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Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

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    #1

    Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

    An alternative view, with focus on sending the message and whilst doing so giving help to our grassroots game.

    http://www.townsendaround.co.uk/football/twentys-plenty-dont-walk-out-boycott-and-help-the-grassroots-game/

    I'd be glad of your thoughts. There isn't an easy answer, but walking out ten minutes before the end when they already have your money seems counterproductive to me.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

    My first thought is that your headline is exactly right. Protests that still line the pockets are showy, and might achieve the occasional climb down on a specific ticket at a specific price, but that will be superficial at best. The club it affects will quitely up other prices to make up for their 'shortfall' (see Banks replacing their PPI 'profits' with other charges for a simialr example). The only way to effect real, lasting change is boycotts and on-going ones at that.

    My second thought is wondering why you've brought players into the blog post. They really are not relevant to the subject. Ticket prices are such a small fraction of clubs finances these days that they could be given away for free and players salaries would be reduced by a very small fraction. If Wayne Rooney were only earning £250,000 a week rather than £300,000 (or whatever it is) is not going to make a difference to anyone, is it?

    As your article acknowledges there are two separate relationships going on here, one between clubs and fans, another between clubs and players. Implying the relationship is between players and fans is something that clubs try and do for selfish reasons; it gives them a lever over their players careers via mass emotional blackmail.

    Don't buy into that. Keep the argument straight that clubs this awash with TV money simply do not need to grub around for the last penny by charging prices 'that the market will bear'. That they should instead be seen as having a community and social functions, and pricing accordingly. Ticket prices are entirely about the relationship between fans and clubs as corporate entities.

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      #3
      Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

      Thanks Janik. The reason I bought players into the article is that their wages are the highest cost of any club. Given that money is coming from TV, and as such effectively also comes from the fans who pay the subscriptions, I felt it relevant.

      I'd agree that many clubs try to market the relationship between players and fans to mask their own failings and use as leverage, but many fans accordingly have an unrealistic expectation of loyalty from people who are effectively just doing their job. It's time we woke up.

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        #4
        Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

        I have the same feelings about the walkouts. Liverpool fans walking out on 77 minutes isn't a huge difference to the thousands of fans who start leaving on 87 minutes to get ahead of the queues to leave the stadium.

        The problem with a boycott is it's equally difficult to organise, and possible that some clubs will be able to sell tickets elsewhere - to tourists, who themselves are part of the problem as a one-time expenditure at those prices makes less of a dent. What's needed is a prolonged campaign with huge numbers involved across the country.

        However, fans are very set in their ways and it's unlikely to change quickly. I've been at games and received "banter" for such disloyal acts as taking my young son out to the toilet during the game.

        The thing that needs to be changed is the attitude that loyalty is a competition to be won between fans.

        A boycott deserves to be tried, and the idea of watching non-league instead is something that would be popular among many.

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          #5
          Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

          I don't like the "twenty's plenty" campaign at all, I'm afraid. Completely prem-focused, ignoring the rest of football.

          Comment

            #6
            Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

            But at least it's focusing on the Premier League for the right reasons. Surely this is where fans are being ripped off to the greatest degree?

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              #7
              Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

              I don't know, there's some scandalous pricing lower down (£25 if you want to pay on the day at 4th Division Hartlepool or Exeter, anyone?) and this business of some Championship games being moved for TV at a couple of weeks notice. The prices in the Premier are absurd, but fans up there certainly aren't the only ones suffering.

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                #8
                Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                I'm not really qualified to comment, not living in the country and not having been to a match in 3 years, but I think part of this campaign is missing something.

                There have been some comments and articles suggesting that Big Clubs can afford cheaper seat tickets because they make so much money from selling TV rights, and selling shirts in East Asia, and so on. While this is true, and Manchester United could probably have no problems with their finances if they let fans in for free, it does have a knock on effect down the leagues. Oldham Athletic and Chorley can't survive with free or cheap seat tickets. Non-Premiership clubs really don't have access to all those lovely extra income streams. And I think very few people are going to be happy paying more to see a National League North match than they'd spend going to a Premier League game.

