Topic: To Boycott or not?

[Harinder]

So, do I or don’t I?

Before we cover that off lets set a scene. Granted that whatever is painted is done with the brush of the artist therefore it’s what I want you to see. That bias I cannot remove such is the way of the world but hopefully by the end we all have food for thought in regards to all that is going on.

Ticket prices are changing. Depending on where you sit some will be heavily impacted and others may see things go down or up slightly. Season ticket holders are in or out of pocket and members who qualify for bulk sales are going to enter the gunfight for the Kop seats that haven’t really changed price. Everybody else will have to pay more on the face of this give or take a few rows around the ground in other stands.

There has been much in the way of efforts to try and ticket prices to come down. We’ve taken a lot of hits along the way and just accepted them and continually sleepwalked into each change it feels. Premier League matches can cost £50 and over but the corresponding league cup fixture against the same team is half that price (Chelsea away springs to mind… twice!). What do we do? We take it. Because the club know we will take it. They know our emotional connection to need to see the team play is like a drug and we are like junkies. They know it and love it. They must do – they know how to push the buttons like nobody else.

So they push another button. The multi-coloured one that changes seats, categories, tiers into a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end for Liverpool Football Club. Once again those emotions are challenged and the drug seems to be getting away from us. Like junkies we clamour again to cling on to the very thing we’ve expected to be ok…getting a ticket to go the game. I must add it’s not a privilege to be able to get a ticket. Season ticket holders or members that have the ability to go to a match balance that with the cost every single time going home or away.

Members tickets. It’s right royal pain truth be told. Members sales are littered with tales of frustration and woe. Away days are near impossible to get a foot in the door and European matches away worse still. We still do it. We still cry and emotionally drain ourselves twice a year and see the money leave. Now more will leave and an online system more frail than Liverpool hamstrings leave us at the peril of baskets unfulfilled. The sting in the tail will be at the end of the whole process post the aforementioned turmoil only this time it will cost more. More because someone says so. More because you know you’ll do it somehow. More because they know that too.

Lets think for a while though. What if you can’t pay more? What if each season you’ve gone through the whole twice yearly process to buy home games and already know it was hard. I suspect if you rang up to complain you’d get through to the following automated message after “you have been charged for this call”.

   “thank you for calling Liverpool Football Club, your call is important to us. Should you wish to buy tickets please don’t press one. You previously pressed two to register your dismay at the price increases. Liverpool Football Club wishes to inform you that you can’t come if you can’t pay. You can’t pay so you can’t go. You may have come for many years and now will cry many tears but You. Can’t. Come. Please hang up and try again later”

But what can you try for? Category C because you’re worth it? The autocup scheme is no longer your friend either with price changes so the marketplace for tickets is no longer a place where you’re welcome. What do you do? You’re alone it seems because “I’m Alright, Jack” from anywheretown can go but not you. Isn’t football supposed to be affordable for all?

“Don’t like the prices? Don’t buy” I hear them say. Allow me please to explain. Habitually people have been going to matches for a very long time. Even before memberships and fan cards came along. From near and far I’d like to add before someone pops along with any localised references here. Ask yourself this – does someone who’s been going for the last 10/20/30 years deserve to feel unwelcome now? Do we just go “soz abaar you” because they haven’t got the money? Does that actually feel good to do that to your fellow comrade? The Liverpool I’ve come to know and love didn’t exclude anyone and I should know this more than many… I’ve experienced looking and being different all my life!  I’ve never felt more at home than sitting with those who love supporting our club through thick and thin.

“But think of the cheaper seats” I hear them say. Again how many actually are there? Refer back to turmoil of online sales. Add turmoil of a world renowned ticket office that tells us things later rather than earlier. Add more turmoil when it dawns upon us all that there aren’t a lot of these seats and robbing Peter to pay Paul didn’t actually happen. Both Peter and Paul have been fleeced!

“We need it to be competitive”, I hear someone heckle. Well that’s worked. A while back I wrote that for all the off field progress in revenue streams we’ve not seen that translate to performances on the pitch. The internet is full of rage these days of persons pitted against players then pitted against each other and then the beauty of this rage manifests itself in the almighty Twitter poll (or RT for x and like for y). Something is wrong in all that. A preaching of hate to cure hate doesn’t really work I guess.

