Corporate Ticket Holders & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[DocHoliday]

To continue on a topic, which berti mac touched on, I found this interesting article today. And this one is in line with the prior argument.

To be honest, I am shocked to read what treatment fans receive nowadays when they try to stand up from their seats in order to support their club.

The ideal customer/business plan looks like this:

"The new regime prefers the day-tripping, glory-hunter supporter over the die-hard Red, because the latter is going to turn up for the match, sing his heart out, then go home, whereas the day-tripper will peruse the club shop, pick up some memorabilia, maybe a replica kit or two for friends, maybe take in a stadium tour the day before, and generally part with far more cash," said one of many messages. "So while we lose out in terms of atmosphere, 'we' gain financially."

[Inselaffe-Borussia-Fan]

Watching football can be hell in Britain at the moment Doc.

It's like going to church (at least you can stand up in church), a mate of mine last week was told he was "making too much noise" and was "upsetting the family behind him"..........

If you complain, you risk the chance of getting arrested/banned.

[Jacinta]

Oh well, this could happen to you in Germany as well

Football seems to have a lot of 'fans' at the moment, but they can't understand that it's not like on TV, sitting there and eating chips. It seems like they think you can sit there and the noise, the atmosphere comes from a tape

[Inselaffe-Borussia-Fan]

This was the third tier of English football I'm talking about, I presume it's worse in the Premiership.

[DocHoliday]

I am really stunned and amazed to learn about those developments. I've never imagined that you could get arrested for standing up from your seat in a football stadium .

But this is another story. I opened this thread in order to collect interesting information and comments about the detrimental effects of the CL and aligning everything with the profit principle. This user comment from the aforementioned Guardian blog sums it up nicely:

"I thought that the all-seater stadiums would affect the atmosphere, but I think it's a red herring. Everton 3 Wimbledon 2 in 1994 was the single greatest atmosphere I can remember, more than the forty or so semi-finals, finals, derbies and title showdowns I've attended in over 30 odd years. Why? Because the stakes were huge (relegation and, as the banner put it, "43 years - Pride Please") and every person in that ground felt the pressure (literally) viscerally.

It's the Champions League that's made the atmosphere so anodyne. For the clubs that can win it (except maybe Liverpool), the PL is a poor second to the CL. So why aren't CL games electric? Set up a second leg with a 1-1 scoreline, and they might be. But a first leg or carrying a two goal advantage into a second leg will never generate atmosphere.

The best game I saw (on telly) last season was Wigan vs Sheffield Utd - again the stakes were high.

Make the domestic matches really count by breaking the quadropoly or make the CL old-fashioned home and away knockouts to increase the chances of second leg showdowns. It'll never happen of course - money men don't like risk, but fans do."

MouthoftheMersey, January 2, 2008 4:16 PM, London

[Inselaffe-Borussia-Fan]

"Section 60.

This piece of legislation allows police to corral large numbers of people into a confined area and conduct basic searches as well as taking names, addresses and photographs.

If you're being held under Section 60, officers can search you for 'offensive weapons or dangerous instruments' and ask you to remove outer clothing, such as coats and jumpers in public. In addition, s60(4A) allows the police to force you to remove anything they reasonably suspect you are wearing wholly or mainly to conceal your identity"

Basically, the police just think that you *may* be a trouble maker, they can stop, search and take personal details. They don't need evidence.

It's one of the reasons why I left Britain.....

[berti mac]

well, for my pains i spent yesterday afternoon standing up at a football match: accrington stanley v chester city. 3-3 and an exciting match.

but i was glad to be standing mainly because it was absolutely freezing. accrington's stadium is up in th'hills and in january the wind whistles round your exposed parts. but at least standing i was able to move to what little shelter there was and keep the blood circulating through to my feet (shame some of the players couldn't do that )

its a disgrace that SAF should criticise his paying customers for not being happy-clappy enough for him. the average age of fans in the stretford end is now 46, not 17 which it was in the late 60's when the fans really were the 12th man (obviously at OT, the ref is united's 12th man, so maybe the crowd are 13th man )
there was a good article by Jim White in the guardian on this which i will try to dig out.
EDIT: Its in the telegraph actually...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.j ... xml&page=1

its one of the great things about the german football. OK, its a bit formulaic, and a bit ritual - oooh, the team come out, we sing "elf von niederrhien" ooooh, neuville has scored, we all shout the score out etc.... but at least fans can roar out for their team and believe that they have helped the team
i hope you never lose this in germany..

