IT’S around this time of year that Liverpool Football Club “members” have to endure hours of queues and early mornings filled with inconvenience to try and buy tickets to go and watch The Reds play.
In the act of trying to pay the club a lot of money to go and form the backdrop that will be used to market the “experience” of watching a game at Anfield, loyal supporters are running into issues which, in some cases, may cause them to have to fork out more money or even miss out altogether.
That’s after paying between £26.99-£44.99 to purchase an adult membership, to just be given the opportunity to buy tickets – or as the club website says: “access to members’ allocation of a minimum of 10,000 tickets for each Premier League home game in the two members’ ticket sales in July and November.”
Assuming supporters have purchased a membership before the deadline set by the club, after which supporters wouldn’t be eligible to purchase tickets in the July sale, they are then presented with information about three opportunities to buy within that particular sale.
The first of those was held on Tuesday, July 17, and was specifically for members who have attended 13-plus home games throughout the 2017-18 season. That included the West Ham, Brighton & Hove Albion, Southampton, Manchester City, Everton, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Arsenal games during the first half of the season.
The second sale took place on the following day — Wednesday, July 18 — and was specifically for supporters who had attended four-plus home games throughout last season. That included the fixtures against Manchester City, Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal.
The final round of these sales was scheduled to take place today — Thursday, July 19 — and was a sale for all members who wished to buy tickets for the West Ham, Brighton, Southampton, Cardiff City, Fulham and Newcastle games.
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The first issue obvious lies within the sales for the Cardiff and Fulham games, which are only open at one time and are available to everybody, regardless of previous attendance. It could be argued that is designed to give everybody a fair chance of attending at least these games — an opportunity they may not get with the other games. That means members who want to attend every home game, and have done so for many years, may lose out — and they will argue that their loyalty should be rewarded.
Neither of those things are technically incorrect and therein lies the problem for the club. You can’t please everybody and despite the expansion of the Main Stand, demand still far outweighs supply. With expansion of the Anfield Road not yet forthcoming, the club must find fixes to the issues supporters keep having year after year.
The latest of those came today as the website crashed unexpectedly, leaving many who had either already been queueing or were in the process of doing so disappointed. The club have since released a statement apologising and explaining what caused the issues, but what do they plan to do in order to improve the experience for supporters in future?
We spoke to Liverpool FC members and Anfield Wrap contributors Dan Austin and Neil Docking about their experiences, as well as Spirit Of Shankly chairman Jay McKenna about what he thinks could be done differently.
Statement from Peter Moore:
“We would like to update our members who experienced access issues in this morning’s ticket sale.
“The vendor, Advanced, has confirmed that their servers experienced an extremely high volume of rogue traffic and the system had over one million hits per second when the sale started. That caused the vendor’s ticket system to activate its in-built security processes to ensure genuine members were safeguarded.
“We will now work with the vendor on a full root and branch investigation to fully understand the issue and what can be done in future to avoid it.
“We sincerely apologise for the difficulties members encountered accessing the ticket sales system this morning.”
Jay McKenna (Chair of Spirit Of Shankly):
“It’s never a good sign when something as simple as selling tickets becomes a news story. That it is now an annual event is even worse.
“It’s clear that it isn’t working but I don’t think it is as simple as fixing just one thing. There are lots of frustrations and the best thing that could happen is the club to explain why they sell tickets the way they do — some sales based on loyalty, others a free for all. We can guess it is because they want more people to have a chance, and given how many memberships they sell people will want a chance to buy. But they should be honest about that.
“What can the club do practically? Outside of the obvious ‘build a bigger ground’ then maybe there are some things they can do. Limit who gets into the system to just those eligible to apply. Have a system that can cater for ‘unprecedented’ demand. More tickets available? Some will want it based on loyalty?
“I think we need to review what is happening. Importantly listen and talk to fans about it. Twitter is currently people asking Spirit Of Shankly what is happening. The club should have an account on there that is interactive and listening to these concerns. The mentions for SOS or even Tony Barrett show that there’s lots of people who want the club to listen.”
Dan Austin (Member):
“It’s important to acknowledge that Liverpool FC has made great improvements to its ticketing protocol in recent years. Sales to local members and non members with L postcodes have ensured that more Liverpool-based people have access to match tickets (and in the case of the general sale, at a vastly reduced price of £9), while the availability of young adult tickets, coupled with the designated adult and child area in the upper Anfield Road end, means young people get a much fairer deal than previously.
“I’m also fortunate personally in that, this year, I’ve been able to pick up all of the tickets I wanted, which was not the case in seasons gone by. But major problems remain with the process of actually purchasing tickets. First and foremost, the website seems to inexplicably crash during the July sale on an annual basis.
