Enough is enough, you greedy bastards
February 10, 2016 5:44 PM   Subscribe

Anfield Road prices to stay frozen for two years. After many protests [nsfw:language] over a price increase from £59 to £77 - that included an unprecedented 10000 fan walk-out against Sunderland at the 77th minute (result 2-0, final score 2-2), Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports Group stepped back and apologized from the original pricing plan.

Meanwhile, fans of Dortmund also protested prices this week, by throwing tennis balls after having to pay €19,5 (standing) €38,5 (seating) for an away cup match in Stuttgart. German football is traditionally one of the cheapest in Europe.

English football at this moment is at crossroads: on one hand, the new TV contracts kicking in next season will likely push even more English clubs to the top of Deloitte's Football Money League (currently 9). In addition to several new stadiums opened recently, others will follow, including redevelopment of Anfield Road, White Hart Lane, the Olympic Stadium and Stamford Bridge.

But on the other, while lower division teams have been struggling for a while, it's not certain this influx of money will help top English teams to dominate in Europe teams from the top of European football, as transfer fee demands will go up, as well as salary demands, and even domestically, traditional big spenders are being upstaged this season by Leicester City (5 points clear with 13 games to go) - a team with an estimated transfer market value closer to the bottom.

A new development is also the emerging Chinese Super League (with some government backing) has splurged in transfers this January and outspent European teams, by signing players such as Gervinho (Roma) Jackson (Atl. Madrid) and Ramires (Chelsea) in a total over €130 Million (to the concern of some managers, including Arsenal's Arsene Wenger), and it's possible more will follow.
posted by lmfsilva (15 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
As many have pointed out, this is incentive for raising the prices to £98 next time.

Glad to see my Reds (owners) doing the right thing. EPL teams have obscene amounts of cash coming in from new TV deals. They should be cutting seat prices, not raising them.

ynwa
posted by persona au gratin at 6:04 PM on February 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


They should be cutting seat prices

Or cut seats, even. One thing I forgot to mention were the campaigns for safe terracing. The new WHL could have a stand rivaling the Sud Tribune in Dortmund if the 17000-seater end is converted to it, adding around 8000 heads on game day. If the total revenue of the stand is kept still, tickets could be around 30% cheaper. It works in Germany.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:26 PM on February 10, 2016


Fenway Sports Group is, of course, the same group that owns the Boston Red Sox, who last year had the highest average ticket prices in Major League Baseball.
posted by adamg at 6:42 PM on February 10, 2016


Living in the Boston area, I admit I'm surprised that FSG was willing to roll back prices. They'll find a way to make money on upscaled concessions, though.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:52 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Glad to see my Reds (owners) doing the right thing.

Mike Goodman got it right:
[I]t's not about right and wrong. It's about us (current ticket holders) vs them (people who'd buy more expensive tickets). That's all.
posted by asterix at 7:49 PM on February 10, 2016


Prices at Leicester City, however, are probably going up.
posted by eriko at 7:53 PM on February 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Thanks for the links. Related, the Swiss Rambler just did his annual analysis of the Money League.

As a Swansea fan I'm generally happy to see fans of any top club upset, though the China league is a concern. I imagine it's a headache for national team coaches to try to put together squads when top players are scattered even wider and playing against less consistent opponents, not to mention Beijing smog.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:54 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Eriko, maybe not. There's an article on the Guardian where the supporters of all 20 premier league clubs give the verdict on ticket prices and Leicester's owners seem to be doing right by their fans.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 8:10 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Or cut seats, even. One thing I forgot to mention were the campaigns for safe terracing.

I don't care how much logic you apply to it, it will be a LONG time before England allows anything but all-seaters in the top leagues, thanks to Hillsborough -- though you do get three years if you make it to the Championship to convert your terraces to seats. However, there's no exception for the Premier League -- if you get promoted, you put in seats that offseason, you find somewhere else to play, or you forfeit the promotion.

Leicester's owners seem to be doing right by their fans.

So, even Leicester's owners are surprised by this run! :-)
posted by eriko at 8:15 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


This part from the Guardian article makes me proud to be a Stoke fan.

Stoke City
How angry/happy are you with your club’s ticket prices and what measures would you like to see to bring prices down?

"Very happy, I don’t think the club could be doing any more. Season ticket prices at Stoke have been kept at the same price for eight years on the trot – they are the same price this season as in the year we won promotion from the Championship in 2008. The club has rewarded supporters’ loyalty since we came up from the Championship and, on top of that, it provides free coach travel to away matches in the Premier League. It doesn’t matter whether it’s two or 25 coaches, they are free. I’d estimate a Stoke City supporter saves around £500 a season compared to supporters of most Premier League clubs."
posted by josher71 at 3:56 AM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


My favourite thing about this row would have to be Graham from Sheffield accurately articulating the mindset of the owners, managers and media about football fans in a Partridge-worthy set of soundbites. I don't doubt there was some performative outrage from the presenters afterwards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hltjj

[probably region-locked to UK, sorry. A quick search on YouTube didn't find me an alternative link]
posted by comealongpole at 4:10 AM on February 11, 2016


Football Leaks: Whistleblower Exposes Top Players' Contracts
posted by bukvich at 5:30 AM on February 11, 2016


Putting prices up when the new TV deal is about to kick in is pure greed. And it's not as thought LFC are doing well at the moment, a 2-2 draw with Sunderland and then losing to West Ham in the FA cup. We can't seem to buy a goal some days (too many days tbh) and actually have a negative goal difference despite our league position.

Respect to Leicester city though - they play good football and deserve to be top of the league, and, in fact, in my opinion they deserve to win it. If they beat Arsenal this weekend it will sset them up nicely, as their run-in then is not too bad.

Man City are just all over the place this season - maybe shoulda waited on the manager announcement but I can understand why they made it when they did.

Arsenal - typically have fallen away after being top, just don't have the strength as a team to stay top and win games by playing badly and grinding it out.

Manu - whahahahahaha.

Chelsea - whahahahahaha - so glad Maureen has gone, and hope they go down, but unfortunately the teams below them are far too bad for that to happen.

The bottom of the league is interesting as Villa have closed the gap, and none of the teams above them are playing particularly well, although I think it's too late for Villa now.
posted by marienbad at 6:13 AM on February 11, 2016


@robocop is bleeding: It's not like they're Jeremy Jacobs or anything.
posted by ColdOfTheIsleOfMan at 6:41 AM on February 11, 2016


I don't care how much logic you apply to it, it will be a LONG time before England allows anything but all-seaters in the top leagues, thanks to Hillsborough

There were campaigns for safe terracing for at least 15 years or so, and there's some slow progress being made. What will eventually force the FA and UEFA (who also have a ban on standing terraces) to consider is if TV income stalls and fans won't put up with ticket prices in the three digits. Hillsborough was the result of a number of factors that wouldn't happen now (poor gate control, old stands that were expanded beyond what their turnstiles and exits allowed and abysmal police/emt response).
posted by lmfsilva at 1:39 PM on February 11, 2016


« Older Fox Fail   |   Excavating a wasp nest Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments