I would assume they count people in hospitality suites etc, where they don't have a set number of tickets sold, but are allowed up to a certain number of guests per box.Sarah Star But surely at some of the matches when we were in the Premier league, which were supposedly sold out, they announced an attendance of less than the full capacity. How does that work then?
I think it's been traditional to count season ticket holders whether they turn up or not, but all other tickets are genuine "through the turnstiles". It dates back to the days of cash turnstiles, when you had to assume every season ticket holder will turn up to avoid locking them out when capacity is close to being reached - i.e. if you have a 15000 capacity ground with 5000 season tickets, you can't let more than 10000 people in who are paying on the day.
As for dodgy Elm Park crowds, they were always dodgy in looking too low. You'd play someone like Shrewsbury one week, who'd bring 150, and have a crowd of 4000 announced, and the following week there'd be 2500 Sunderland fans there and the crowd would be 5000.