“Of course, demand outstrips supply, but the club knows how many members it has. The club knows how many fans qualify for each members’ sale. The club should be able to ensure its website is capable or functioning for all those people, but at present it simply does not.
“Many suggestions have been made to the club over the years in regards to making the members’ sale easier and less strenuous for everybody, which have not yet been taken on board, so here they are again:
- Make users log in before entering the queue so that people who don’t qualify for tickets are not wasting everybody else’s time as well as their own.
- Restrict each IP address to just one place in the queue so that supporters cannot open multiple tabs and windows, which serves only to slow down the process for everybody.
- Stagger the sales more so that those with very high loyalty (15-plus matches from the previous season for example) can purchase tickets on different days to those with fewer previous credits, thus decreasing stress on the servers.
“Or expand the Anfield Road end, ffs…”
Neil Docking (Member):
“In theory at least, when first introduced, the summer/autumn official members’ sales would be a big improvement on the old system of having to buy tickets every three or four weeks, for each individual game. Aside from the fact you probably needed a credit card to buy eight or nine games in one go, it seemed like this new arrangement would save fans a lot of hassle.
“The opposite has been true. Twice a year thousands of official members are now forced to take time off work (or hope they can get away with being late) in order to wait for hours on end to try and give the club hundreds of pounds, which many of us can barely afford to start with.
“Every year, after promises of ‘improvements’, the website crashes or people are kicked out of the site, just as they are about to pay. The club then issue hollow apologies for not being able to cope with ‘unprecedented incoming traffic’, despite the fact they surely must know this is going to happen – unless they have no idea how many official members there are – because it always fails.
“One possible solution, long suggested but repeatedly ignored, could be further staggering of sales.
People like me, effectively second-class season-ticket holders who go to nearly all home games, could be part of an initial sale, requiring say 17-plus credits. Then sales for 13-plus, nine-plus, four-plus and so on could take place, to ease the pressure on the website and reward loyalty.
“Yes, that might require the sales being held over two weeks rather than one, but if the club doesn’t think this is feasible it should explain why.
“The last thing any of us want to hear is another worthless apology for a problem Liverpool Football Club has failed to solve for over a decade.”
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It’s ok rewarding loyalty in theory but how can I evidence loyalty if I can never buy a ticket!! Queued for 3 hours this morning as I did for both allocations last year. I would quite happily buy tickets for all home games in lieu of a season ticket which I will never see in my lifetime. I looked online after the 3 hours and could buy tickets at triple their face value from ticket sites, how is this fair!!
Agree. If we cant buy tickets in the first place then how do we build up the loyalty to access the proposed staggered system for 17+. The best ive ever managed to buy is 9 (I would have bought all of them.if I could) and that was after we had had and unsuccessful season. We played well in the season I went to 9 so the club changed the ‘loyality’ threshold and Ive been able to get 1 game in total over 3 years since. Love the Wrap but there is still an underlying ‘us and them’ snobbery and entitlement between some local and non local fans (agree for priority for those in the immediate Anfield area and young people though). However, has anyone thought how dedicated non local fans are though. It cost me around £200 in travel and accomodation even before I pay for a ticket. Thats loyalty! Im luck I can afford it. What about those that cant?
Without the worldwide support which is lauded there is no massive income from shirt sales etc to buy players and pay wages. Expand the Anfield Road end FSG (who have been good owners by the way) as it is not a linier investment appraisel of build x seats and generate x income. The marketing of the club is based around the fans and the investment is to maintain this relationship to continue to sell x shirts, bottles, pictures, key rings etc….
Allocate more tickets to members! Ok it won’t happen because of ‘hospitality ‘!
I think the new stand holds an extra 8,000. Only 2,000 of these extra seats were allocated to members on the season ticket waiting list. The club don’t publish that, but my number on the list went down by that amount, so were did the other 6,000 go?
Answers on a postcard please………
The problem with restricting IP addresses is not practically doable for several reasons, including the fact the system would be required to monitor the connecting IP’s and act accordingly, which would have a big impact on performance. The single biggest improvement would be to limit the queue to logged in users only. This would likely require a complete re-write of the system and would be a cost overhead. However, they have 12 months to get all this done, starting from tomorrow morning. The current management of the system is clearly being handled by individuals or groups would are incapable of predicting or coping with potential issues. The issue about “unprecedented demand” for example is dealt with with pretty much without issue in modern computing by using demand driven cloud based servers, whereby (in layman’s terms) when demand increases, more servers are bought on line to cope, so the system will never crash, it’s how Google, Amazon, EBay, etc handle fluctuating traffic. The worrying thing is that this is not a fluctuation in traffic, this is a very predictable spike in usage. I would venture to suggest that the “tekkies” are pulling the wool over the eyes of management at the club if they are using these as excuses for the issues with the system.
