WHY is nothing ever simple?

There was a time in the not too distant past when you went to a sporting fixture and at the end of the game the announcer told everyone how many people had turned up.

That, however, is no longer the case, as has been shown by Worcester Warriors refuting that the attendance for the Nottingham home match last month was the lowest for a decade.

Nowadays, it is commonplace for clubs to count season-ticket holders in their crowd numbers even if that person doesn’t show up, giving them a guaranteed lower-end gate figure. Warriors are no exception.

The cynic in me says that it is purely a marketing ploy designed to make gates look larger than they actually are, thus making a club more attractive to sponsors.

Warriors might argue that a season-ticket holder has paid their money and is entitled to be counted the same as a pay-on-the-day punter regardless of whether they are in the ground or not.

But to include that as part of the numbers attending a specific match seems wrong or, at best, misleading.

The dictionary definition of attendance is a straight forward one: “the number of people present at a particular place or event”.

Warriors, and a lot of other sports clubs, now interpret that as people who could potentially be present.

In any case, Warriors refuting the claim rather misses the point from their perspective. Their attendances were on a downward spiral during the past three seasons in the Premiership, while the numbers in the current Championship campaign haven’t set the world alight.

The fact is fewer fans are going to Sixways each week and that’s what needs addressing.

Under the system to include pre-paid tickets, Warriors say the Nottingham gate should have been 5,112 and not 3,826. Another way of looking at it would be to say that 1,286 season-ticket holders didn’t show up. A not insignificant number.

Having fans’ money in the bank in advance is one thing but an empty stadium is another.

Warriors need to start attracting more supporters back to Sixways and current performances suggest they are going the right way about it. Then we wouldn’t have to quibble over attendance figures.