"We feel pretty good about the numbers we're giving it."

John Strege explains how the Thunderbirds come up with their Phoenix Open attendance figures:

Here's what we do know: The attendance figures are an estimate and a loose one at that. "We actually count cars (in the parking lots) and there's a formula that is apparently accepted in the industry on the number of people per car," tournament chairman David Rauch said. "We count the cars with aerial shots, and we're looking at it by acreage, each of the parking lots. There's an estimate of the number of cars per acre. You come up with the total (based on) the estimate of the number of cars and 3.2 people per car.

"We feel pretty good about the numbers we're giving it. Honestly, we get accused more often of lowering the figures than of jacking them up. I think people think we don't want to scare people away by saying there are 170,000 people here, so instead we say 160,000.

"Last year, on Saturday, the CBS guys all day were saying they've just never seen anything like it and they've covered the tournaments for decades. The number came in 10,000 below our record Saturday. Their conclusion was we had to have lowered the number a little bit, because they couldn't get over it."

Comments

[cardinal]

Tuesday's attendance increased from 14,325 in 2009 to 35,795 in 2010? That's pretty significant; even if the numbers are exaggerated. The attendance more than doubled. Any explanation, Geoff? (I remember you mentioning that members of the military and others received free admission. Was that for the entire week?)

[KS]

So they can't use a system that counts the number of tickets scanned electronically on entry like, say, every other sporting venue in the country? Oh wait...that would require the truth to come out.

[Bob S.]

They should fire their marketing firm as the drop in attendance between Saturday and Sunday is unacceptable ...

[hitter]

last yr was up against the super bowl, no? and this yr up against a little hockey game bet the us and canada

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I wonder how many people in the Phoenix area care that much about hockey. That's a huge drop.