Ticket Prices

I'm not surprised, he is coming from where ticket prices are incredibly reasonable.
I have watched a few Bundesliga games, 1 time Dortmund and 2 times Berlin. No more than 15euros each time and your tickets include free public transport for the day. However German football also has 51%+ fans ownership, so they are at a place we will never bet at

 

Is FSG not contradicting themselves a bit here regarding the stadium..excluding their much sought after expansion of corporate seats.

I mean they stated early on that we could not obtain parity with the likes of Arsenal, City and United on financial terms. They talked about playing it cuter.

They decided not to build a new stadium to match seat numbers with those power clubs.

They refuse to pay players big wages and removed those who earned them from the books.

They are not going to make much more commercially than they haven't developed already without us winning trophies.

And I'll repeat the question...what direct effect has maintaining or raising normal seat prices had on our ability to compete against those teams on the football field in the 5 years FSG have owned us?

 

thats where fsg are going wrong in my opinion, yes we had a lot of players on decent money, but we have managed to move them on as they was worth something to someone and were decent players and why we had cl football and in the top 4 at one time( if anyone can remember that far back lol), now we just are left with average players who we paid too much for who are on decent money that they know they wont get elsewhere so dont want to leave.

get what you pay for fsg.

 

as i haven't been to a game ,either home or away for years ,i feel a bit hypocritical about commenting on this but what the hell .
FSG would have faced complaints about the price rise anyway but that has been exacerbated about the huge jump in income coming in at exactly the same time as the price hikes.The idea that a one off ticket costs £77 just seems ridiculous but even £1000 for a season ticket is as bad imo
I think they looked at it as the new stand needs paying for plus the facilities are better so an increase is perfectly justified without thinking it thru.
I'm not sure FSG still understand the fans relationship with the club (that comment re the relationship applies to all Football clubs in this country) after all in USA if another city offered them enough they could just move Boston Red Socks to say Seattle.
One thing though and i'm too lazy to check but haven't we made a loss each year since FSG took control

PS I have this fear that loads of clubs have already pissed the extra money away ,

 

They would have all started planning how to spend it before the ink was dry!

 

Except the new stand has been paid for with an interest-free loan from FSG itself, and they promised in the first place it would be paid off using the revenue from the extra seats themselves, not increases to the cost per seat

 

well....

1. there are other limitations on our planning to stop us matching utd. Arsenal have a blockage in terms of public transport as well. we both would have 60k stadiums if FSG deliver... I was personally bemused when i heard 58.5k not 60k.

2. FSG specifically talked about upgrades within the stadium... to sell more ****e to those i nthe venue on match day bascially. better concession etc.

3. The above should allow us get to at least parity with most rivals. However the ticket prices being charged look like london prices to me.

4. Yes you are right about big wages but........ our average wage is about £67k per week which is still 5th highest in the league. We had however to balance the books... i think we've increase revenues more than cut costs par se at this point. For every gerrard that left a henderson demanded the 100k per week.

5. You are right... they won't increase commercial revenue without success. My personal hope was that warrior/new balance would have thier deal run out and adidas would come in due to klopp and pay us more and give us fans decent kits not this new balance tat.

6. The reality is arsenal built the emirates from a position of strength and reality security about CL. they had no city on the horizon. no other team to really take 4th place trophy away. SO they built it and sold masses of apartments on the site of highbury. We on the other hand are building from a position of weakness...

city got handed the eastlands city of manchester commonwealth games stadium. West ham just got handed the london olympic stadium. We and spurs ahve to build our own, without CL money and also we have to buy an entire team AGAIN cos we are ****e at everything.... wenger thougth hmmm i can get away with not going and buying cos the thing is easy enough with a few on a tight budget for 5 years... he did so. now he shovelled 40/50 mil out and is back closer the top and has two fa cups as weel.

sadly LFC have to somehow pay for this stand.... and a team and gorssly inflated wages and egos.

I think we need to show the same spirit is saying **** NO YOU AINT BUYING THAT ****E when someone says oh balotelli what a good idea as when its tickets.

The thing about this debate is nobody is talking abuot the price of a glass of ale or a pukka pie at half time and frankly while it might be better than the emirates inside that massive ediface I'm pretty sure if the ticket is that expensive the caviar will be too.

 

I agree and i would add agent and players have been too.

a lot of contracts got renewed early by clubs to try and stave off some players demanded double in two years time.

For example mingolet... ok everyone thinks he's awful... fine... but... he signed for 80k... that will prob be average prem wage within 2 years.... as sick as that sounds its got to already be about 50k. (it was 43k last season and have not seen data for this)

 

FSG are short-termist morons.

Long term they will never compete with some other clubs in term of money per seat that can be generated. Campaigning, with Everton, for fixed price away tickets and sensible home prices would decrease their larger match day financial power while also being the right thing

 

I just think they thought they could get by with doing certain things and its not worked and they need to change the structures at the top. shafting fans for an extra 20 mil a year to buy an extra player won't get them to the top.

 

You are right. The only clubs charging more than us are the London clubs.

 

Said it before, FSG gambled their plans on FFP. Everyone but them knew it was never going to happen.

Ripping the fans off is their back up plan. Not much of a plan even in finance terms never mind any other way.

And from another angle they've undermined their manager again as he placed so much importance on the "one club" idea with getting the fans back on Board and playing their part.

Yet another thing he must be shaking his head at as he unpeels the great myth about our club that hasn't been true in a long time.

 

Someone on TalkSport (a caller) just said the fans wouldn't have walked out had we been in the title race and backed that claim up with "they won't walk out in two weeks time when they've paid £100 a ticket for the League Cup final"

 

Valid point.

But regardless of context - they did the right thing, and I'm glad they took action because that action is not just for them but for everyone else who is subjected to high ticket prices.

Whilst I'm not blaming the fans for our result, it was fitting that we dropped 2 points from when they walked out.

Football without fans ...

 

So TalkSport gave airtime to a moronic WUM. Shocked.

 

Another caller on TS was a red who'd walked on on 77 and has a pass in the main stand.

He said he didn't do it for him, as he could stomach the additional £150 he's going to have to pay next season. He said he was doing it because he can already see how the club is becoming distant from the youngsters in the City. He said the interest in going to the game amongst the next generation locally just isn't there in his experience, so the club was losing its connection with the locale and as the prices continue to increase then that'll only get worse.

Wise words.

They also had a football financial expert on who said that next seasons TV revenue from Hong Kong next season - on its own - could pay for every away seat at every club next season - all season long - twice over.........Hong Kong ffs!

Financial necessity my arse.

It needs the entire leagues fans to get behind this protest and then collectively they'll force the PL to act due to the reputational damage to their 'brand' that it'll cause.

 

Playing devils advocate:

If the tickets were £20, would it improve the atmosphere?

Personally, I don't think it would. For me, I want cheaper tickets so it's the games are accessible for all - not just locals, not just kids.

 

How would it not?

 

It was noticeable the reaction of the Sunderland fans who applauded the moment the protest commenced. All clubs need to consider their pricing policy for tickets including away tickets.
nearly all the "Big name" clubs have poor atmospheres apart from a few games per season

 

Without kids and without locals you don't have a club that is rooted in its community.

Without that connection it would ultimately merely become a 'franchise' that could go where it wanted due to the lack of a local ties........sound familiar???

If tickets were £20 then the grounds would be full of the locals that have been forced out by the OOT'ers and the middle classes. Who don't ****ing sing - trust me. So yes of course the atmosphere would improve over time.