Meet the Empty Seat Gang

They arrive without buying a ticket. They take the best seats, contribute absolutely nothing and somehow still manage to cost you money.

By Anne Docherty LinkedIn · 28 July 2026

Meet the Empty Seat Gang

They arrive without buying a ticket.

They take the best seats, contribute absolutely nothing and somehow still manage to cost you money.

You may not notice them at first. One empty chair near the back. A couple of gaps by the aisle. Nothing to worry about.

Then they spread out.

Before long, Roy is helping himself to your revenue, Vince is draining the atmosphere, Barry is making helpful comments about the turnout and Colin is quietly dismantling your confidence.

Meet the Empty Seat Gang: four unwanted guests with one shared ambition - to make your event feel emptier, flatter and less profitable than it should.

Roy Revenue Robber steals the income every unsold seat should have brought in.

Vince the Vibe Vacuum sucks the atmosphere out of the room and leaves even a good event feeling flatter.

Barry Buzzkill spots every empty chair and makes sure everybody else notices it too.

Colin Confidence Crusher waits until ticket sales are slow, then starts whispering that the whole event was a bad idea.

Ticket Otter is here to help you, the event organiser, defeat the Empty Seat Gang and fill more of those chairs.

Take our Why Didn’t they buy quiz and get started on your mission to fill those seats and banish the empty seat gang.

Take the quiz!

 

 

About the author

Anne Docherty

Anne Docherty is one third of the team behind TicketOtter. By day, she runs Comedy At Work, where comedians teach teams the skills stand-up demands: getting to the punchline quickly, painting vivid pictures with words, reading the room, and recovering when nobody laughs (a gift, she insists, not a tragedy). TicketOtter began as a fix for a problem Comedy At Work kept hitting - event tickets priced fairly for organisers and audiences alike. It worked so well the trio decided to share it with the world.

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