“We need to move with the times”. Pardon my French but you can fuck that shit right off. Have you seen what these times may lead to? I’m leaving economics aside as I’m sure by the time you finish reading this we’ll have someone else as our new preferred car battery supplier. These times you talk of have resulted in half and half scarves, staff to fly flags and don’t get me started on things left on seats for you as you arrive novelties. Our times have been expressed on a Kop that is beginning to ebb away. Already rinsed by photography and marketing material, it’s a surprise they haven’t attempted getting sponsor logos as banners. Could you imagine it? Bob Paisley’s huge flag in the middle of the Kop with “sponsored by Burger King” brandished somewhere… we’d become home of the Whopper indeed!

What’s all this got to do then with the boycott? Well, everything. By changing the dynamic of what comes to the game now we shape the future. Is where we are now really where we want to be? Do you really think everything that you see around you is because of Out of Towners vs Locals and atmosphere on its arse due to that? It really isn’t. It’s probably more akin to the fact that should you not be able to afford the current prices then you can’t go. You’ve been priced out a long time ago or are soon to be priced out. You who had been going for such a long time. You who have experienced highs and lows. You who’s been brought up on Liverpool Football Club. You who’s been let down by the ones next to you?

It’s not survival of the fittest here folks. WE are Liverpool Football Club. From the regulars who trek over 4 hours week in week out to get home or away to the first timer drawn to the Kop and “that” atmosphere. The very atmosphere that’s being served notice because mark my words when you make it so that’s it’s not affordable for all then it soon becomes nothing to see at all.

We’ve taken stances before against all odds and won. We owe it to all those who are impacted to be as one with them. I’ve heard many say this won’t have an impact. We won’t know until we try. You may read this and think that so long as you can afford it you’re ok or that you’re not really impacted as you don’t go enough to be. It’s not a time to be thinking of just yourself, truth be told.

You may be someone going for the very first time. This makes leaving even harder. I hear you. My first time was magic. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel any different about their first time to Anfield. I would say this though. This may be your only time. For someone else it’s already become a last time and it happened without us realising too late. What if that person was you?

Whatever happens tomorrow no-one should be chastised for staying. Emotions are a difficult thing. Hopefully the next time the spirit grows.

[ABJ]

Amen to that. Put far more eloquently than I ever could.

[Chakan]

Beautiful.

[Twelfth Man]

Amen.

[Notorious IT]

Top post.

[Mr Mingebag Squid]

Quality

[red_lfc_costello]

Whatever happens tomorrow no-one should be chastised for staying. Emotions are a difficult thing.

This is very important.

Great post.

[El Lobo]

Bravo Sir

[Groundskeeper Willie]

Quality Harinder.

[Crimson_Tank]

Well said Harinder.

[24/7]

Harinder, as usual, your wordsmith skills have me in awe.

[Hinesy]

I've put this on the front page Harinder mate, hope thats' ok. And called it You'll Never Walk (out) Alone because I'm a cheesy twat

[CHOPPER]

Tiz a Nay frum I.


A tell thee nar, thell be nay waaay appen as al be tolkin all Yocksha assent and there like, appen.

[Timbo's Goals]

The situation demanded that someone rise to the occasion to represent us all.

Thankfully that someone just has.

Superb H.

 

[It's Jimmy Corkhill]

I'll be saying my piece very loudly on those that don't walk out.

Soz about that........not really.

[Harinder]

I'll be saying my piece very loudly on those that don't walk out.

Soz about that........not really.

Be savvy my friend. Lets say that is all is picked up on from the boycott. It would be terrible. Emotions though will run high and I'm a nobody when it comes to telling anyone else how to behave when I can't be sure of I would be.

Ian Ayre has said

"There is a seat for everyone at the right price. That is the thing to look at before you take that type of action and walk out. It can only be damaging to Liverpool if we have got it wrong and someone can define right and wrong in different ways."

