Carl Clemente for @anfieldeurope
I have constantly said over the years that I always defend Liverpool Football Club as "a club" but not always the people, they come & go, apart from us, the fans, and we aren't going anywhere far soon! However, what I have started to realise, especially during last season is that nearly all the initiatives set up by the club are solely aimed at benifiting corporate rich businessmen in order to increase the richness of the club. Consequently, the dedicated, passionate fans, who have followed Liverpool Football Club for many decades, all around the world are getting left behind and priced out of the game.
A highly important issue that overshadowed last season is the price it costs to actually attend a game. For many supporters this topic is far more critical than any other problem currently surrounding the club. The recurring struggle fans are facing regarding "ticket prices" is turning fans away leaving their seats to people who don't even know the first verse of "Poor Scouser Tommy".
An increasing number of fans are getting priced out of football and are no longer able to keep up with these ridiculous price increases. Clubs including Liverpool are not doing enough to prevent family traditions, stretching back generations, passed down from grandad to grandson from disappearing.
(Fans started to use Twitter to voice their opinions on this heartbreaking situation)
Football is our sport, a working class sport, for working class people on working class wages. The fact that it is slowly slipping away from us into the hands of the rich and wealthy absolutely saddens me. The directors at the club know very well they can sell out almost every game with the current prices they have set. Therefore it does not interest them to lower the price of tickets, as at present they are maximizing their revenue brought in by the sale of tickets. Lowering them would only give the club the excuse to come out and say "we are not able to compete with the top clubs and so on".
(This is an old ticket stub of mine. In 14 years ticket prices have increased 100%. However, my wages only 15%)
Football without fans is nothing. I'm not talking about the Prawn Sandwich Brigade but the hardcore loyal fans who do their absolute upmost to get everywhere in order to support their beloved Reds, never allowing them "to walk alone" and making many sacrifices on the way.
Unfortunately, for the first time these fans, who are ultimately the inner core of Liverpool Football Club are starting to turn against the club through staging frequent protests and more significantly, boycotting Liverpool games. What happened last season at Hull City summed up the importance of this situation. Liverpool fans choosing to rip up their tickets in protest of the treatment they are receiving from the club, had to be the ultimate message Liverpool fans could have sent them.
As previously mentioned, it is heartbreaking that dads can no longer afford to take their kids to the match due to extortionate ticket prices, breaking generations of family traditions. The prospect of local passionate fans slowly being replaced by corporate customers and day trippers carrying iPads and wearing half-half scarves will finally kill the once famous Anfield atmosphere. As time goes by, the values that our creator Bill Shankly built our club on are gradually disappearing. I for one, will do my absolute upmost to prevent this from happening. Liverpool Football Club is not a tourist attraction!
A friend of mine Jonny Poulter (Twitter: @jonnyplfc) who gets absolutely everywhere with his banners across England and Europe had this to say about Stevie's farewell game last May. The only other time Jonny has had any problems with his banners was at Old Trafford!
Dedicated and passionate supporter groups, The Spirit of Shankly and Spion Kop 1906 are doing a great job in voicing our opinions to the club. It's now high time that officals from Liverpool sit down and really start to listen to our concerns and improve dialogue between the two sides. If Liverpool fail to do this, they risk loosing their most treasured possession, their fans.
We obviously can't bring back the standing Kop. However, what about the boys pen? It's a shame that an entire generation of kids will miss out on going the game. Therefore, why not leave 500 or so tickets spare for a friday after school sale, and sell them for a tenna? Under the right supervision from stewards and match officals, kids would then be able to attend games without their parents having to fork out ridiculous amounts of money in order to take them.
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