The attendance is good - a hollow tribute! (4)
I believe the answer is:
gate
'the attendance' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'good a hollow tribute' is the wordplay.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'hollow' suggests removing the centre.
'tribute' with its middle taken out is 'te'.
'g'+'a'+'te'='GATE'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for gate that I've seen before include "Punish student" , "Means of entry" , "Attendance figure" , "Doorway" , "Field entrance" .)