Well the definition of right and wrong when done on consensus would be that he's got something very wrong. Let's just show him who's right

[Magz50]

Well done

[Peabee]

Cracking post that, Harinder.

[justsean]

Brilliant Harinder. Everyone needs to read this.

[24/7]

Cracking post that, Harinder.

So was the follow up one by him

[soxfan]

I don't have an opinion on whether the boycott is a good or bad idea as I am thousands of miles away. I only can offer an observation.

What you are going through now happened to us here in the States 10-15 years ago. At various times in my life you'd judge me as being middle-class or upper-middle-class, bar for a couple of frightening years when my business collapsed. When I was young, my parents drove my brother and me 50 miles to see the Red Sox play about 7-8 times a season. But the prices are so high now, I can't justify going more that 3-4 times myself a season. And that's without kids, and I'd have to sit further back than I'd like to feel ok with the ticket price I paid. Then comes ridiculous parking, food and drink prices. As far as NFL games are concerned? Even worse. I don't even contemplate going to New England Patriots games. I don't know how people do it, or what they sacrifice for the privilege of going to a sporting event.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...this is the world we live in now, and it isn't going to get better. I applaud those of you who want to fight for lower prices, I really do. But I don't see how the situation improves.

1. Even worse than in the closed leagues in the US with hardly any competition, the Premier League competes for talent with leagues all over the world. So a top club like Liverpool needs to snatch every pound it can to be able to buy a player before Chelsea, or PSG, or Bayern or Madrid does. (Let's leave the "Liverpool negotiation skills"argument aside for a moment). So as ridiculous as it seems with all the new TV money coming in, Liverpool STILL needs every pound to fight off all the other PL clubs who are getting wads of TV cash now too. Because Arsenal isn't lowering prices, nor United, nor Man City, etc. You risk Liverpool becoming as irrelevant as Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest or Leeds if we let the financial gap widen any further between us and the 4 clubs richer than us in England.

2. The great thing about Liverpool is its huge supporter base. But it's also a bad thing, because if 10,000 of you locals give up your tickets tomorrow your seats won't get cold by the time another 10,000 pay for the spots. Either other locals or once-a decade tourists like me will fill them. And they'll pay the high(er) prices the club burdens them with.

3. The ultimate solution -- which has a 1% chance of ever happening -- is for the major European leagues to join together and agree to price caps on players and tickets. If the Premier League does it alone, the talent will drift to other leagues in search of a bigger payday. Look what Alex Teixeira just did -- he went all the way to China to get his payday FFS.

4. The ugly but realistic solution is tiered pricing in the ground where a percentage of richy-riches pays obscene prices for the best seats, and the working-class people get lower priced tickets but are shifted to less desirable areas of the stand. I know you all hate that idea, but it's what we face in the US. It sucks. And I've chosen -- along with millions of other Americans -- to buy myself a nicer TV instead to follow my team.

I hope somehow, some way, you all get your wish. I hope you get good seats at reasonable prices. I just don't know how it can happen. Good luck.

[Zeb]

This may be tilting at windmills, but good luck to those who lead the way to try to make a change and a difference. If I could afford the ticket, I'd be with you. Lovely OP Harinder. Hope all remember that everyone's eyes will be on the support tomorrow. Not only to find fault but also potentially to find inspiration.

[wewonit5timesinistanbul]

Is it ok if I post this on Facebook?

[24/7]

Is it ok if I post this on Facebook?

RAWK posts that appear on the open forum are public domain. Go for it.

[Mighty_Red]

Great post Harinder, for me I am I fully behind the boycott and I hope as many people join in as possible.

To put things in context, I have a nice job and probably earn a lot more than many of the match-going regulars even if a lot of it goes on a huge mortgage! Despite this, I just cannot believe how much tickets are nowadays and that's just the face value. Paying all that money just for a run of the mill league match, and not only that paying it weekly. I don't know how some of you guys do it and manage to stay afloat (plus all the other expenses). Fuck me just because you get the money together to watch it, doesn't mean it is in any way affordable or ethically right to demand so much money.

