“Teams want to announce they’ve got as big an attendance number as possible,” said J.C. Bradbury, a sports economist at Kennesaw State. “… I think it’s mostly marketing.”

But to assess the economic impact on a city or region of a publicly funded stadium, it’s important to know the number of people actually attending the events, he said.

“Absolutely, using those tickets distributed numbers inflates the amount of people who might be having an economic impact,” Bradbury said.

Rich McKay, president and CEO of the Falcons and president of Arthur Blank’s sports and entertainment group, said the organization hasn’t considered announcing the number of people in the building at each game instead of, or in addition to, announcing the number of tickets distributed.

“We could debate which is a better number,” McKay said. “We just always have gone with the (tickets distributed) number that we share with our partners and report to the league. The league doesn’t ask us for the other number.”

Other Atlanta teams also announce something other than the turnstile or ticket scan counts as their attendance. The Hawks say they announce tickets distributed, as do other NBA teams. The Braves say they announce the number of tickets sold, which is the MLB requirement. Actual attendance figures aren’t available for Hawks or Braves games, but often appear to be well below the announced attendance.

The AJC, which last month reported Mercedes-Benz Stadium's actual attendance for December events, obtained additional records this week covering all events at MBS in 2018. The records were sent on a monthly basis by MBS staff to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, a state agency that has an oversight role over the stadium.

Several times during the year, GWCCA staffers sent emails to stadium staffers saying they were seeking the “actual attendance.” In a July email with the subject line “Actual Attendance Verification,” a GWCCA staffer wrote: “(W)e need (the) numbers to come from you guys and we need them to be accurate.” The GWCCA sought the figures for use in economic impact reports.

The figures provided to the GWCCA by the stadium show a wide gap in some cases between announced attendance and actual attendance. Some discrepancy is inevitable, because there always will be some fans with tickets who don’t attend for one reason or another. A few thousand widely scattered empty seats are generally not noticeable in a stadium that seats more than 70,000, but the number of no-shows became glaring as the Falcons struggled to a 7-9 record last season.

Although the Falcons’ smallest announced crowd was 71,985, the number of fans in the stadium dipped to 62,455 for a late-September game against Cincinnati, 61,206 for a mid-October game against Tampa Bay, 60,626 for an early-December game against Baltimore and 56,470 for the home finale Dec. 16 against Arizona, according to the figures provided to the GWCCA. About 22 percent of people with tickets were no-shows for the finale, meaning many season-ticket holders stayed away.

“I’ve been in this long enough to know that the responsibility for people going to games is on us and our performance,” McKay said. “… There are two things that drive in-house attendance: It’s going to be record of your team and where you are in that season, and it’s going to be opponent. We always say that we need to own it. We need to own those numbers, and we need to get those people to the games.

“We just need to win football games and give our fans a product that they’re going to come see.”

While Atlanta United’s attendance is an overwhelming success story by any measure, some of the announced milestones — such as the 70,000-plus crowds — aren’t matched by the figures submitted by the stadium to the GWCCA. The biggest difference was for a Sept. 22 match against Real Salt Lake. The announced attendance was 72,017, but the number in the building was 61,594.

For United’s MLS matches with the upper deck closed last season, the actual attendance averaged 39,885, vs. an announced 45,083. The stadium’s soccer seating capacity in that configuration is 42,500, United and stadium officials said when the building opened.

Atlanta United has set MLS attendance records on numerous occasions, most recently at the MLS Cup final on Dec. 8, when the announced crowd was 73,019 and the actual attendance 69,004 (the highest at an Atlanta United game last season). Official MLS attendance records are based on tickets distributed, so United’s records stand.

The documents obtained from the GWCCA also showed the attendance for other events at Mercedes-Benz Stadium last year, including: 65,985 for the MLS All-Star game, compared to an announced 72,317; 69,614 for the SEC Championship football game, versus an announced 77,141; and 68,413 for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, vs. an announced 74,006.

2018 FALCONS ATTENDANCE

Comparing the announced and actual attendance figures for the Falcons’ eight regular-season home games last season:

Game | Announced | Actual

Sept. 16 vs. Carolina | 72,528 | 64,884

Sept. 23 vs. New Orleans | 74,457 | 69,430

Sept. 30 vs. Cincinnati | 71,985 | 62,455

Oct. 14 vs. Tampa Bay | 72,665 | 61,206

Oct. 22 vs. New York Giants | 72,756 | 67,494

Nov. 18 vs. Dallas | 74,447 | 69,613

Dec. 2 vs. Baltimore | 72,262 | 60,626

Dec. 16 vs. Arizona | 72,084 | 56,470

2018 ATLANTA UNITED ATTENDANCE

Comparing the announced and actual attendance figures for Atlanta United’s regular-season and post-season home games last year:

Game | Announced | Actual

March 11 vs. D.C. United | 72,035 | 67,011

March 17 vs. Vancouver | 45,003 | 41,050

April 7 vs. Los Angeles FC | 45,207 | 41,431

April 15 vs. New York City FC | 45,001 | 40,892

April 28 vs. Montreal | 45,039 | 38,636

May 9 vs. Sporting KC | 44,696 | 39,568

May 20 vs. NY Red Bulls | 45,089 | 39,934

June 2 vs. Philadelphia | 45,140 | 40,689

June 20 U.S. Open Cup | 41,012 | 32,347

June 24 vs. Portland | 45,116 | 39,342

June 30 vs. Orlando | 71,932 | 66,009

July 15 vs. Seattle | 72,243 | 65,266

July 21 vs. D.C. United | 45,087 | 39,692

Aug. 4 vs. Toronto | 45,191 | 40,531

Aug. 19 vs. Columbus | 45,303 | 39,581

Sept. 22 vs. Real Salt Lake | 72,017 | 61,594

Oct. 6 vs. New England | 45,122 | 37,277

Oct. 21 vs. Chicago | 71,812 | 62,581

Nov. 11 vs. NYCFC (playoffs) | 70,526 | 65,142

Nov. 25 vs. NY Red Bulls (playoffs) | 70,016 | 62,788

Dec. 8 vs. Portland (MLS Cup final) | 73,019 | 69,004

Source: "Announced" is the figure announced at the event, based on tickets distributed. "Actual" is the figure submitted by Mercedes-Benz Stadium to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority for each event.