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The fans piled into the ground last night to see Reading put up a fantastic fight against Premiership leaders Chelsea. Some of the bravest spectators had fought the elements to get hold of a ticket for the massively-hyped match, sleeping outside the ticket office overnight to ensure they were at the front of the queue.
Yet last night there were a number of empty seats at the stadium. According to the club's official attendance, every seat was sold. So with a crowd of 24,107 there should have been just five empty seats in the whole ground. The capacity takes into account segregation.
However, there were many many empty seats in the away end, 125 to be precise. The clubs attendance figure takes into account reporters and photographers at the game, as well as ordinary fans. Such was the interest in the game that one hundred reporters were crowded in, in addition to twenty individuals eager to take snaps of the game.
So, taking into account the 'media capacity' the stadium can house a maximum of 24,232. There were 125 people who bought tickets last night but didn't turn up. So potentially even more people can watch Reading at the Mad Stad, and we don't even need to get the builders in!
The attendance the club gives reflects the number of seats that actually have bums in rather than the number sold. For example, if Reading get a 13,500 strong crowd at a league game, it could be that they have sold as many as 14,500 tickets. Many Season ticket holders fail to turn up each matchday (900 against Watford) whilst some people buy tickets and simply don't use them.