Suspicious activity at FIFA World cup

Found this little gem earlier today.

For those unable to view the short clip. It is fan video of the front gate attendants feverishly spinning the turnstiles without a guest in site. Organizers claim that it was because "Their was something wrong with the system". But if you ask me I'd say they were told to spin the turn styles to inflate their numbers to seem more popular.

The obvious misrepresentation could be due to the wanted perception that certain teams bring in more people or even worse is that the stadium officals themselves put them up to this to make it seem that their stadium is more popular than other stadiums. Higher attendance numbers would in turn sway potential investors or sponsorship in their favor.



Gotta love that companies world wide also lie about their popularity through shameless number tampering.

So what do you think ATS? A Simple problem with "Their System" or maybe something a little deeper?

a reply to: Talltexxxan

nothing surprises me anymore....people always try to make a buck...so I can see them doing this...

It is definitely suspicious. Everyone wants their numbers to match their perception or goals. Whether it is climate data or numbers of attendees at a protest or now apparently soccer fans...data can be manipulated to show anything the end user wants.

I don't trust anyone's numbers anymore. Good find, OP.

originally posted by: Talltexxxan
Found this little gem earlier today.

For those unable to view the short clip. It is fan video of the front gate attendants feverishly spinning the turnstiles without a guest in site. Organizers claim that it was because "Their was something wrong with the system". But if you ask me I'd say they were told to spin the turn styles to inflate their numbers to seem more popular.

Occam's Razor

There is no need for them to inflate their numbers in such a silly almost Keystone Cop way when they could just feed numbers into the system those turnstiles feed into and no one would be the wiser.

Do you really think people are that stupid?

There is no need for them to inflate their numbers because the World Cup is the most popular sporting event on the planet.

Their explanation sounds right, if there was a problem with the turnstiles then they would need to do that to figure it out.

a reply to: JadeStar

As you are correct in that the world cup is wildly popular. I guarantee that if you watch any of the games you will still see plenty of empty seats.

And if we're using Occam's Razor then I would say that their system wasn't down and that the more likely answer, is shameless number tampering. When it comes to huge events like the world cup you better believe these stadium owners and the like have bean counters locked up somewhere going crazy on figuring numbers and ways they can catch an edge when it comes to profit and future negotiations. Following the money trail will usually take you to the source of the matter.

Such as in a hypothetical meeting between the stadium owners and potential clients/investors. If the client brings up attendance the owners can bring up that their stadium was at 98% capacity as others were at 85 or 90 percent. in marketing you always want you product or message to be seen by as many of your target group as possible. So if moneys were the same then an investor or client is going to go with a stadium that can bring a capacity crowd.

I'm going with the theory they have OCD of the turnstile variety - similar to the one-armed bandits found in Vegas.

These poor employees need help...

Where isn't corruption? Somebody inflating ticket sales for their cut of the proceeds.

I have been watching most of the world cup and so far the turn out seems to have been really good, very few spare seats, especially when the big teams are playing. It is inevitable that there are going to be some free seats, dotted about or even a few rows here and there. I recall during the last Germany USA game there where loads of free seats at the start but only because fans where struggling to get to the stadium due to the weather.

The idea of them doing this is kind of pointless, if they have empty seats then the whole world can see that just by watching their TV's. As such trying to inflate the numbers would just be utterly stupid.

Them saying there was a problem with the turnstiles sounds like the most logical explanation.

Erm I have not seen a game which was not full apart from one near the start when they had problems getting them in but it was full after 20 mins.
Is this some lame attempt to tarnish the biggest team event in the world by people who just don't like the sport?....yup.
Bloody hell does there have to be a conspiracy in everything?.

a reply to: Talltexxxan

That or they hired a bunch of slot machine addicts.



Seriously though, someone's trying to do some number fixing here.

a reply to: JadeStar

"Occam's Razor"? Lol I don't see how 'turnstile malfunction' is any simpler an explanation than 'fudging attendance figures'. And how is flipping those things helping anyone fix what is supposedly broken?

What system, the counters on ther turn styles. LMAO Can we say sold out.

Maybe for publicity revenue, in order to keep the publicity income they might have to show evidence of the numbers to the people who give them money.
I wouldn't imagine them doing this just for the average joe, only for people who want to see the numbers on a computer or something.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Is this some lame attempt to tarnish the biggest team event in the world by people who just don't like the sport?....yup.

Well I'll have you know that I do enjoy soccer. What I don't enjoy is people lying and I feel that nefarious deeds need to be brought to light, no matter where they are. The little league soccer game down the street or the World Cup finals.

Now I will be honest and say I have not the foggiest clue as to how the numbers at the turnstiles make it to the computer spread sheets in some accountants office. Are they wired in electronically or is it a manual system of checking the number tumbler of each style at the end of the day,........ I don't know. Furthermore if the system was having a problem, it certainly looked to be working fine at the time of this video. Otherwise why even spin them if it wasn't accomplishing some task. Right...?

So if their is someone out there that is more familiar with how these turn stiles work, your input would be appreciated.

And for those that believe that every game is a near sell out and this sort of action would be unnecessary, I have something for you too.

Right now, Im watching the Mexico Brazil game I had recorded, and noticed something strange. Nearly the entire game is recorded and broadcast from only one side of the field.(as are many sports). But what I noticed are they rarely ever broadcast what the stadium attendance looks like on that side. Well, For just a few moments they had a camera shot from behind the goal and it was facing to that side of the field and a little angled up. And what to my surprise, the entire upper deck was completely empty. You could see the blue upper deck seats clearly devoid of people. Im not saying this is the norm but Im pretty sure the Mexico vs Brazil game should have been sold out in a matter of minutes. SO why the giant swath of empty seats if it should be a sold out show?

Im not saying their is some breaking news conspiracy going on. I just feel that with the information given and Brazils less than stellar track rating when it comes to corruption, that their could very likely be some falsehood going on here.

a reply to: Talltexxxan

Why does it even matter if there where empty seats?

Really the World Cup is massive I really don't see why this is even a issue

a reply to: Talltexxxan

Sometimes the evidence is right in front of your eyes.

The Youtube video indicates that was at "2014 FIFA World Cup Fan Fest ". That clearly means it wasn't a game at the World Cup. So if there really was any fixing going on then I don't see the purpose of it. Once the World Cup is over attendance figures would be irrelevant.

a reply to: Talltexxxan

The official attendance at that game was 60,342 according to the BBC whilst the stadium estadio castelao - fortaleza holds a capacity of 67,037. Which all suggests 10% of the seating was not occupied.

Again I don't think there is much to this at all sorry.

originally posted by: Talltexxxan
a reply to: JadeStar

As you are correct in that the world cup is wildly popular. I guarantee that if you watch any of the games you will still see plenty of empty seats.

That has to do with the issue of new stadiums and things like concessions not working in an efficient manner. So sometimes before the start of the game or the start of the 2nd half people are still in line or waiting to get back to their seats.

Also some of the stadiums were not finished on time so some sections of seats in a couple can not be sold due to safety reasons. This has been well documented.

Beyond that I -think- FIFA counts tickets sold, as is done in most big events now, not turnstile numbers.

How can they fake it? The number of people in the seats would be a dead give-a-way, right?