Here are the facts:
Official attendances for Man City Premiership Matches:
06-07 759,646 (39,981 per match)
07-08 800,400 (42,126 pm)
08-09 815,105 (42,900 pm)
09-10 864,740 (45,512 pm)
10-11 872,195 (45,905 pm)
11-12 893,851 (47,044 pm)
12-13 892,506 (46,974 pm)
13-14 894,527 (47,080 pm)
The 'OFFICIAL' capacity is 47,405 (current reduced because of the expansion building works.
THESE ARE THE FACTS. Every single premiership club works on the same basis insomuch as they have to declare their official attendance, whether it be made up by way of sales of season tickets, comps, hospitality, academy, players family/friends etc, etc.
Since the 06-07 Season - Man City are the ONLY club that has significantly increased it's attendance by such a large margin (approx by 18%) - why? because it could . Since 06-07, the capacity has always been 47,405 and therefore, we have now, on average, maxed out.
No other football club in the UK, in the last 10+ years, has seen anything like this kind of growth - because most of them were either treading water or their stadiums were at capacity & relatively maxed out. Around 2000, Chelski were having an average of 34,000. When Roman took over in 2003, attendance had grown to around 41,500, surprise surprise - because they also had close on £1bn chucked at them as well over a period of time (taking into account the value - with inflation - of their expenditure compared to City.
City revenue has increased from 06-07 @ 84.6m Euros to 12-13 to 316m Euro. No surprise there. In 06-07, we were not even in the top 20 table of European team revenues. But 12-13, we were 6th, with only PSG with a faster growth
So, who the fuck cares if there are a a few hundred empty seats for our premiership games. The growth in 'official' attendance at Man City is unprecedented in the Premiership and we have 'officially' been camping on the doorstep of capacity for 6 seasons now. We will shortly be the 2nd largest premiership stadium and it is guaranteed that there will be empty seats galore over the next few years for the fans of other clubs and the football pundits to crow about - but do we really give a fuck?? There will be loads more tourists, more hospitality, more languages spoken at the Derby than at the UN, loads more sales of half and half scarfs and pies will increase to £8!
As long as we continue to be challenging for titles and are nailed on for top 2/3 in the premiership each season, there can be 40,000 empty seats for all I care.................
I for one, like the fact that the atmosphere for many homes games is rather understated. I love it when most of the 'smaller' clubs fans starting singing - 'Where were you when you were shit'. Our reply should be ' We are here now YOU are shit'.