IT’S funny what people get angry about.
Maybe I’ve changed. Grown up, maybe. It’s taken a while if so. Either that, or the vagaries of modern football have taken their toll.
This advert Henderson, Sterling and Mignolet have done? Not arsed. At all. It means nothing to me. It doesn’t affect me in any way. I just can’t angry about it. Once upon a time, I’d have trotted out the arguments: we’re selling out, it’s embarrassing, why can’t we be different, not the Liverpool Way…
Now – to me at least – it just doesn’t matter. It’s a bit shit, but it’s worthy of nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. I see some young lads cashing in while their star shines bright. Good luck. And football clubs cashing in on anything and everything is what clubs do now. Ever bought a cuppa at half time? A sausage roll? A bag of crisps? There you go. How about paying just for the chance to buy a ticket? That happens too.
To be honest I’d rather clubs made money out of players than fans. They’re getting well rewarded. We’re not. So an advert or ticket prices? What should arse you more?
I’m not trying to justify it. It is what it is. Loads of adverts are shit. And that’s another one. Marketing, promotion, advertising… it happens whether you like or not. ‘Not’ for a lot of people, obviously. The club having a ‘male grooming partner’ is of course laughable. But it’s bollocks I don’t need to concern myself with. If it’s making money it’s not going to stop. There are more important things in life. I’ll file it with people saying ‘window of opportunity’ and ‘blue sky thinking’. It’s corporate bollocks. It’s not for me.
There you go. It’s not the Redmen conquering Europe. It’s not Graeme Souness knocking a rival out or Steven Gerrard smashing Gary Naysmith. But take a look around – this is part of the game. The door was opened to this a long time ago. And now the door has gone. Instead it’s automatic doors and a new area for executives.
It might be sad. Cringe worthy. Wool. Whatever you want to call it. What it definitely isn’t is new. The club never used to be this way? They’ve sold out? In 1979 Liverpool became the first club to have a shirt sponsor and plastered Hitachi on the player’s tops. How’s that for different?
When I started going in 1990 I remember the ‘Wonderfuel Gas’ advert high above the Anfield Road. And players associated with Liverpool in shit adverts? Jason McAteer washing his hair, Kevin Keegan’s homoerotic encounter with Henry Cooper, Lucozade Sport getting to John Barnes’s thirst fast, Ian Rush like a rabbit in the headlights talking about cereal, Kenny Dalglish ringing all the fans for BT.
The club – and the players – will do things in the name of cash. I’d like Liverpool to keep the kits simple and traditional. I’d like them to avoid plastering nonsensical statements around the ground. But I’d also like Liverpool to win and for them to do it at a price I can afford. I’d like to take my children to the match, too. I’d like them to experience the Anfield roar, the buzz of a goal, the sights, the sounds. I want them to get the bug that they’ll never get from television.
The new TV deal would allow a club the size of #LFC to reduce match day prices by £41 for every PL game & be no worse off.
— PriceOfFootball (@KieranMaguire) February 12, 2015
A huge Premier League TV deal bolted on to deals such as these product partnerships should make affordable tickets eminently possible. And if that’s not the case then one day I’ll join the thousands of one-time match-goers that have already been priced out. I’ll watch the game on the telly. Go the odd match. Just how the Premier League bosses and their boardroom chums seem to want it.
The average price of cheapest tickets in England has risen at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011. Increasingly the game is being transformed into an out of reach piece of sports theatre for the chosen few. And yet that theatre takes place in deprived communities, on the doorsteps of kids that look to a sky illuminated by Anfield floodlights then head inside to watch the game on the telly if they can afford a Sky and BT Sports subscription.
Ticket prices is one thing that I passionately feel should be addressed. The supply and demand argument simply doesn’t wash. Liverpool FC isn’t Weetabix. And when we’re part of the show – the 12th man, the flags, the atmosphere – then the match-going hardcore should be encouraged, rewarded and engaged with not pushed away and replaced with a Thomas Cook package holiday.
The continual increase in ticket prices encourages a transient support – different people in different seats every week. That might mean tills ring a bit louder in the club shop or the kiosks inside the ground but it also kills the songs, the support, the flags, the banners. The people who make the effort to do that – the people who go week in week out – are part of ‘the product’.
