West Ham's actual attendance figure for last weekend's Premier League clash against Middlesbrough was circa 47,000, according to a KUMB source.
And that's up a couple of thousand on the 45,000 who attended the Southampton game a week earlier.Earlier this week David Sullivan reiterated that the game was a sell-out. But with thousands of empty seats dotted around the ground, it was clear that many season ticket holders - including many of those who had exercised the 'plus 2' option - had not attended the game.
"With 52,000 season ticket holders and 50,000 supporters on the waiting list, every game from now on will be the same," Sullivan told West Ham's wesbite. "Any empty seats are down to our current capacity limit of 57,000."
Sullivan's comments were repeated yeserday by Karren Brady, who was representing the club at a business conference.
"With 52,000 season ticket Holders, including 25,000 from families and 10,000 aged 16 or under, and more than 50,000 supporters on a waiting list to join them, the Hammers could soon be playing home matches in the largest club ground in London" she said.
That there have been so many empty seats has not been helped by supporters' inability to sell season ticket seats on a match-by-match basis. However a tciket exchange should be in place ahead of West Ham's next Premier League fixture at the Olympic Stadium, against Sunderland two-and-a-half weeks from now.
"We will be launching imminently a ticket exchange which means any supporters who can't make a game because of holidays or travel problems can legitimately sell their tickets to other supporters," added co-owner Sullivan.
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