Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Once again the German’s show us how Football should be done, or in this case Football based protests. The German Cup Quarter Final between Stuttgart and Dortmund was halted due to the fact that Dortmund fans threw Tennis Balls onto the pitch in a show of dissatisfaction with rising ticket prices in Germany.
It seems that the cost of Football Tickets is becoming a Europe wide issue with Dortmund joining Liverpool fans in saying “enough is enough” but when you look at the actions that the two sides have taken they are quite contrasting.
For Liverpool fans they are already in the ground and have paid their money so to walk away when they did is only to the detriment and cost to themselves, put to actually get a game halted really goes some way to emphasising the point. That Fans will go to extreme lengths to voice their concerns.
The problem that the Premier League clubs fans have such as Liverpool is that the demand far outweighs the supply so if some people decide that it costs too much or have been simply priced out of going to watch the matches then there seats will be easily filled by a long queue of people. So the club itself won’t miss out and if anything will gain from pushing up the prices knowing demand will still be there.
But there has to be a point where you can’t push loyalty too far, it’s undoubtedly the fans filling the ground and the atmosphere that this creates which is one of the spectacles and selling points of the Premier League but imaging that product with only half full grounds, it wouldn’t be as glamorous and the image of the League would undoubtedly be damaged.
The real way to protest if fans actually stayed away, a real mobilised protest – not just coming in 5 minutes late, what does that prove at the end of the day. That just shows you’re disgruntled. If you really want to hurt the clubs then don’t buy the tickets in the first place but it has to be done a real large scale to really hurt the clubs bottom line. Imagine a big TV Game and it was infront of a near empty stadium there would be embarrassment all round for the Clubs, Sky/BT and The Premier League.
It seems as if fans are finally be awoken and if this continues then change of some sort could be around the corner but for it to have any real impact they need to step up the level of protest otherwise it will be a case of the more things change then the more things stay the same and ultimately that means an increase in ticket prices.
