that most didn't even know about and was too late notice.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

So how many were in the ground?

39,000 40,110

FTFY

[aldridgeboy]

I wanted to go tonight.  But was advised it was sold out.  According to the beeb there was less than 35k there.  Where is the sense not giving the season ticket holders a deadline and therefore reselling.  Also I hear today that despite the sold out signs up for Saturday tickets are still available. 

It was sold out in the sense that the club sold all the tickets they knew they could sell without issue.

All season ticket holders got the match free. Until people actually get in the ground, there is no knowing how many of those will turn up so all they can do is sell capacity minus number of ST holders minus away fans (much larger allocation than normal).

The reason tickets occasionally come up for sale for home league matches which are declared sold out is because, once the match sells out, the club gives ST holders the chance to sell their tickets for them.

I don't see the controversy in any of the above. Free CC ticket is obviously part of the deal to make ST purchases more appealing. What's wrong with that?

Im not a season ticket holder and have every respect for those that are.  But even though the tickets were free to ST holders couldn’t they set a deadline for them to claim their seats?  Then resell any not claimed? Or genuinely am I missing something?

I guess they could. And maybe should with a local game like tonight. But if no Money is involved, there’s nothing to stop ST holders claiming the ticket( either on line or in person) and just not turning up on the night. Like some did tonight?