The prices just keep going up forever because there’s a demand? Yeah, cracking argument. See you in the boozer in a couple of seasons. We’ll watch it on the foreign satellite. I’ll bring the kids.
Adverts? Fuming? Here’s loads of them. Get angry about ticket prices. That’s something you should be arsed about.
Steven Gerrard and XBox One
Kevin Keegan and Brut
Steven Gerrard Adidas animation
Mario Balotelli and Nike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVFDzDiNPrw
John Barnes and Lucozade
Kenny Dalglish and BT
Fowler, McManaman and Rush recreate Milk ad for Sport Relief
Ian Rush and Golden Crackles
Fernando Torres and Nike
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I’m very arsed.
If this were another club we’d be laughing our arses off.
Sound, Karl.
Man United have got an Official Savoury Snack Partner, an Official Diesel Engine Partner, an Official Office Equipment Partner, an Official Beer, an Official Carrier, an Official Integrated Telecommunications partner of Manchester United in Malaysia, an Official Wine Partner, an Official Partner in Japan, an Official Automative Partner, an Official Online Gaming and Betting Partner, an Official Motorcycle Partner in Thailand, an Official Telecommunications Partner in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, an Official Paint Partner, an Official Telecommunications partner in Bulgaria and an Official Noodles Partner for Asia, Oceania and Middle East among others.
I’m neither arsed or amused by that. Each to their own, mate.
Oh, absolutely.
I’d rather laugh at them though. I just find it difficult to marry ‘we are men of Shankly’s best’ with Nivea.
We may not win the League in May but by Christ we’ll be moisturised.
Many supporters bemoan the fact that the owners don’t spent tons of cash (ignoring the annual published reports, which, until the 2013-14 campaign, posted deficits and debts). Those same supporters ignore the fact that Man U is the richest club in England and able to spend over £100m NET on a recovery/”transition” year PRECISELY BECAUSE they have all these ridiculous sponsors.
Where ticket prices are concerned, it very much is supply and demand. Supply and demand applies whether one is talking about clean water or Liverpool FC tickets. Where the new TV deal is concerned, good luck getting FSG to unilaterally lower ticket prices. They would say to you that it would simply mean them losing ground on every other competitor.
Let’s face it: short of the club doing so poorly that Anfield ceases selling out, or supporters of all clubs putting on a concerted effort of staying home and/or not watching the games on television, ticket pricing won’t stop. The “tiered pricing schemes” will simply arrest ticket prices (and only for the time being) by providing cheaper, lower-quality seats to offset the rising cost of all the good ones.
Don’t really understand how they could lower the quality of the seats, and the ticket pricing at the moment has no link to the quality of the seat. I paid £58 to sit behind a pillar (literally impossible for me to see about 50% of the pitch) in the main stand against basel, thats £10 more than the seat in the kop i sit in with no restricted view what so ever.
Relevant enough as well, is that the reason i wasn’t in my usual seat is because i was skint when the auto-cup payements were taken.
Exactly! You quite rightly use the example of ticket prices. I’d go much further afield. So far that it’s not relevant to list them here but with all the things wrong in the world as if I’m gonna choose this to get irate over. Completely irrelevant. Success comes at a small price nowadays. It’s 2015. I don’t really see how these moaners think they have the right to dictate the clubs commercial strategy. I think some of it is people doing what they think fits in with their philosophy in life. They feel they should oppose it without questioning what, actually, is the downside to this. Adverts aren’t unethical anyway. When I see an advert I always think Jesus, did someone think that’s gonna make me run out and buy their product. How patronising, I won’t be buying that. Certainly won’t be smothering my balls in Nivea because I think Jordan Henderson is good.
I didn’t know people were getting their knickers in a twist about the advert and like you I couldn’t care less about it .
