V8 Mathematics

[D.R.T.]

This subject was touched upon by a few posters but I thought it desrved its own thread.

Symmons Plains Crowd Figures.

Channel 10 reported :
- 14, 000 on Saturday (which by the look of it, was a bit of an exaggeration)
- 55,000 for the weekend.

Which leaves a Sunday crowd of 41,000. This definately didn't happen.

Ray Kershler (Avesco) reported :
- A sunday crowd of 30, 162 people

- A weekend crowd (record they said) of 60, 212.

Thus leaving by their calculations that 30, 000 people turned up on friday and Saturday. Go figure.

So what exactly are the power brockers playing at here. The most professional motorsport category playing with crowd numbers ??

[spook]

Crowd numbers from AVESCO and mathematics are two completely different fields of science - one makes sense, the other is one of life's mysteries - you decide.

[Crowestar]

Normal Person - 1+1=2
AVESCO - 1+1=100

[retro]

These are the crowd figures given out at the press conference by Barry Oliver - for press consumption.

fri - 11,993

sat - 18,069

sun - 30150

total = 60202

edit = I know these figures do not add up exactly - I can go over the press conference again by request?

[DannyG]

Originally posted by retro
These are the crowd figures given out at the press conference by Barry Oliver - for press consumption.

fri - 11,993

sat - 18,069

sun - 30150

total = 60202

edit = I know these figures do not add up exactly - I can go over the press conference again by request?

I went all 3 days and the friday count looks a bit high. Its hard to tell i spose, but i had a quick count on sunday and yep there were about 30 odd thousand adults

[mmciau]

DannyG,

I reckon you missed 10 over there in the northern paddock!!!!!

Mike

[laser]

I went all 3 days

Well, that makes 3 people that went

[1200Datto27]

Are they counting heads or bodies?

[JteL]

AVESCO's figures have always included officials, competitors, team members, support crews, the AVESCO circus - including all guest passes that are issued as well. Do your sums on that and you will see that immediately you have a 2,500 plus figure.

Then all the freebie tickets are included for VIP's, corporate etc regardless of whether they turn up or not.

In 97 or 98 (can't recall the exact year) AVESCO placed head counters at every entrance at Barbagallo to count everyone coming in - they refused point blank to inform the WASCC as to the figure they recorded. This was also the same year that, when a WASCC official, was asked on Sunday about 1:30 pm what the official crowd number was, he looked at then President John Hurney, said (and again, can't recall the exact number - so paraphrasing) '35,000 John?' - Hurney replied - a bit higher should do' and so they went with a purely guestimate official number. When the tickets were tallied (sold that is) the number was out by around 8,000 (fewer sold) - but AVESCO still accepted the crowd figure.

Crowd figures are also one of the reasons the ACCC have been in terested in AVESCO for over the years because sponsorship deals are based on those figures - if they fudge the figures then - as the ACCC put it - they are gaining income by deception.

[Techo]

Originally posted by 1200Datto27
Are they counting heads or bodies?

Someone had to say it...LOL

[Chucky]

And I was shouted down on another thread when I dared to mention that AVESCO may be a house of cards. These are the guys that invented the "three day attendance figure" and the foot count. Even most sponsors I talk to nowadays are waking up to this.

Sheesh!

[A9X05]

So hypothetically,If you bought a 3 day pass, at any race meeting are you counted as one, or three entrys over the weekend? I cant see how they could get true numbers?
Another fine staged managed show complete with all the smokes and mirrors you want from the "Great One"

[johnh875]

Actually in the interview with Cochrane on channel seriously, he claimed it was the biggest sporting event in Tassie based on the crowd figure. I wonder what sort of attendance/crowd there is for the Targa, surely that would be most of Tassie?

Generally AVESCO hard card holders are not counted because most circuits don't have/use the scanners.

[Chucky]

Yes, a three day pass is counted as three attendances, one for each day.

[Mackmot]

This happens in the UK too. In BTCC they ive out figures like 14000 for the Sunday at Brands Hatch when the actual figure is around 2000 paying spectators and 5000 Competitors, VIPS and Officials.

[pitcrew]

What ever the amount thats still a lot more spectators than the UK, you obviously have resonably priced tickets!

[Chucky]

Yeah, I actually got it wrong when I said that AVESCO invented the 3 day thing. It was actually Alan Gow (ex-BTCC promoter) that thought that up!

[bestfit]

This is not unique to AVESCO or BTCC or motorsport in general. All multi day events use the same counting system eg test match cricket, golf etc. It's logical. If you buy a 3 day pass and attend each day, you have attended THREE times not once.

The quoted figures may or may not be correct, but I see no problem with the counting method.

[JteL]

Originally posted by Chucky
Yeah, I actually got it wrong when I said that AVESCO invented the 3 day thing. It was actually Alan Gow (ex-BTCC promoter) that thought that up!

Not really - 3 day meetings were being run in Australia well before Gowe got hold of the BTCC - as far back as 1987/88 3 day meetings were starting to appear.

[D.R.T.]

After Avesco has been pounding away at Cams and everyone else but itself for not being 'Professional' I think its a bit hypocritical for Avesco to be falsely reciting crowd figures.

[dynamik gal]

Originally posted by White Knight
Generally AVESCO hard card holders are not counted because most circuits don't have/use the scanners.

Even though they are not scanned, the team members hard passes would still be counted within attendance figures. I assume that AVESCO/counters would go by the number of hard passes issued to a team at the beginning of the series, which is roughly averaged at 30 per 2 car team, 15 per 1 car team.

Yeah . . . but what about ancilliary holders like officials, media, catering, fridge stockers etc that don't to all the meetings?

[johnh875]

Originally posted by bestfit
If you buy a 3 day pass and attend each day, you have attended THREE times not once.

But then have three people attended? Pretty pedantic I realise but they should not be saying 60,000 people attended over the three days, rather they had 60,000 admissions.

[JteL]

Doesn't matter - the figures are daily crowd figures, not season or meeting wide ticket holder numbers.