                If big clubs charge 20 quid per ticket, lower league clubs are going to be forced to charge 10 quid or less, and that's probably not going to be viable whatever the players are paid.

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                  #9
                  Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                  Exactly this. Smaller clubs more or less have to charge £20-£25 POTG. They have a salary cap in League Two that is related to turnover, and wage inflation caused by higher divisions means that, for better or for worse (and, let's face it, it's worse), they have to cling onto the coat-tails somehow, if they want any chance of achieving anything. Without big television deals or sponsorship arrangements. It's trickle-down economics in excelsis, with a soupcon of mutually assured destruction thrown in.

                  I can't raise myself to cry a river for supporters of Premier League clubs who are already paying through the nose for season tickets - and are, it might well be argued, a part of the problem in the first place - because they can't get into away matches on the cheap. Twenty's plenty would feel fair to me if those concerned were also campaigning just as hard for a fairer redistribution of money throughout the entire professional game as a whole to fund ticket price reductions right the way down with the same amount of gusto. But, so far as I'm aware, they're not. Too many BRC supporters who might be upset by the possibility of not being able to spunk £60m on a player every summer or so, I should imagine.

                  I suspect that the FSF probably knows this, and also that they also know that this is almost certainly unachievable, which is why it focuses on the Premier League. After all, Twenty's Plenty is achievable. Ihe PL could bring it about at the stroke of a pen and, for a relatively small amount of money, receive acres of positive press coverage over something that would most likely be yet another nail in the coffin of the lower divisions. They're not going to redistribute money more evenly. They've had almost a quarter of a century to and haven't. They're not going to start now.

                  I'm not terribly optimistic about the prognosis for success on future protests, either, though. Clubs make the occasional token effort towards it, but they always look like transparent attempts to get some good PR without doing anything meaningful to cut costs. It's hard-wired into their DNA to want to make as much money as possible if only so they can fritter it away on shiny new players (which, might I add, those supporters who don't want to pay more than twenty pounds to get in also want desperately.)

                  So, what's the incentive for them to change?

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                    Jobi1 wrote: I don't know, there's some scandalous pricing lower down (£25 if you want to pay on the day at 4th Division Hartlepool or Exeter, anyone?) and this business of some Championship games being moved for TV at a couple of weeks notice. The prices in the Premier are absurd, but fans up there certainly aren't the only ones suffering.
                    Who ever suggested that they were? But if we take "Twenty's Plenty" as a credo, then fans of PL teams are most likely to be financially exploited to a greater degree. You cite the £25 at Hartlepool or Exeter, but supporters of top flight clubs are getting hit for nearly three times that amount at Emirates in Stamford Bridge.

                    The only possible plus might be that many fans of PL teams - perhaps the less than fully committed ones anyway - might reject this and turn to their local club where twenty or twenty five quid for a game looks reasonable. We can dream, can't we?

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                      #11
                      Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                      30 quid it is
                      http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35764007

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                        #12
                        Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                        Small steps, I guess, but at a lot of places you'd have to have shelled out a hell of a lot of money already to even get priority on away tickets. Not sure it really makes football more accessible to those of limited means.

                        As MyNameIsIan said on the Twitters, just home fans and the other 72 league clubs to go.

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                          #13
                          Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                          E10 Rifle wrote: Small steps, I guess, but at a lot of places you'd have to have shelled out a hell of a lot of money already to even get priority on away tickets. Not sure it really makes football more accessible to those of limited means.

                          As MyNameIsIan said on the Twitters, just home fans and the other 72 league clubs to go.
                          Liverpool introduced a loyalty system for away tickets from 2002-03. Almost exclusively season ticket holders, apart from a small influx of members in the Hodgson season. Closed shop at the moment as need credits from the previous season.

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                            #14
                            Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                            Can't wait for the headlines when Wednesday charge Burton Albion fans £36 next season.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Twenty's Plenty- don't walk out, boycott!

                              Bumping this thread and taking it on a tangent, Manchester United's new away ticket regulations are quite something.

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