Now I'm fully aware that writing this is going to lead to me being accused of an anti goons bias, so I'd just like to say.....yep, fair cop.

I'm watching MOTD as I type and the main match was Arsenal v Blackburn, flat track bullies indulging in a spot of flat track bullying, but the less said about that the better. It's the official attendance that got me thinking. At the end of the highlights the attendance shown was less than a thousand under the official capacity for the New Library. Now given that Blackburn brought a larger than expected, or usual, following of approximately 216 I'm guessing that the discrepancy between the given figure and the actual attendance could be explained by the lack of bums on seats in the away section. Imagine my surprise however when noting that whatever part of the Temple of Gloom happened to be on screen contained several empty seats. Are Arsenal supported by a huge, and as yet unknown, population of North London chameleons? Has a mad goon scientist discovered the formula for rendering inanimate, silent fools invisible? Or is one of our leading football clubs spinning huge whoppers when it comes to announcing their crowd figures?

I suspect the latter, after all is this not the club that tried to kid us all into believing that there was a huge number of goons on a waiting list for season tickets at the Emptyrates when the truth was that, like us, they merely had a large number of ordinary members who were potential season ticket purchasers should a season ticket become available, much the same as Spurs did.

I comfort myself with watching the large number of videos on the Vintage section from the 70s and 80s while telling myself that for a club that had no fans prior to 2003 we had pretty good support overall, carefree.

I watched the match on TV and yes, empty seats all over the stadium. If what they announce is paid attendance, however, it could be that the seats were paid for but the ticket owners chose not to show up.

Arsenal calculate their attendances on tickets/season tickets sold not how many go through the turnstiles.

I was talking to my ex-boss who goes to a lot of Arsenal home games and he was saying there are thousands of empty seats.

Spot on Miles. There was a bit of a protest apparently where season ticket holders weren't going and garbage bags were being placed on those seats as a show of protest. But they count all season ticket holders as given, so they are still in the official count.

Spot on Miles. There was a bit of a protest apparently where season ticket holders weren't going and garbage bags were being placed on those seats as a show of protest. But they count all season ticket holders as given, so they are still in the official count.

So the state of the art, space age Emirates hasn't got the equipment to give an accurate attendance for every game then? My guess is that Arsenal haven't got the huge fanbase that they pretend to have and are too embarrassed to give the true attendance.

So the state of the art, space age Emirates hasn't got the equipment to give an accurate attendance for every game then?

More like they don't want to.

So the state of the art, space age Emirates hasn't got the equipment to give an accurate attendance for every game then? My guess is that Arsenal haven't got the huge fanbase that they pretend to have and are too embarrassed to give the true attendance.

They don't. Arsenal's fanbase is no bigger than Spuds or ours despite what they may have you believe. They obviously attracted a lot of gloryhunters when football began to go global in the 90s/early 00s and now they are in decline the fans don't want to stick around.

I honestly think Arsenal will be fine in the long run, but they'll have to accept 3 or 4 seasons of mediocrity which clearly they can't handle as most Arsenal fans have never seen their team finish outside the top 3/4 places.

I've always said Arsenal are just a Man Utd of the South.

I'd love to see how they'd cope with a 26 year footballing black hole, relegation, bankruptcy, the works. They'd be under 10,000 a lot quicker than we were.

Spot on Miles. There was a bit of a protest apparently where season ticket holders weren't going and garbage bags were being placed on those seats as a show of protest. But they count all season ticket holders as given, so they are still in the official count.

To be fair to Chelsea at least we give the chance for season ticket holders to sell tickets back for games they can't make .

Edited February 7, 201213 yr by Tea Bar Boy

Maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but don't Chelsea declare the attendance as tickets sold rather than bums on seats too?

They don't. Arsenal's fanbase is no bigger than Spuds or ours despite what they may have you believe. They obviously attracted a lot of gloryhunters when football began to go global in the 90s/early 00s and now they are in decline the fans don't want to stick around.

I honestly think Arsenal will be fine in the long run, but they'll have to accept 3 or 4 seasons of mediocrity which clearly they can't handle as most Arsenal fans have never seen their team finish outside the top 3/4 places.

I've always said Arsenal are just a Man Utd of the South.

Say what you will about them, but they've spent a LOT less than United, City, us, Spurs and Liverpool and they're still thereabouts. In the long run their financial model will help them survive at the top. If the people running that club had our financial resources we'd be a powerhouse. Maybe Wenger should be on the list of potentials to manage us for the AVB out brigade? Wenger with Roman's foot up his arse forcing him to spend could in theory, produce something awesome.

Wenger is an Arsenal shareholder though isn't he, thats why he's probably a bit more circumspect about throwing the cash about..