Seems as though the Glazers are cooking the books regarding attendance figures at OT. The police keep their own records of people going through the turnstiles and say that Man U are failing to acknowledge ST holders that don't turn up to games.
One example being the Capital One Cup game against The Toon.
United are still the best-supported club in England by some distance but the new set of figures claim Old Trafford was not even half-full for the Capital One Cup tie against Newcastle in September. The police recorded the number of people who passed through the turnstiles at 33,409. United gave the crowd as 46,358. In the next round, against West Ham, the disparity was even bigger. The police put down the crowd as 51,724, whereas United recorded it as 71,081.
When United played Cluj in the Champions League in December, having qualified for the knockout stages, the crowd was announced as 71,521. In fact, the police say it was 46,894.
The OP said basically the same thing about Spurs with a few days left before the Basel game, the actual attendance was given as 32,186. Judging by the pictures I would say this was about right. Empty seats to capicity ratio would be knowhere near what's happening at OT.
I find it all a bit confusing why clubs do this, the Scum do it aswell, there is no way they have +60.000 at every home game yet insist on reporting that they do.
If Man U can't sell out their home games, and according to the Police, they don't, I think the 56,000 capacity we have planned would be a decent compromise. I'm assuming that ENIC would have the good sense to have 'add on' plans to the New stadium to allow for future expansion if required.