Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has called on FSG to reverse plans to raise ticket prices at Anfield over the next three years, dismissing the club’s justification as ‘absolute nonsense’
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has called on club owners Fenway Sports Group to scrap proposals to increase ticket prices, insisting the financial gain is outweighed by the fan backlash.
It was announced last month that the club were intending to raise the cost of tickets in line with inflation over the next three years with match-day running expenses said to have climbed by 85 per cent over the last decade at Anfield.
Liverpool are using the UK’s CPI (Customer Price Index) inflation from January of each year to establish the foundation of their pricing. Inflation projections for this calendar year stand at 2.3 per cent before falling to 2 per cent; representing a rise of 7.3 pre cent over the three-year timeframe. Consequently, general admission tickets will go up between £3 and £4.50 per match-day ticket throughout the three years.
Opponents, however, have argued the figure of £1.2m, which Liverpool are expected to generate from the rise, is a negligible amount for a club whose annual turnover exceeded the £700m threshold for the first time in the most recent financial figures, which were released in February.
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Prominent supporters’ union, the Spirit of Shankly, coordinated demonstrations following the announcement, with a campaign not to spend any money inside Anfield itself put into action for last week’s 2-0 victory over Fulham. Numerous supporters branded the club “greedy b*******” during last week’s victory, and Reds icon Carragher sympathises with the fans’ anger, calling on FSG to reverse the price hike.
“My problem with it is… first of all, I think we’ve got great owners,” Carragher told the ECHO. “No owners of any club are ever popular but they have been absolutely fantastic for us, I’d argue that with the staunchest Red who goes home and away.
“But I don’t understand the ticket price thing in terms of how much they are bringing in from sponsorship and the revenue from the Premier League and when you look at wage bills, Liverpool’s is right up there with the best. And this idea that they need to up ticket prices to pay for these players, it’s absolute nonsense.
“The supporters are not daft, there’s enough out there, the intelligent ones can put the numbers together and say well you’re only going to gain an extra [small amount]. So what do you gain from it really?
Liverpool fans display a banner in protest to the club raising their ticket prices.
“The owners might come back and say their tickets are cheaper than Arsenal or Tottenham but it’s a north-south thing and that is never going to wash. Unfortunately, they live in London, they can put their prices up and you can’t do it here.
“You get it back in different ways at Liverpool, because we are a bigger club than them. We get more sponsorships than them, from whoever it is.
“And when you read about the wages players get, and I am not complaining, I got great wages, footballers deserve what they get, as long as they do their business on the pitch and in the main our players do.
“But no, I just don’t think you need the fight with the supporters over it. There’s no gain [from it].”
Carragher, who made 737 appearances for the Reds, believes Liverpool are even in a strong enough financial position to actually reduce ticket prices and earn themselves widespread acclaim at a time when football fans up and down the country are being asked to fork out more.
Carragher has suggested FSG should actually reduce ticket prices at Anfield(Image: CBS Sports )
He added: “Listen, you want everything [as a fan]: we want cheap season tickets, tickets to the match, and £30 for an away ticket – that’s a great initiative. But for me, Liverpool are that big a club, it should be (club sponsors) Adidas, it should be Standard Chartered, they should be paying for the wages.
“And wouldn’t it be great if were seen as the club who had the lowest prices or whatever it would be. And listen, there’s a lot of corporate at Anfield who are paying a lot. I am not saying they should pay it because they have got it but they are obviously getting a bit more than just going to watch the game.
“The general admission prices, that’d be a story right around Europe if one of the biggest clubs in the world had the cheapest prices in the Premier League.
“And what would it mean? A few million quid and it wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever [to Liverpool’s finances] when you think of what they have spent so far this season.”
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