What is it and why do it?
Huhhhh…well, each season as our wonderful football club got more & more successful, winning more & more silverware and gaining plaudits from even the most cynical, green-eyed monsters; I noticed, more & more, that Manyoo fans (not exclusively as band-waggon jumpers / fans of other teams that I know locally joined in) started on the “empty seats” jibe at us.
Although I could clearly see these unoccupied, flip-up chairs at the Etihad, I just thought one day back in the 2012/13 season…
‘I bet the difference between us & Manyoo isn’t “all that” over a full season…and certainly not enough to keep laboriously bleating on about it as much as they do’.
So, I set about keeping a record of each club’s attendances; simply calculating the difference between the attendance at a game against official ground capacity. And do you know what? The results have mostly shown that very thing to be the case – the difference is just not worth bleating on about.
In fact, there has been a season or two since my records began 8 years ago where…guess what? The team from Trafford had more empty seats over the whole season and in all competitions than WE did!
So…this season
I wasn’t even gonna bother to be honest. At the beginning of the season, I didn’t even start my ‘record keeping’ as usual. But then from about the 8th or 10th match in, they starting again, didn’t they?
Not just one or two and not just every so often – it was half-a-dozen or more and it was like a persistent, annoying wasp at a picnic.
So, I thought, sod it…and back-tracked to complete the statistics up to date on my usual spread sheet; continuing them right up to both stadiums being closed to fans due to Covid-19, of course.
Here are the results…
Manyoo’s capacity in all competitions:
74,897, which is down by 97 from the previous season due to ‘phase 2’ (of 3) of converting an area of the ground to enable more disabled access.
Empty seats in all competitions: 119,915
Least number of empty seats at a game: 1,160 v Liverpool in the Premier League
Most number of empty seats at a game: 24,114 v FC Astana in the Europa League
Manchester City’s capacities:
55,097 for league and domestic cup games & 53,000 for Champions League matches.
Empty seats in all competitions: 60,630
Least number of empty seats at a game: 585 v Sheffield United in the Premier League
Most number of empty seats at a game: 17,954 v Southampton in the League Cup
Difference between both clubs all season and in all competitions?
Manyoo had 59,285 more empty seats than Manchester City. Put another way, almost DOUBLE the number of empty seats at Cold Trafford than at the Etihad.
In a single game, who filled their ground more / closest to their own capacity?
Manchester City with just 585 unoccupied seats.
In a single game, who had the highest number of empty seats?
Manyoo with 24,114.
So, there you ‘ave it. What will I do with these figures other than posting them on my blog to share with fellow Blues? Nothing…not unless a REALLY persistent wasp comes along and I feel that I have to flick it away. Other than that, it’ll just sit on my stats sheet ready to be brought out whenever the time feels right to do so.
Of course, feel free to use it (or not) yourself…
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read. Unless something crops up over the coming weeks that I feel the need to comment on, like a new signing or perhaps opinion on all-3, new kits whenever the 3rd one is released, then I think I’ll be happy to rest my fingers for a while before the new season begins in a few weeks’ time.
It’s been an intense period of games since the restart and, due to the setbacks football has suffered because of the pandemic, it’s gonna be one HELL of an intense, relentless 2 years of 'catch up' – certainly enough to keep me blogging like crazy as much as I possibly can.
Bye for now…
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