They will know exactly how many of each type of ticket was sold and how many of each type payed on the day.

the club will, but i doubt they post off all 10,300 stubs to the taxman

Indeed.

All of which detail has to be made available to the VAT man, so that he can make sure that you're paying the correct amount of VAT.

So - let's say we invent a few thousand fans to boost the gates. When the VAT man comes calling we have receipts for one number of tickets but an officially announced attendance that indicates that we sold a few thousand more. Difficult to explain and harder to prove.

To the conspiracy theorists, why are the club only announcing false attendances now? Why not announce 20,000 every week (all paying concession prices, of course) and be the biggest supported team in the country? Why announce an attendance that is well below our average, that still shows that numbers are dropping off with the dross being served up? What are the club gaining by announcing the lowest crowd figure for a long time?

Really? i'm wrong?

So the 2 guys in charge fo the gates who i know personally must be lying then.

PS. You got back from the game quick

Yes.

Why would two guys operating the gates know if we counted passholders? Do you not think they may simply have made the assumption that we do because City do?

How would the voucher scheme work if we did?

The club will report VAT collected and I'm sure this will be 100% correct. It has nothing to do with how many people we announce at a game. If the club has a policy of counting non attending passholders, sponsors guests, press freebies, premier club members (who don't go through a turnstile so attendance at each game can't be counted) etc then it has absolutely no bearing on the VAT we pay. You're usually quite understanding of common sense issues but obviously not on this one

I honeslty think the club will see falling crowds as a result of the current economic climate (which may well be part of the cause) rather than supporters not comimg because of the way we are playing.

There is a ready made excuse for the club to hide behind.

If we had kicked on from 2006, I reckon we'd be averaging 14,000 (excluding the derby) at least.

He won't answer that one, Kosh.

I dont even remeber then announcing the crowd, when did they do this?

They didn't. they knew everyone in the ground would piiss themselves laughing

Anyone?

the blonde bird announced it about 10 mins from the end,even though i could hardly understand her.