Just to put into context, I paid about 70 euros to see us in the Nou Camp beating Barca. OK it was the home end and had we not got those tickets it would've 250 euros from a tout. Now we are faced with paying that to watch Bournemouth come to town. Apart from housing, nothing else has gone up as much in that time.

You're right, its all about the captive audience, people whose lives have revolved around going every week and can't stop just because of the price, and the fact that demand outstrips supply. It's hard for everyone, but if we don't bit the bullet and act as one, they will keep doing it.

I don't why prices should rise for any existing seats to be honest. I'm not that worried about the top end price of £77 but only if it was for one of the new seats and we make a concerted effort to move all "tourists" to those seats. To charge that for existing seats and charge season ticket holders in the main stand more is pretty bad.

I just wonder how easy it will be to get hold of those cheaper tickets? Most likely nigh-on impossible leaving the majority paying top wack just to get hold of a ticket.

As the Bayern fans said "without fans, football is not worth a penny".

[Cork Red]

I guess what I'm trying to say is...this is the world we live in now, and it isn't going to get better.

It can get better, but it involves sacrifice.  The majority of Bundesliga Fans know that their club will never win the Champions League, but they, rightly in my view, would rather pay a reasonable amount to go watch a decent bunch of lads play than pay for an overpriced TV subscription to watch a group of multi-millionaires play in a near silent stadium in front of an exclusively upper-middle-class audience paying £77 a pop.

Ordinary scousers know that their club is being taken away from them and given to consumers who are willing to pay more, but who will never appreciate it in the same way.  They're fighting back against this at a time when the fans of most other big clubs are accepting it meekly.  I salute them for it.

[horne]

sais it a long time ago during the hicks and gillette era....we should have been information gathering so that organised mails could be sent out in large numbers to match going fans rapidly.
we should have learnt from it....sadly it was overlooked
it was a matter of time before we would be back to square one
same tune...different words
too late to start?

[Macphisto80]

It can get better, but it involves sacrifice.  The majority of Bundesliga Fans know that their club will never win the Champions League, but they, rightly in my view, would rather pay a reasonable amount to go watch a decent bunch of lads play than pay for an overpriced TV subscription to watch a group of multi-millionaires play in a near silent stadium in front of an exclusively upper-middle-class audience paying £77 a pop.

Ordinary scousers know that their club is being taken away from them and given to consumers who are willing to pay more, but who will never appreciate it in the same way.  They're fighting back against this at a time when the fans of most other big clubs are accepting it meekly.  I salute them for it.

Is right. Better to try and do something about it, rather than just bend over and accept it.

[wemmick]

I don't have an opinion on whether the boycott is a good or bad idea as I am thousands of miles away. I only can offer an observation.

What you are going through now happened to us here in the States 10-15 years ago. At various times in my life you'd judge me as being middle-class or upper-middle-class, bar for a couple of frightening years when my business collapsed. When I was young, my parents drove my brother and me 50 miles to see the Red Sox play about 7-8 times a season. But the prices are so high now, I can't justify going more that 3-4 times myself a season. And that's without kids, and I'd have to sit further back than I'd like to feel ok with the ticket price I paid. Then comes ridiculous parking, food and drink prices. As far as NFL games are concerned? Even worse. I don't even contemplate going to New England Patriots games. I don't know how people do it, or what they sacrifice for the privilege of going to a sporting event.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...this is the world we live in now, and it isn't going to get better. I applaud those of you who want to fight for lower prices, I really do. But I don't see how the situation improves.

1. Even worse than in the closed leagues in the US with hardly any competition, the Premier League competes for talent with leagues all over the world. So a top club like Liverpool needs to snatch every pound it can to be able to buy a player before Chelsea, or PSG, or Bayern or Madrid does. (Let's leave the "Liverpool negotiation skills"argument aside for a moment). So as ridiculous as it seems with all the new TV money coming in, Liverpool STILL needs every pound to fight off all the other PL clubs who are getting wads of TV cash now too. Because Arsenal isn't lowering prices, nor United, nor Man City, etc. You risk Liverpool becoming as irrelevant as Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest or Leeds if we let the financial gap widen any further between us and the 4 clubs richer than us in England.

