Attendance: Turnstile vs. Ticket Sales

[E.T.]

The reason this is a waste of an argument is because USF makes the same amount of money if we sell 50K seats and only 10K show up.

And the larger donors that have bought tix and don't show up every game have been a LARGE part of USF's early success.

Go BULLS !!!

[Joe]

Not really...A lot of the no shows could be freebees, or the usual phantom ticket. There is no exact science or regulation of actual attendance. In fact most times it's a guestimate nothing scientific at all.

When I worked in the arena league you'd see teams just hand out 3500 tickets before the game to reach a "sellout" It's common in every sport, NFL (Jacksonville was giving out about 15,000 seats for free a few years ago to stop blackouts), NBA, NHL, MLB (Hello Devil Rays), NCAA.

A study a few years ago found that the no shows are usually the free tickets, because there was no value backed. I'll see if I can find the article.

[Rabbi Bull]

when the lightning had the streak of games sold out, the people down in the ticket office would print out tickets and scan them into the system, so that they could still say they sold out, the lightning sold out streak was a fraud.

[E.T.]

Good points, but how many "phantom" tix would you say USF averages, wouldn't think much.

Nut it still would not have effect because or revenue doesn't change versus the 2 counts. Which is my point and I do have problems sometimes expressing it 

[Joe]

Good points, but how many "phantom" tix would you say USF averages, wouldn't think much.

Nut it still would not have effect because or revenue doesn't change versus the 2 counts. Which is my point and I do have problems sometimes expressing it 

Last year we had what 17-18k season tix? Plus about 5k students. We averaged about 26,000 actual bodies according to TSA. Now did every season ticket holder come? No, not at all check between the 30s. However, on paper we averaged 33,000; so there were probably a decent amount of phantom tickets.

In theory revnue doesn't change, but people not showing always hurts so...

[BullsFanInTX]

How long before Knight Light shows up and posts our attendance stats.  He has them memorized, how sad is that.  I don't even know what our exact stats are, and he spits them out like a computer.  I wonder why that is.

[Triple B]

How long before Knight Light shows up and posts our attendance stats.  He has them memorized, how sad is that.  I don't even know what our exact stats are, and he spits them out like a computer.  I wonder why that is.

I honestly don't think he has them memorized. There is simply too much USF info he comes up with. He doesn't appear that sharp. I'm sure he has all this stuff in some sort of database...

[SeaBull]

How long before Knight Light shows up and posts our attendance stats.  He has them memorized, how sad is that.  I don't even know what our exact stats are, and he spits them out like a computer.  I wonder why that is.

I honestly don't think he has them memorized. There is simply too much USF info he comes up with. He doesn't appear that sharp. I'm sure he has all this stuff in some sort of database shrine...

[E.T.]

:lol

SeaBull has a great sense of humor.

Love It Brother !

[Bullpride08]

Good gosh we're theorizing on phantom tickets?  USF doesn't give that much out, the only people that get tickets are those that donate.  For example, Gunn Allen puts a ton of dollars into the program and gets tickets.  Do you call those phantom tickets?  But they donate, advertise, and sponsor!  So how is that phantom, they get tickets like anyone else that puts money into the program.

Let's not go acting like we have some goofy theory that doesn't equal reality.  The fact is corporations and donors get tickets for giving money, that's the only way you get tickets, but if they don't show it doesn't lessen their donation by labeling them just their attendance.  It's the same at every school, UCF is no different or any school.  Give money, sponsor a stadium name, advertise and if you give the right amount of money part of the consideration is tickets.  Pretty simple.  The only really freebies out there go to students and the couple of hundred or so the school gives to HS prospects, coaches, and donate to charities.  I wouldn't call those 'phantom' either since they actually reap some type of residual benefit.