The Spirit of Shankly reacted quickly when we discovered overnight between Wednesday and Thursday of this week that Liverpool Football Club were announcing a change to the Priority Ticket Scheme. We obtained feedback from Ian Ayre, Commercial Director of Liverpool Football Club that we published as quickly as possible on the SOS website (here). 

Following this we received scores of emails from our members regarding the closure of the Priority Ticket Scheme and as we promised we took stock of what our members’ views were in order to see what stance we should take. The vast majority of the emails that we received were against the proposed changes. It was clear that PTS members were unhappy that their years of loyalty and dedication were being seemingly disregarded and from next season their ticket purchasing history would be worth as much as someone signing up to the “Belong” scheme afresh.

Our Club Liaison officer contacted Ian Ayre today to express the views we were getting. This evening we have received a response from Ian Ayre who has confirmed that following our representations loyalty will be a consideration when ticket allocations are considered for next season. Mr. Ayre said in an email to the Union:

Thanks for your email about SOS members and their issues over the changes to the PTS. As I have said to you before I am happy to have an open dialogue with the Supporters Union as well as any other supporters and believe that we need more open communication.

What we released this week were the details of the PTS being amalgamated into the LFC Membership system. What we have not yet done is finalised the selling criteria around what will become the “members sale”.

We understand that some people will have gained loyalty from attending games via the PTS and that some PTS members will have been to many more games than others. Once we have finished our work on the selling processes and criteria we will of course share that with everyone including any members of the PTS who are also your Union members, but we have ensure that we get that right and ensure it works before we communicate it.

I hope that helps clarify where we are up to, if you have any further questions just let me know .

We are pleased that our approach to the Club has resulted in this review of the Club’s policy and we will continue to monitor the situation on behalf of our members.