2. The great thing about Liverpool is its huge supporter base. But it's also a bad thing, because if 10,000 of you locals give up your tickets tomorrow your seats won't get cold by the time another 10,000 pay for the spots. Either other locals or once-a decade tourists like me will fill them. And they'll pay the high(er) prices the club burdens them with.

3. The ultimate solution -- which has a 1% chance of ever happening -- is for the major European leagues to join together and agree to price caps on players and tickets. If the Premier League does it alone, the talent will drift to other leagues in search of a bigger payday. Look what Alex Teixeira just did -- he went all the way to China to get his payday FFS.

4. The ugly but realistic solution is tiered pricing in the ground where a percentage of richy-riches pays obscene prices for the best seats, and the working-class people get lower priced tickets but are shifted to less desirable areas of the stand. I know you all hate that idea, but it's what we face in the US. It sucks. And I've chosen -- along with millions of other Americans -- to buy myself a nicer TV instead to follow my team.

I hope somehow, some way, you all get your wish. I hope you get good seats at reasonable prices. I just don't know how it can happen. Good luck.

I hear you, man. The TV cash deals screwed lower- and middle- class fans. One other solution could be a massive TV boycott. That would hurt the clubs significantly and put pressure on them to lower prices. Like you, I bought a nicer TV, but I wonder if that wasn't exactly what the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA wanted in the first place? Let the hardcore support generate TV revenues, and let the upper-class global "consumer" type generate funds at the the games. It's a win-win for them.

[redboxingyeti]

The club should do a hell of a lot more for local fans, else my fear is that Anfield in a few seasons time becomes akin to the crowd watching Tyson V Douglas - an eerie 59,000 sitting in silence. And I say that as an out of towner (York), but one who has been brought up on 45 years of LFC history, the crowds being synonymous with that history.

I love the club and I love the atmosphere at Anfield whenever I've been - it's a tough choice, and I can see both sides of people leaving or staying on 77 minutes. I just hope the club takes notice of the unrest and can come to a compromise.

Really well written OP btw, really hits home. Good luck everyone.

[Jonathan Hall ☆☆☆☆☆☆]

Hear, hear.

[Mutton Geoff]

That is an Epic Post Harinder .

[eAyeAddio]

....Ordinary scousers know that their club is being taken away from them and given to consumers who are willing to pay more, but who will never appreciate it in the same way. 

Absolutely spot on Cork Red!

It isn't just the increased cost of a season ticket which concerns me  but I'm fuck£d if I'm going to watch my team play football while surrounded by phone-wielding, day-tripping 'soccer' tourists loaded down with Anfield Theme Park plastic carrier bags, waiting to be entertained while making no effort at all or not even knowing how to contribute to the overall atmosphere simply because the parasites who now "own" the club want to make a fast buck and are depriving real fans the opportunity of following their football team in the process.......

And no lectures please on me hoping for a footballing Nirvana where all is sweetness and light.

Germany has proved that it can be done here and now and their league is living proof.

One other thing; it is commonly thought that the new top price for a match-day ticket will be £77 but it isn't.

The new top price for a match-day ticket in the Main Stand will be £175 but because this is termed a "low-level hospitality" ticket it is not required to be published by the club,

Welcome to Anfield Theme Park Inc. 2016/17

[kenworthy]

I've only been to Anfield a handful of times as I live in the United States. So I am certainly not qualified to pass judgment on anyone's decision to walk or not. But know that there are international supporters who wholeheartedly support those who want to walk. I know there is a undercurrent feeling that international Reds don't get what all the fuss is about. But there's a huge portion that does. The Premier League is the most marketable professional sports league on the planet, and the global TV deals prove as much. And I fell in love with Liverpool, in part, because of the fervent fan base and aura of Anfield. I want my children to do the same. I have spent thousands on flights, hotels and buying tickets off touts to see my Reds play. But for those who follow this great club up and down England, week-in and week-out, spending as much valuable time as their own money on something they are so passionate about, they certainly have the right to make their feelings known.

