Guinness certifies much lower Big Chill attendance

wait, what?  it wasn't filled to capacity but there were definitely more than 85k there

It was packed around us in section 19.  No way there were 113,411...but certainly more than 85,451

At least they left the 1 on the end.

It seems like we exaggerate our attendance a lot. I can remember rainy games against Eastern and the likes when the attendance on the scoreboard read well over 100,000 even with an empty student section.

But no matter what, we'll always have the most people watching a college football game anywhere in America today. 

I mean, I understand not counting any of the MSU players since they never showed up, but that doesn't make up for such a drastic change

does not include media personnel, players, concession workers, etc....Guinness is only counting spectators.

So this number will go up if you take those people into account or not

Attendance is counted by how many tickets are sold, not how many people are in the stadium.

My section was not at all packed... In fact, most of the row behind us was empty and we were taking up well more than our little space alloted by the numbers on the bleachers.

85K sounds right.

8k more than US/Germany and 10k over Sparty's unofficial "record"

I'm gonna say they took attendance from the pictures after all the frat guys left in the second and third periods.  I was in section 31, and that place got empty near the end.

Who did we have doing the counting anyways?  Laid off census takers?

Let's see....1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 14, 22, 29, 39, 100!

I'm done.

The University announced an unofficial crowd of 113,411 during the third period. To better the GWR mark of 77,803 set at this year’s IIHF World Championships, however, it was necessary to provide scanned evidence of the bar codes on each spectator's ticket. At the time of the announcement, 85,451 tickets had been scanned, with the numbers continuing to increase, but more than enough to certify a new record

 While we still await final documention to award an official final number, the spectacle of the event can’t be denied

the north endzone was empty for much of the game, and chunks of the MSU section were empty until the end of the first period.

but the question in my mind is whether they counted people in the stands or counted tickets that were used at the gate. if the former, i bet it's super accurate. if the latter, it's gotta be low as some people come late and leave early.

I don't buy that we had 113,411, but we definitely had more than 100,000. Most of the spots of the stadium that were empty at the end of the game did, at some point, have people in them. There were stragglers who showed up near the end of the 1st period, and then again a bunch of people who left after the second period because they were pretty sure we were going to win and don't actually care that much about hockey. No way that at least 110,000 didn't show up, have their ticket scanned, and go into the stadium for at least a period at some point.

THe stadium looked filled. Not "packed" but filled. I would have easily said at least around 100,000.

We need to revise our own figure.  If Guiness's final figure is below 100K, we can't plausibly argue that a stadium record was set.  We did not have over 15,000 non-paying guests at the game.

The thing people aren't considering is that while sections looked filled, it is far more likely that people gave themselves some extra space and were slightly more spread out than they would be if the section really was filled.

If there are normally 26 seats in a row, there might have only been 22 people in that row and you would not be able to tell the difference from a distance.

Those numbers quickly add up. 

I'd wager quite a bit that there weren't many people standing sideways at the game...

Hold the phones:

mikerothstein On the 85,451 Guinness number from the Big Chill, that is a mid-second period number to verify a record. Not the final tally from Guinness

Guiness broke the record for most mistakes counting to 113,411.

Congrats to Guiness!

Read http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Highest-ice-hockey-game-attendance/BLOG/3099369/7691.html

The University announced an unofficial crowd of 113,411 during the third period. To better the GWR mark of 77,803 set at this year’s IIHF World Championships, however, it was necessary to provide scanned evidence of the bar codes on each spectator's ticket. At the time of the announcement, 85,451 tickets had been scanned, with the numbers continuing to increase, but more than enough to certify a new record.



While we still await final documention to award an official final number, the spectacle of the event can’t be denied.

85,451 is just how many scanned bar codes had been counted by the time of the on-field announcement, not the final certified number.

Attendance count..... READY??

1..2....3....4.....5.......1000......20000.......85451

We want mooooooooore..............

I think attendance peaked somewhere near the end of the first period/beginning of second. The north endzone was slow to fill up, but for a brief period of time it did appear full. There was definitely not 113,000 in the stands, but I think 85,000 was low. How are they going to account for people in the box seats if they use aerial photos?

We can always surpass this years number with another game.  That shouldn't be hard to do.

that the FINAL SCORE WAS MEEEECHIGAN 5, MSWho ZERO! 

Homer: Marge! How many kids do we have? Oh, no time to count, I'll just estimate! Uh... nine!
Marge: Homer, you know we don't h--
Homer: Shut up, shut up! If I don't hear you it's not illegal!  OK, I need
       some deductions, deductions... ah!! Business gifts!
       [Homer grabs the boat painting from above the couch and hands it to
       Marge.]
       Here you go, keep using nuclear power!
Marge: Homer! I painted that for you!
Homer: OK, Marge, if anyone asks, you require twenty four hour nursing care, Lisa's a clergyman, Maggie is seven people, and Bart was wounded in Vietnam!
 Bart: Cool!

Unreal. The only empty areas were towards the top and thats because everyone tried to get a few rows closer. That game was more crowded than any football game I was at this year (except maybe MSU).  If this is the real count then every stadium in the SEC only holds 40,000.

Jeff Arnold has a new story up at annarbor.com confirming that the 85,451 figure is only a "base number" and that the final figure won't be available "for some time":

The base number [Guinness] is working with is 85,451, which is how many tickets were scanned by the third period of the Michigan hockey team's 5-0 victory over Michigan State. 

Guinness uses a different system of calculating attendance than the NCAA. Guinness adjudicator Mike Janela said Saturday that Guinness relies on the number of tickets scanned on the day of event rather than tickets sold.

...

Guinness officials also have a list of non-ticket holders who count toward the record. Media members, marching band musicians and other people attending the event are not added into the finally tally.

Michigan relies on the number of tickets sold for an event and then includes media members, stadium workers and other people present for a game to reach an attendance mark. The announced crowd of 113,411 is considered the largest crowd to witness an event at Michigan Stadium, which also holds the NCAA record for attendance at a sporting event.

The official said Guinness will continue to work with Michigan officials in establishing a final number, but that it would not become available for some time.

Maybe it serves as motivation to do better in four years and break our own record or go for six digits.

who cares what the exact number is as long as we set the record? jebus

Free Press has an updated article suggesting another explanation for at least part of the discrepancy: Not everyone with a ticket had their ticket scanned--some had their tickets torn. The latter wouldn't have been included in the preliminary Guinness count, which was scanned tickets only. Don't know how many of those there might be, but it appears they might be included in Guinness's final count:

"We will continue to work with Guinness to identify the exact number of people that went through the scanners and those who had their tickets torn," said Matt Trevor, assistant media relations director for U-M hockey. "We knew we would end up with two different numbers because of different standards used." 

Trevor said Guinness doesn't count those who were working the game, including media, staff and concession workers. Michigan does include those people in its attendance figure.

The official stadium capacity is 109,901 - so anytime the attendance is over that you know they count staff and so on.

As several have pointed out the 85k number was the number of scanned tickets at the 2nd period.  The university regularly counts stadium staff, the band, etc. in the attendance.   Most venues include staff and so on in attendance numbers.

The story I heard is that they started tearing tix instead of scanning to speed things up because the late arriving crowd caused backups at the turnstiles.  That sounds like a plausible explanation and if they saved the stubs, we should be able to get an accurate count. Come to think of it, can't they just count the number of turns on the turnstiles?