Liverpool back down

[Normal Rob]

A couple of things on this...

The Fenway groups message appears to me to be totally disingenuous. They tried to extort the fans, and got caught out. They had to backtrack to prevent a complete PR and reputations disaster.

All this talk about Sky money - yes it is an awful lot of cash, but the cost of operating at a very highest level is increasing at an alarming rate. Especially now with the increased competition from China, who appear to see it all as monopoly money. It's a shit storm from hell.

 

[Easy 10]

All this talk about Sky money - yes it is an awful lot of cash, but the cost of operating at a very highest level is increasing at an alarming rate. Especially now with the increased competition from China, who appear to see it all as monopoly money. It's a shit storm from hell.

The China thing is a weird one. They have no football heritage, they have no national team (to speak of). Outside of China, who gives a flying F about their domestic League ? Yet all of a sudden, almost overnight, they seem to be in a position to pay mind-boggling transfer fees and huge wages to attract players from Europe. I can only assume they are getting VAST TV revenues from an internal market, and some huge sponsorship deals off the back of that ? Given the complete lack of worldwide exposure for their clubs, I don't really geddit tbh

 

[Bold Seagull]

A couple of things on this...
The Fenway groups message appears to me to be totally disingenuous. They tried to extort the fans, and got caught out. They had to backtrack to prevent a complete PR and reputations disaster.

Why is that disingenuous - that appears to be what they have said, we've tried to charge more to get more revenue, but you told us otherwise. Not sure where the disingenuous part is? Surely if you were being disingenuous, you would lie about the reasons, but they've said it fairly straight by the looks of it.

 

[Normal Rob]

Why is that disingenuous - that appears to be what they have said, we've tried to charge more to get more revenue, but you told us otherwise. Not sure where the disingenuous part is? Surely if you were being disingenuous, you would lie about the reasons, but they've said it fairly straight by the looks of it.

it's the hearfelt apology BS. If they thought that they could get away with it, they would have done so. Ultimately they are a outfit concerned with making money, but they realised that by exploiting the fans, they actually were going to damage the long term profitability for the club.

 

[El Presidente]

The China thing is a weird one. They have no football heritage, they have no national team (to speak of). Outside of China, who gives a flying F about their domestic League ? Yet all of a sudden, almost overnight, they seem to be in a position to pay mind-boggling transfer fees and huge wages to attract players from Europe. I can only assume they are getting VAST TV revenues from an internal market, and some huge sponsorship deals off the back of that ? Given the complete lack of worldwide exposure for their clubs, I don't really geddit tbh

The Chinese TV market is relatively insignificant compared to the PL, but big business is very keen on football there.

With a population of 1.35 billion, football is seen as the easy way to get your brand into the minds of viewers.

Gates are up, averaging about 22,000, but the national team is shitehouse, even Scotland could beat them.

If the government decide to continue to support the game financially they could be a competitor to the PL for South American and African players, who are more willing to travel. I would be surprised if many European players at their peak would choose to go there, simply because the cultural appeal is lacking compared to cities such as London, Madrid and Munich.

 

[El Presidente]

it's the hearfelt apology BS. If they thought that they could get away with it, they would have done so. Ultimately they are a outfit concerned with making money, but they realised that by exploiting the fans, they actually were going to damage the long term profitability for the club.

The apology was a PR issue, and does seem a bit tacky.

The initial decision was crass, but the Liverpool fans were smart and organised, and had the ear of people such as Richard 'the 39th game' Scudamore, and he put pressure on Liverpool to back down too.

 

[El Presidente]

When it comes to Liverpool, some people wilfully ignore the facts.

Would you care to advise us of such 'facts'?

 

[LlcoolJ]

The Chinese TV market is relatively insignificant compared to the PL, but big business is very keen on football there.

With a population of 1.35 billion, football is seen as the easy way to get your brand into the minds of viewers.

Gates are up, averaging about 22,000, but the national team is shitehouse, even Scotland could beat them.