[Gladbach73]

Harinder, that is an epic opening post Sir, and if I was wearing a cap I would doff it in your honour. Eloquently put as usual. I'll be in the Kop tomorrow and will be vacating my seat at 77 minutes, this is in my opinion, the thin end of the wedge.

[soxfan]

It can get better, but it involves sacrifice.  The majority of Bundesliga Fans know that their club will never win the Champions League, but they, rightly in my view, would rather pay a reasonable amount to go watch a decent bunch of lads play than pay for an overpriced TV subscription to watch a group of multi-millionaires play in a near silent stadium in front of an exclusively upper-middle-class audience paying £77 a pop.

Ordinary scousers know that their club is being taken away from them and given to consumers who are willing to pay more, but who will never appreciate it in the same way.  They're fighting back against this at a time when the fans of most other big clubs are accepting it meekly.  I salute them for it.

Thanks for the response. I guess you actually put the finger on it: What do Liverpool supporters yearn for more? A top 10-12 sized/successful club in the world with less hardcore local passion due to super-high ticket prices? Or a club with lesser expectations, a smaller player payroll, less success in the League and Europe but with a tremendous, rocking Anfield because local working class folk can fill the place and initiate their youngsters properly? It's going to be difficult to be both.

Good luck to all. My heart's with you.

[Benitez Adoramus]

Great post

To borrow a quote my cousin used in a totally unrelated matter

 "Either decide right now it is hopeless, or hold out for hope and do what we can"....

I'll be leaving my Kop seat on 77 mins tomorrow

[TepidT2O]

A really well considered post....

[John C]

I've put this on the front page Harinder mate, hope thats' ok. And called it You'll Never Walk (out) Alone because I'm a cheesy twat

That's quite a brilliant line mate, love it.

H 

[Hij]

So, do I or don’t I?

Before we cover that off lets set a scene. Granted that whatever is painted is done with the brush of the artist therefore it’s what I want you to see. That bias I cannot remove such is the way of the world but hopefully by the end we all have food for thought in regards to all that is going on.

Ticket prices are changing. Depending on where you sit some will be heavily impacted and others may see things go down or up slightly. Season ticket holders are in or out of pocket and members who qualify for bulk sales are going to enter the gunfight for the Kop seats that haven’t really changed price. Everybody else will have to pay more on the face of this give or take a few rows around the ground in other stands.

There has been much in the way of efforts to try and ticket prices to come down. We’ve taken a lot of hits along the way and just accepted them and continually sleepwalked into each change it feels. Premier League matches can cost £50 and over but the corresponding league cup fixture against the same team is half that price (Chelsea away springs to mind… twice!). What do we do? We take it. Because the club know we will take it. They know our emotional connection to need to see the team play is like a drug and we are like junkies. They know it and love it. They must do – they know how to push the buttons like nobody else.

So they push another button. The multi-coloured one that changes seats, categories, tiers into a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end for Liverpool Football Club. Once again those emotions are challenged and the drug seems to be getting away from us. Like junkies we clamour again to cling on to the very thing we’ve expected to be ok…getting a ticket to go the game. I must add it’s not a privilege to be able to get a ticket. Season ticket holders or members that have the ability to go to a match balance that with the cost every single time going home or away.

Members tickets. It’s right royal pain truth be told. Members sales are littered with tales of frustration and woe. Away days are near impossible to get a foot in the door and European matches away worse still. We still do it. We still cry and emotionally drain ourselves twice a year and see the money leave. Now more will leave and an online system more frail than Liverpool hamstrings leave us at the peril of baskets unfulfilled. The sting in the tail will be at the end of the whole process post the aforementioned turmoil only this time it will cost more. More because someone says so. More because you know you’ll do it somehow. More because they know that too.

Lets think for a while though. What if you can’t pay more? What if each season you’ve gone through the whole twice yearly process to buy home games and already know it was hard. I suspect if you rang up to complain you’d get through to the following automated message after “you have been charged for this call”.

