The Liverpool FC Forum > Opinion

AGAINST MOD£RN FOOTBALL: A Complaint against Premier League Ticket Prices

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JohnnoWhite:

--- Quote from: GODS LEFT BOOT on August 16, 2010, 12:11:48 pm ---very nice piece, i remember a good few years ago when prices started going up some prick talking how we should look at a match ticket as if it were a theatre show / concert etc. There's so much wrong with that i wouldn't know where to start but its easy to see how the game was taken from us when this was there attitude

--- End quote ---

The article that started this debate was absolutely top drawer. Well done Damian Kavanagh! You've highlighted the heart of what's sick in this big business entertainment medium we ordinary lads used to call football. I'm a 64 year old United fan and I go on about this a lot. We used to get down to the ground on match day and do our queuing to pay our money come Saturday afternoon. None of this getting to the ground at ten to three or worse still, no bleedin' Sky telling the club that the kick-off time's been moved to Monday night and on the first day of the new season too!!!!
The players we were queuing up to watch maybe pulled 3 or 4 times what our weekly wage was back then. They came to the ground on the bus or on pushbikes - not in friggin' Bentleys! They were part of us - many of them fans who'd made it through to wear the shirt and many of 'em from our own streets - not from bleedin' Brazil or Argentina.

It might have pissed down on us as we queued up but it was worth it so we could feel the whole pageantry of the occasion. There was nothing like standing as part of a crowd of 60,000 to watch our heroes. No prawn sandwiches or 3 course meals served back then when football was OUR game. We made do with just a mug of OxO and a meat pie. Those times are all gone and with them many of the very best memories of the wonderful game that used to be ours.

These predatory bastards who spot the main chance riding on the back of our top football clubs arrive, rip off the fans and the best our clubs have to offer when they know Jack shit about our game, our culture or our clubs and care even less - yet they're still allowed in to saddle our great clubs with debt like you wouldn't believe. Disgraceful is what it is and the blame lies with the FA for not having the balls in the first place to slap down the greedy breakaway clubs who wanted more from their own "Premier" League. They've contributed 90% to the shape of our national game yet they Pontius Pilate-like wash their hands of any responsibility for its demise. Sick to the back teeth - what few I've still got !!

robbohuyton:

--- Quote from: jambutty on August 17, 2010, 08:45:52 pm ---There's always Tranmere.

--- End quote ---

I went to Prenton Park because I fancied a Saturday game the week before the Premier League kicked off. £17 was the cheapest adult ticket.

Grobbelrevell:
Nice post Johnnowhite. Welcome to RAWK  :wave

I was listening to the radio on the way home last night and there was a bit of a debate going on about the decline in value that the domestic cups hold in the view of the top clubs in this country, mainly as a response to Arsene Wengers claims that he would view trophies worth winning as "The Premier League and the Champions League".

Again it got me thinking why this is the case and for me its all linked. Yes the European Cup and the League have always been the big two, but the FA cup, traditionally, held a special place in the hearts of clubs as well as supporters. That has undoubtedly shifted over the past two decades, for clubs especially. And why is that? Simple. Money.

When there are extremely wealthy owners coming into clubs and throwing their money around willy nilly, using our clubs, their communities clubs, as nothing more than millionnaires train sets (and this began long before the arrival of Roman Abramovic, with Jack Walker at Blackburn in the early 90's), and simultaneously you have huge revenue available simply by qualifying for the Champions League, in comparison with comparitively miniscule amounts on offer for even winning the FA Cup, what are clubs attempting to challenge these neavou riche supposed to do? They are obviously going to set their sights on the Champions League at all costs, and frankly, who can blame them. Its that or mid table obscurity for many, hence 4th place having become a major achievement in many a clubs eye - including ours, sadly.

The FA can complain and whine about certain clubs disregard of 'their' cup as much as they like, as they did when Manchester United infamously withdrew a few years ago, but the simple fact is that they have made their bed with their criminal failure to offer the protection and guardianship to the game and the clubs of this country, which essentially is one of their primary duties. A duty that they have seemingly themselves disregarded in favour of the dollar and the hype that surrounds it, coming their way.

They have allowed the continuous influx of foreign money with extremely little in the way of safeguards, as we have found out to our detriment. They have allowed clubs to be saddled with huge debts. They have allowed clubs to become corporate businesses ahead of traditional football clubs with their communities at heart. This, ultimately, is the bottom line and the major contributing factor when it comes to the fall from grace of our domestic cups, inflated ticket prices, hugely bloated transfer fee's and players wages and in turn the depressing seperation of supporters from what were traditionally their clubs.

The FA cup might well still carry significance for many supporters, it does for me, but the fact is that modern day football has no time for the supporters that make it the promoters wet dream that it has become, they care about one thing, and that is the money they can make from the game and from us. The same goes with ticket prices, cup final allocations etc etc.

This will not change until one of two things happen. Either we stand as a collective support in this country and beyond and make it perfectly clear that no longer will we accept being taken for granted, of being the front cover of the clubs latest cup final DVD whilst at the same time being denied a ticket for that same final in favour of corporate dollar. Again, money.

Or, the bottom finally falls out of the game. Chasing the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, with their ridiculous spending power and the soaring inflation that it creates, in turn placing clubs in a perilous financial position in doing so, forcing clubs into the wall, bringing the game down like the perilously balanced financial house of cards that it is.

I've said it before and ill say it again, I hope that happens and the game - our game, gets the chance to rid itself of the cancerous moneymen that have created the bloated, money hungry, egotistical monster that was once referred to as "the national game".

torres09:
When I think of modern football it breaks my heart,then it passes, and my blood starts to boil when I think of how money has ruined the game i love.

Good article there.

torres09:
It's got to the point where I imagine us playing in the lower leagues just to escape this corporate madness(but that's not where we belong),just to experience lower ticket prices and even terracing,to stand with my mates and to enjoy a good sing song...because as far as im concerned the culture we grew up with in football is gone and has gave way to some money hungry monster,players on absurd fortunes (I wouln't even call it a wage) and sky fu*k**g sports!

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