[DocHoliday]

My season ticket for the "Nordkurve" cost about € 108. OK, in the "1. Bundesliga" the price will increase approximately € 40, but this is then still about € 8,00 or 5 (!!!) pounds per match. The bus shuttles and the Nordkurve are full of teenagers. Completely different situation than OT.

[DocHoliday]

"IT’S OFFICIAL, folks — Manchester United will prove this week they are still the top earners in English football, thanks to the world’s biggest fan base (...)There is fury among season ticket-holders that they are forced to buy all cup tickets or surrender their season ticket."


Utd cash in on 330million fans

[oldparish]

Yaeh, but they don't have the class of Barca.They actually PAY their own"sponsors" (UNICEF) to advertise on their own (Barcelona) shirts.There are football clubs and then there are football clubs.

[DocHoliday]

Isn't THAT amazing?

[DocHoliday]

"Such financial talk is above the heads of many fans, but the bottom line for Liverpool is that at current levels, any profit will be wiped out completely by the interest on loans - which means there will be little or no money for transfers.

The Americans plan to increase profits, but until the new stadium is built - which won't be until at least 2012 - their only real way of doing so will be to increase ticket prices dramatically, another Glazer route they promised not to follow."

Liverpool in meltdown

[DocHoliday]

"Although United fans have had plenty to cheer about over the past couple of seasons, there has been a severe strain in their relationship with the club's hierarchy, most notably because of the Glazer-led increases in ticket prices.

The Glazers have to plan every trip to Manchester like a security operation and, on their last visit, tomato ketchup was thrown at them after they were ambushed leaving a restaurant. On another occasion they were tracked down at their hotel and the police were called."

Gill's home targeted over support for Glazers

[DocHoliday]

"The fact that Hicks and Gillett had not spent one cent of their own money buying the club, but had borrowed fully £298m to do so, was there in the black and white of their official offer document, but few pointed it out as the men were embraced."

Reds in the red

£298m Borrowed by the US businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks to buy Liverpool last year

£89.6m Paid out of that sum to David Moores for his 51.5% shareholding

£350m Due to be borrowed to refinance that loan

7% Approximate interest payable on the original loan

£300m Projected further loan to build Liverpool's new stadium

Prospectors for gold leave Liverpool with mountain of debt

[DocHoliday]

Keith Edelman, Arsenal's managing director, maintains that this policy of independence is proving well judged. "For some clubs, takeovers have brought debt," he said. "And even if somebody comes and genuinely puts cash in, the club is insecure because it depends completely on that owner staying interested."

The bottom line: refinancing puts Liverpool in the red

[DocHoliday]

"The Premier League is set to go global from the 2011/12 season with matches being played overseas for the first time. The league and the chairman of its 20 clubs agreed to explore a proposal today whereby the season will be extended from 38 games to 39 to allow every club to play one extra match abroad.

The 10 overseas games will take place in January, with points awarded for the extra match in the normal way. The top five sides will be seeded so that they do not meet each other, but otherwise the fixtures will be drawn out of a hat and played in cities around the world, such as New York, Beijing and Tokyo.

Cities will be asked to auction for the TV rights for the games. The initiative will not start until the current TV deal expires in 2011."

Premier League to go global with overseas matches


So, Arsenal vs. Liverpool in the Borussia-Park?

[oldparish]

As Rogan Taylor said in a radio interview last week ,"the sight of English football clubs behaving like girls in short skirts on the street corener is completely sickening".

[oldparish]

That should be CORNER.A core(o)ner is someone that investigates deaths

[DocHoliday]

The football companies have to fullfil the for-profit goals of their owners, that is to "maximize revenue streams". The culture of the sport will be destroyed.

[Inselaffe-Borussia-Fan]