Gulitti: Capacity has changed, as has reporting attendance, with new owners; Rock is full for just second time this season last night

Tom Gulitti of the Record says the Devils new owners have completely changed how attendance is reported — and they’ve also lowered capacity to 16,592, some 1,033 fewer seats than in the arena’s first few years.

Click here to read the report.

Frankly, I am not sure I get what they’re saying here.

— Apparently, the 17,625 figure included standing-room-only and obstructed view seating. The thing is, they say other teams don’t include SRO, when in fact, they often do. A quick look at boxscores and you’ll see teams like the Flyers, Maple Leafs and Blackhawks often report attendance that is well over 100 percent capacity. So on the surface, I don’t get this at all.

— Truly, when has anyone ever heard of the Devils selling SRO tickets anyway? It didn’t even happen in the 2012 Finals.

Vanderbeek

— I was at media day before the Prudential Center opened. Then-owner Jeff Vanderbeek said there wasn’t an obstructed view in the house, and I have never heard anyone complaining of an obstructed view.

— Even if they eliminated obstructed view from calculating what is a sellout, are we really to believe there were more than 1,000 of them in the house? The concept is absurd.

— Regardless of any change in policy, the team’s average attendance is down by more than 3,000 over this same time period last season.

Apparently, later this or next week, the Record will have an expose on how the new owners have changed the capacity — and their new policy on reporting what constitutes as sellout. Additionally, they’ll also be revealing their ticket giveaway policy and sales policy.

As I have been saying for months now, I think we are going to learn that under Vanderbeek, attendance was extremely inflated, both with simply saying the place held more people than it truly does — and in that Vanderbeek comped enormous numbers of tickets last season.

Oh, and by the way, the Devils had a sellout last night v. Carolina at 16,592. And they lost again.

Happy Thanksgiving!