Panel at EMU will investigate attendance

Original reported attendance figures indicated Eastern averaged more than 15,000 fans per game - an increase of nearly 4,000 from 2003. But how that number is reached can't be determined. Athletics department officials said they can no longer trust internal counters, which are built into stadium turnstiles, believed to be about 45 years old.
Spin spin spin. It's all the turnstiles' fault!

This past season, the department added $1,500 to the baseball team's budget to have players stand behind ticket-takers at eight stadium entrances and count fans with a hand-held clicker as they passed through the gates. The players' count is used as a verification for numbers generated by the Ypsilanti Kiwanis Club, which is paid to use hand-clickers as fans pass through the turnstiles. The athletics department then has three conflicting numbers on which to base football attendance.
3 sets of numbers? Oh so that's why they over reported by over 3,000! Wonder if those turnstiles included, oh I don't know, the opposing players and coaches? Band members?

Here's the kicker:

Even with those three conflicting numbers, the announced attendance is still based on a figure estimated by athletics department officials, who then hand that number to the sports information department and includes it in the game statistics, department officials said.
So they're basically *saying* it's quite possible for AD "officials" to falsify the numbers. It's also saying - official attendance figures, the way they're gathered now, cannot be used as a measurement for attendance. Turnstile counts are the only thing that is remotely measurable - and even that is rife with problems.

University officials also spent about $50,000 in marketing the football program believing that the NCAA would be mandating a minimum requirement for attendance as a way of Division I schools maintaining their status. Now, that policy is not expected to be discussed at the NCAA's April 28 meeting, making the attendance issues moot.

"(Having difficulty determining attendance) is not an Eastern Michigan problem or issue - this is a Division I-A issue," athletics director Dave Diles said. "If our system for counting people through the turnstiles can be changed and improved, then that's an opportunity for growth and advancement of the institution."
Translation: When in doubt, blame the system. Sounds like EMU is blaming anyone and everyone else for their own problems of lying.