   “thank you for calling Liverpool Football Club, your call is important to us. Should you wish to buy tickets please don’t press one. You previously pressed two to register your dismay at the price increases. Liverpool Football Club wishes to inform you that you can’t come if you can’t pay. You can’t pay so you can’t go. You may have come for many years and now will cry many tears but You. Can’t. Come. Please hang up and try again later”

But what can you try for? Category C because you’re worth it? The autocup scheme is no longer your friend either with price changes so the marketplace for tickets is no longer a place where you’re welcome. What do you do? You’re alone it seems because “I’m Alright, Jack” from anywheretown can go but not you. Isn’t football supposed to be affordable for all?

“Don’t like the prices? Don’t buy” I hear them say. Allow me please to explain. Habitually people have been going to matches for a very long time. Even before memberships and fan cards came along. From near and far I’d like to add before someone pops along with any localised references here. Ask yourself this – does someone who’s been going for the last 10/20/30 years deserve to feel unwelcome now? Do we just go “soz abaar you” because they haven’t got the money? Does that actually feel good to do that to your fellow comrade? The Liverpool I’ve come to know and love didn’t exclude anyone and I should know this more than many… I’ve experienced looking and being different all my life!  I’ve never felt more at home than sitting with those who love supporting our club through thick and thin.

“But think of the cheaper seats” I hear them say. Again how many actually are there? Refer back to turmoil of online sales. Add turmoil of a world renowned ticket office that tells us things later rather than earlier. Add more turmoil when it dawns upon us all that there aren’t a lot of these seats and robbing Peter to pay Paul didn’t actually happen. Both Peter and Paul have been fleeced!

“We need it to be competitive”, I hear someone heckle. Well that’s worked. A while back I wrote that for all the off field progress in revenue streams we’ve not seen that translate to performances on the pitch. The internet is full of rage these days of persons pitted against players then pitted against each other and then the beauty of this rage manifests itself in the almighty Twitter poll (or RT for x and like for y). Something is wrong in all that. A preaching of hate to cure hate doesn’t really work I guess.

“We need to move with the times”. Pardon my French but you can fuck that shit right off. Have you seen what these times may lead to? I’m leaving economics aside as I’m sure by the time you finish reading this we’ll have someone else as our new preferred car battery supplier. These times you talk of have resulted in half and half scarves, staff to fly flags and don’t get me started on things left on seats for you as you arrive novelties. Our times have been expressed on a Kop that is beginning to ebb away. Already rinsed by photography and marketing material, it’s a surprise they haven’t attempted getting sponsor logos as banners. Could you imagine it? Bob Paisley’s huge flag in the middle of the Kop with “sponsored by Burger King” brandished somewhere… we’d become home of the Whopper indeed!

What’s all this got to do then with the boycott? Well, everything. By changing the dynamic of what comes to the game now we shape the future. Is where we are now really where we want to be? Do you really think everything that you see around you is because of Out of Towners vs Locals and atmosphere on its arse due to that? It really isn’t. It’s probably more akin to the fact that should you not be able to afford the current prices then you can’t go. You’ve been priced out a long time ago or are soon to be priced out. You who had been going for such a long time. You who have experienced highs and lows. You who’s been brought up on Liverpool Football Club. You who’s been let down by the ones next to you?

It’s not survival of the fittest here folks. WE are Liverpool Football Club. From the regulars who trek over 4 hours week in week out to get home or away to the first timer drawn to the Kop and “that” atmosphere. The very atmosphere that’s being served notice because mark my words when you make it so that’s it’s not affordable for all then it soon becomes nothing to see at all.

We’ve taken stances before against all odds and won. We owe it to all those who are impacted to be as one with them. I’ve heard many say this won’t have an impact. We won’t know until we try. You may read this and think that so long as you can afford it you’re ok or that you’re not really impacted as you don’t go enough to be. It’s not a time to be thinking of just yourself, truth be told.

You may be someone going for the very first time. This makes leaving even harder. I hear you. My first time was magic. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel any different about their first time to Anfield. I would say this though. This may be your only time. For someone else it’s already become a last time and it happened without us realising too late. What if that person was you?

Whatever happens tomorrow no-one should be chastised for staying. Emotions are a difficult thing. Hopefully the next time the spirit grows.

Superb