OK. What's with the PIFL

[DFWCC]

What's with the PIFL?
I was definitely under the belief that this is one of the top two leagues at the indoor level after the AFL.
Great that they are up to speed on stats.
Of the 4 games played so far not one fan attended. That stats tell me so.
I saw 3,811 people in the stands at Erie's home opener, but according to the stats no-one was there. I know they must send stats to the league in a timely manner. Why has the attendance number not filled in?

I would venture to say ALL arenas use bar code readers on their tickets which
feed into their computer. So by the usual half time cut-off the stats guy should have that number by the end of the 3rd period. So what's with the PIFL Are the fan counts so low that the PIFL or team owners are embarrassed to say how few fans like their product, while they keep touting what great fun the games are.
Let's get with it PIFL.

[indooreast]

It is the individual teams statisticians job to put in stats each week

[DFWCC]

[quote=""indooreast""]It is the individual teams statisticians job to put in stats each week[/quote]

I wouldn't want to leave that up to a stat's WAG (Wild Azz Guess).
It would have to be some official number coming from the arena, team owner or team spokesperson.

[bamafan]

To answer your question...yes. The attendance is generally very low. Back in the glory days of af2, it was not uncommon for there to be 5,000+ in the VBC in Huntsville. Today, the Hammers will draw 2,500 or thereabouts. The bad economy, coupled with the perception that the product is lower than that of the "original" arena game leads to lower attendance. I was in Rome last year for the game between the Fire and Hammers and I bet there were 300 people there. Albeit, the Fire were a unique situation, it is not unusual for attendance numbers to not be reported.

[VinnyTheViper]

Last season, attendance figures were not posted about 30%-35% of the time, this season it has been 0% thus far. The official stat service for the PIFL, statguys.com, only posts what is published in the scoring report that is turned in to them by the league. Often, the official scorer for a game may not know the official attendance unless it was announced during the game or he is notified of the figure by some other team official. I see this as a league issue, do not know whether the publishing of attendance figures are a league priority or not, but it does not make much sense to have attendance a line item in the scoring report if it is never going to be reported. The attendance figure should be a league requirement if it is deemed a valuable piece of information meant for public consumption, otherwise remove the item from the report and move on. IMO, it makes the league look bad or sloppy if some teams report a set of figures and other teams do not, consistency should be the name of the game.

[DFWCC]

Bravo
Well said.

[NashVenom]

I know they use the term "Tickets out" which is the total number of tickets that are put out for the game including Season tickets, promotional tickets, group tickets and walk up tickets.

I know when the numbers come in they are broken down in different ways so it looks like there are different attendance numbers. Also, sometimes the stat guys report their numbers quickly because it's automatically tallied in real time, they have them at a glance and report. Sometimes the numbers from the box office and gate don't match exactly and they need to get an accurate accounting for financial purposes. So a lag in reporting attendance could happen due to those issues.

Not saying it doesn't need fixed, just saying that's one reason why you don't see them as quickly in some places or games as others.

[DFWCC]

Ok, I can understand the differences in all these different terms
Somehow the NFL and the NCAA (D1 teams at least) seem to be able to come up with an attendance number reported in their stats.

Really I don't see a problem. Most of the arenas if not all, bec the PIFL
teams are not playing in barns, have the scanner bar code reader. Nobody
counts tkts stubs anymore.

At the start of the 3rd qtr shouldn't be a problem for the main box office to get a figure to the stat guys. Even the freebie tkts get scanned. So that should be an accurate number.

[DFWCC]

Update Update & Update

Just ck the PIFL Stats page. All games have been
updated to include attendance numbers.

FANTASTIC job PIFL.
A top notch organization.
I certainly am glad to have Erie associated with you.

[VinnyTheViper]

PIFL league officials do read the comments on this board from time to time, and yes the league tries to operate the league for the benefit of all of its member teams and their fans.