If the government decide to continue to support the game financially they could be a competitor to the PL for South American and African players, who are more willing to travel. I would be surprised if many European players at their peak would choose to go there, simply because the cultural appeal is lacking compared to cities such as London, Madrid and Munich.

Good article here explaining the thinking behind the Chinese player splurge.......

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/feb/06/china-football-revolution-world-cup

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Completely untrue. After Heysel and Hillsborough there was a MASSIVE amount of criticism hurled at them, do you not remember or are you only choosing to recall the facts the way you wish to view them?

In the past 10 years or so they have been, the amount of pro Liverpool media people makes the coverage bias.

BT is unwatchable when Liverpool are playing, you can hear the likes of Mcmanaman sulk and brag.

Look back to when Klopp took over, all of a sudden they were going to win the league despite having a worse team than at least 7 teams in the PL.

 

[Easy 10]

The Chinese TV market is relatively insignificant compared to the PL, but big business is very keen on football there.

With a population of 1.35 billion, football is seen as the easy way to get your brand into the minds of viewers.

Gates are up, averaging about 22,000, but the national team is shitehouse, even Scotland could beat them.

If the government decide to continue to support the game financially they could be a competitor to the PL for South American and African players, who are more willing to travel. I would be surprised if many European players at their peak would choose to go there, simply because the cultural appeal is lacking compared to cities such as London, Madrid and Munich.

Can't see it taking off tbh. Having a vast population is one thing, but they have no footballing culture there. At best they'll be another MLS - mainly just a short-term top-up to the pension fund for players at the arse end of a career. And even in the (unlikely) event of them eventually attracting some of the best players, they'll never sell decent TV rights to western countries because of the timezone (unless they're going to play games first thing in the morning over there, or the middle of the night). I don't think Chinese football will ever get the worldwide exposure it would need to be a true rival to the established leagues in Europe.

 

[gripper stebson]

Black armbands at the weekend in remembrance of the old pricing plan ?

I've lit a candle.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

In the past 10 years or so they have been, the amount of pro Liverpool media people makes the coverage bias.

BT is unwatchable when Liverpool are playing, you can hear the likes of Mcmanaman sulk and brag.

Look back to when Klopp took over, all of a sudden they were going to win the league despite having a worse team than at least 7 teams in the PL.

What you describe is annoying. I would certainly feel that way if I was a viewer. I don't watch premier league football so I wouldn't realise that. However, what that has to do with Liverpool's fans protesting is beyond me.

 

[halbpro]

They have also scrapped ticket categories, so same price regardless of the opposition, and committed to keeping prices frozen for three years.

Hasn't scrapping the categories put the price up overall though? A friend of mine says it's a rise of £150 over the season, as all categories are now priced as the previous Category A.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

The biggest protesters against lowering PL ticket prices are lower league clubs - If PL charge 20 quid what will a league 2 club side charge?

 

[Eagle Slayer]

Is that a serious comment? Given the choice of watching Brighton play Arsenal or Aldershot, which game is more appealing? I suspect most people would opt for the former

If Brighton were playing Arsenal or Aldershot that would not be a league game at present would it . I don't see why I should pay more to see my team play against Charlton than Sheffield Wednesday for example.

 

[Albion my Albion]

It was an across the board ticket price rise for all Fenway Sports' teams.

Liverpool is owned by the same parent company — Fenway Sports Group — that owns the Boston Red Sox. Fans of that team also will see their ticket prices increase in 2016.

 

[LlcoolJ]

The biggest protesters against lowering PL ticket prices are lower league clubs - If PL charge 20 quid what will a league 2 club side charge?

This is one of the many perverse things about football finances. It's actually got to the stage where PL TV money is so big that gate receipts are a very small part of income for many clubs. This is why even poorly supported clubs like Palace can still make a fortune with shit attendances for top flight football whereas for nearly every club in the lower divisions the gate money is really important.

Logically PL teams should actually charge less but then everyone would moan about Championship matches being more expensive and anyway, why would PL clubs charge less when they CAN charge more?