Regarding the atmosphere ,I’m not Scouse or English and for various reasons only get to go to Anfield twice a season . This season I was at the West Brom and West Ham games and both times I was in the Kop . I was up high by the big flag wavers one time and in 103 the other . Both times I was around groups of Scousers about my age 40-55 . They looked like lads and gals that had been going the game for years together . Plenty of chat , plenty of slagging each other . They were good craic , I spoke to a few of them and appologised as I tend to grab people around me when we’re attacking , but they were sound and just took the piss .They were doing what they do every other Saturday , but they weren’t singers , I know cause I don’t mind singing , I’ll sing YNWA in full at the start and at the end with my scarf held up but won’t start a song ,and generally won’t sing unless those around me are , and wherever I am these days, the singers always seem to be in the next block .
I believe the club has an obligation in getting the next generation of scousers into Anfield at affordable prices but not for atmospheres sake . They should be able to go the game because it’s their club in their city and because in the long run , it makes good business sense from the clubs pov . Keep fighting to get more Scousers into Anfield mate it’s a noble cause and one worth fighting for ,but don’t be surprised if it makes little or no difference to the atmosphere . Safe standing would improve the atmosphere at Anfield imo , where singers could find each other on the terraces , but that’s an arguement for another day .
YNWA
With you all the way Gareth.
Ticket prices. Kids ticket prices.
Sick of paying membership x3 for the slim chance of a ticket for me and my 2 kids.
…but the club ring me and ask if I want to go on the hospitality waiting list….. It’s only 3 grand each.
As a kid I absolutely LOVED the original Milk ad(s?) back in the late 70s/early 80s.
Great article Gareth. Athletes around the world have been doing ads in one way or another since as far back as the 1890s so really anyone who has a problem with these guys doing ads are just looking for something to moan about.
Yes there are a lot of us out here
who are bemused at how difficult it is to get a ticket bar going on a £300 Thompson holiday weekend to get one.
I’m a London based supporter. Lived here 33 years. My Dad brought up in Bootle. I lived in Bootle and Aintree for 7 years and experienced the Kop ( boys pen 50p) and the Shankley era followed by Paisley, saw George Best Dennis Law and Bobby Charlton’s 2-2 draw at Anfield. I was in the Anfield Rd with my brother, they’d opened the ground early because of the expected 55,000 no police
Initially when loads of fans jumped out of the Kop to chase Man U fans behind singing ‘ if you want us here we are come and get us’ terrifying but v funny. We ( me and my brother went to ALL the biggist games of that era. Roger Hunts testimonial- in the paddock. The St Ettienne game- the Wolverhampton Title decider .
The European Wembly final…
All these fantastic life experiences
With my teenage brother and me. We were working class kids who absolutely thrived on the adventure of seeing the Reds.
Cut to 2015. Me and my daughter sit and watch the match on telly when we can, but I know what we’re missing, and bar spending £300–400 on a weekend away there’s little chance of me showing her a great night in the Kop.
And that is a real sorrow in my life.
Doesn’t matter who is running the club it needs to have a strong relationship with corporate business in the modern business world of football. Dortmund has something like 55 corporate partners at different levels named on its website and Barcelona have 35 sponsors both fan owned clubs.
Real Madrid have only 10 but there is talk the stadium is going to have a corporate name when it is redeveloped worth nearly £400 million!!!
Instead of just lobbying the club to lower ticket prices these partners need gentle lobbying as well seeing they want the fans to buy their products.
We have been left behind in football corporate business when like the article says we partly started it with the shirt sponsor.
We have kept a strong loyal following which I’m sorry to say the club can use to make money to make our club stronger. Some might not like it but that is how football has gone and there is no stopping it at the moment unless SKY TV can’t pay for this new TV contract like ITV couldn’t.
I actually remember being excited by seeing Emlyn Hughes on TV, advertising for “John Collier, the window to watch” in the 1970s. Nothing new here! Dead right on ticket prices.
Spot on as usual lid. Sad thing is, as well as the tickets pricing people out, it won’t be long before the cost of a Sky and BT sub start pricing people out as well. Sure it’s already happening. It’s pushing £700 to get them both now for a year and the prices will be going up thanks to the new rights deal.
Spot on, mate. Been thinking about that. I already swerve BT because of the cost. Think it’ll be Marine for live football for me if things continue the same way!
I am looking for a copy of the John Collier advert with Emlyn Hughes as I am init as a young boy.
Can anyone help