A difficult choice – FSG need to act
At a little past 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon, supporters inside Anfield were faced with a difficult decision. As the clock inside the stadium turned to 77 minutes, over 15,000 supporters made that decision. One that they hate having to make, one they have never had to make before and one that no doubt was a reluctant one for many. They stood, with friends, family and fellow supporters, and walked out. They made a stand. They felt they were left with no other choice. Why? Because of a financial choice made in Boston by our owners. The loud chants about greed and enough is enough from the entire ground spoke volumes. So did so many empty seats.
This morning there is talk of trans-Atlantic phone calls, that the owners are ‘considering’ making changes to ‘elements’ of their ticketing plan. Now is not the time for consideration, it is time for action. Thirteen months of considering was squandered, a missed opportunity. And this cannot just be changing parts of it, like £77 tickets alone. What about the tickets priced £75, £71, £66, £65, £64, £62, £55 and £53 that are all due to go up in price from this season? 10,421 tickets per game, up in price. Or the £1,029 season ticket or the £979, £959, £919 and £875 ones that are also increasing in comparison to this season’s prices. 9,813 season ticket holders, expected to pay more.
The club should be considering the decision to make more from supporters. £2 million more. The club should be considering how it can talk of £9 pound tickets when in fact there will be just 1,581 of them over three games (0.18% of available tickets) and expectations that these seats will in fact be restricted views in the upper corners of the new Main Stand Upper Tier.
The owners should be considering our proposal we presented in discussions – available here. That now was the opportunity to lower the burden on supporters. To harness that passion walking out the ground into a passion unseen before inside the ground. That they can and should lower prices. Our proposal, from all supporters groups involved in the thirteen months of discussions, was a commitment to doing that. To reduce the burden by £1 million in 2016/17 and to keep doing this over time. These are the ‘elements’ the owners should be considering. They should be considering leading the way.
At 7:30pm this evening, we will be holding a Question and Answer session, immediately following the club’s own. Representatives from Spirit Of Shankly, Spion Kop 1906 and the LFC Supporters Committee who formed the Ticket Working Group will address questions we have been asked so far, respond to points made by the club in their Q & A and answering questions that you can send in. This will be hosted and facilitated by Neil Atkinson and The Anfield Wrap. The club will be asked to take part.
We will share details later today on how you can join in and it will be made available to watch and listen back afterwards.