Problem with the staggering of sales based on loyalty is that it is impossible to build up “loyalty”. I’ve been a member since day one and as soon as I missed out on the very first half a season at a time sale I was screwed. I now pay for 4 memberships (my 2 kids have been born since I first joined!) and it is sadly totally pointless.
as somebody who went from 8 credits to 0 after the Mainstand was developed i think in general its a shambles. The servers shouldnt crash not for a club of Liverpools standing.
People want credits and they wont attend some games they just want the big games which is fair enough but we have a situation now where you cant get a foot in the door at all because all of these tickets end up in other fans hands. The credit based system forces this on fans. And this is like the season ticket issue that the club cant say who is in the ground for any game. I had a junior membership for my fella but gave it up. I had to buy adult all of the time and he could never get credits on his own. Why does a kid who cant go alone need to get credits?
But no matter what way you slice it its simply down to needing a bigger stadium. 70k would probably be enough.
All this stuff about a unprecedented demand spike is pure rubbish. It’s a sign that the company hosting the website is not up to the job.
Given the whole digital user experience is terrible it re-enforces my boss that LFC’s digital team just aren’t very good.
On the staggering of ticket sales I understand why the club do it, it’s the best way to give non regular attending fans a way to get a ticket. Loyalty is rewarded as fans who go to 13+ games get to buy tickets for all the best games and have an in built advantage in maintaining their place at the front of the queue. If you’re starting from scratch it actually takes a few years to build up the 13 games a season record.
Ultimately the real answer is build a bigger stadium. They’d sell out 60-65K easy and maybe even 70K.
Why don’t they just put the tickets out to a professional outfit such as ticketmaster if they can’t deal with ‘unprecedented demand’. I bet they would laugh if you told them the figures the ‘Advanced’ servers couldn’t cope with. How to make your fans feel like they don’t matter a jot? Charge a premium and serve up a second rate service. Then exacerbate the situation by pouring on some contempt: offer a ‘sincere apology’ whilst clinging on to your ill gotten cash.
I’d be interested to know how many memberships have been sold. Make it transparent, at least you’d know what you’re up against. I gave up 3 years ago after losing credits, paying £30 to sit in a queue to then get one game in a shitty restricted view for nearly £50.
The system is an enabler for touts. It simply does not work.
The Club made a mistake by giving Liverpool POSTCODE members priority over the people who have been members for years , that’s why I cancelled my MEMBERSHIP last season as I simply had no chance of getting a ticket yet someone who lives in the City and as only just joined gets the Tickets. Where is Loyality in that , or is it what I think , I am just a number and I don’t matter even though I have been a Member for years ???
All games should be on first come first served basis no matter how many games were attended the previous season otherwise most fans never get the chance to see the so called bigger games.
Where do I come into the equation, as an expat Scouser with two teenage sons who idolise LFC? I can realistically only afford one match a season, what with travelling costs etc, but even with memberships, it is very difficult because of the loyalty system.
Of course loyalty should be rewarded, but does that mean that those who can’t go 15+ times a season should effectively be excluded?
In the mess that is Liverpool ticket sales, one major problem is the almost total disregard for international supporters, who are certainly the great majority of red fans, I imagine probably over 70% of those 40 million in LFC social media. I live in Berkeley, California, I’ve been a full paying member for a few years now, and it is really frustrating to try to access tickets. I made it to Anfield last year and my ticket was 240 pounds (bought on faith from an entrepreneurial holder of an annual pass through a probably illegal site); and expensive as it was, it was not because of its fancy location: in the Main Stand but by the wall near the Kop. If you add airfare, ground transportation (and it was much cheaper to fly to London and catch a train to Liverpool), hotel and meals, the whole trip cost me about 1,400 quid. This also shows that the international crowd is willing to pay a lot for ticket. Still, as far as I know we internationals don’t really have any allocation of tickets or any support to obtain them. On the contrary, there are many obstacles for us the silent international majority to obtain tickets and attend a game: (1) Poor information regarding access and tickets purchasing (clearly not thought for non locals) with no awareness of the needs of non English or local fans; (2) Moving dates for PL games; so one may purchase airfare early to save a few hundred quid only to realize that the game was moved…; (3) Loyalty and annual pass holders preferences. Obviously that leaves over 95% of fans out of the game! (4) Because of the above, forget about European cups! I really tried to buy tickets, but the club did not really make it accessible in any way for us foreign fans, including because we are not loyal, right? (5) Etc. You get to point. I know that there are millions (yes, millions!) of LFC fans who are dreaming that one day LFC will reward our undying red heart, our love from far away, with some significant allocation of tickets for members who can’t catch a bus or a train to Anfield. No bitterness, just a deep longing… YNWA