Assignment 2- Article 2

Are Ticket Prices Forcing Ordinary Fans Out?

Football was once a game for the working class who would go and watch their team play on a Saturday afternoon.

They would work all week and when Saturday afternoon came they would spend their hard earned money going to the match with friends.

However, in recent years as the commercial aspects of the game have increased, football has become just as much a business as it is a game.

With the amount of money Premiership clubs need to generate in order to make a profit, ticketing prices have been a way for clubs to do so.

Because of this ordinary fans can no longer afford to go and watch the team they love, so they are creating new clubs such as AFC Liverpool.

So are clubs charging too much?

Here is a video displaying the highest and lowest cost to watch a Premiership game

Although the Premiership is one of the best leagues in the world, with the best players in the world, many fans believe they are paying too much to watch their team.

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe is one who believes clubs are pricing fans out the game. He believes they should be reduced otherwise ordinary fans will be forced out of the game.

Terry Spicer, 34, from London also agrees: “I think the ticket prices have become a problem. It is true we do have the best players in the world in the league but paying £50 to go and watch my team Chelsea is stopping the true supporters like myself going to support my team”

Andy McEwan, 21, from Liverpool said: “I follow Liverpool but the price it costs to go and watch a game means I can no longer go. Hopefully, AFC Liverpool will be a success because it will mean I can go to the match without spending in the region of £100”

However, there is an argument that the clubs are charging market prices. For example, to go and watch a match costs the same as going to the theatre or the concert.

Kevin Marsh, 27, from Preston said: “I think if you want to watch the best players in the world you have to be prepared to pay the money these clubs are charging.”

“For me personally players like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are world class players who entertain us with their ability so we do get value for money.”

So why is Football accused of charging too much?

The reason why ticket prices are too expensive is because of the number of games a club plays a season.

The cost to go and watch a Premiership match ranges between £90 and £27. With this in mind ordinary fans with low paid jobs can no longer go and support their teams throughout the season.

The problem which football is facing is the so called “hardcore fans” will no longer be present at games.

It was just the other year when Roy Keane, then captain of Manchester United openly criticised his own supporters: “Away from home our fans are fantastic, I'd call them the hardcore fans. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch."

“I don't think some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell 'football', never mind understand it."

If the prices continue to increase football will suffer.

With most games now on television, the atmosphere which makes the Premiership one of the best leagues in the world will disappear.

This will force fans from other clubs to follow the footsteps of AFC Liverpool and FC United.

They will set up their own teams run by the fans for the fans and this will have a detrimental effect on professional game we all love to watch.

So if the clubs want to keep the true supporters, clubs surely have to review their ticketing prices otherwise as we have seen fans from the big clubs in the country are prepared to go elsewhere to see their team play.

Map of Premiership Grounds

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Assignment 2- Article 1

High Ticket Prices forcing fans to watch elsewhere!

Fans of Liverpool Football Club are to set up a new amateur football club-AFC Liverpool.

The fans behind the proposal believe the new set up will allow fans who are currently priced out from watching Liverpool a chance to watch the club they love.

Alun Parry, 37, from Liverpool is the man in charge of the proposal.

Parry, a fanatical Liverpool Season Ticket holder in the Kop insists the new club will not replace Liverpool Football Club.

Despite the introduction of AFC Liverpool, the lifelong Liverpudlian still expects fans to continue going and supporting Liverpool Football Club if they can afford to do so.

“It's about bringing families back to football who have been priced out. AFC Liverpool is for those priced out who want to go to football again with fellow Reds, and to initiate their children in the Liverpool way.”

The fans are also adamant the new club is not similar to that of FC United, who formed after the Glazers took control of Manchester United, despite the recent troubles in the boardroom with the American owners:

“The club is meant as a grassroots addition to Liverpool FC, not to be a replacement for it. Whoever is in charge is irrelevant. We see ourselves very much as part of the LFC family - LFC's little brother.”

With the average age in the Premiership being the age of 43 and the average cost for a family of four to watch a Premiership game being around £100, fans believe the new club is vital in order to keep the tradition fans call the Liverpool way.

Fans behind the proposal insist the club will be run by Liverpool fans and will be not run for the profit of a football club.

The club will wear the same colours, chant the same songs and be part of Liverpool FC community.

Despite the plans being supported by many, the new plans have been criticised in some quarters.

Fans against the proposal believe the reserves should receive the backing of these supporters.

However, fans behind AFC Liverpool believe the timing and location means this is not an option for passionate fans

“Reserve football is now pretty haphazard in terms of fixtures and it takes place in Warrington, normally mid week at around 7pm. It's hardly easy for people to get to. Besides, who watches a reserve game with genuine passion?”

Another criticism by some is why don’t the fans just follow their local non league football team but the fans believe by doing this they won’t be part of the Liverpool community:

“Being a football fan is about belonging and partisanship. Partisanship and a sense of belonging can not be manufactured. Our sense of belonging exists within our love for LFC.”

“For us to have a grassroots team to genuinely support demands the creation of a new not for profit football club owned and run by Liverpool Fans - AFC Liverpool.”

The new club hope to be up and running by the 2208/2009.

If accepted the club hope to be part of the Vodkat League Division Two. The ground has yet to be decided but it will be within the city boundaries.

Test Series offers England new Optimism

With the test series against New Zealand on the horizon, England have got to start winning as they begin preparations to regain the ashes in 2009.

After losing out in the one day format, England will be hoping the change to the test format of cricket will enable them to get back to winning ways.

That is the view of Captain Michael Vaughan and as I have been looking at other Cricket blogs I have found this is the general consensus amongst many cricket fans.

Although the ashes are a long way away, many of the blogs which I found believed England have got to find consistency within their team selection if they are to be successful, and this is emphasised by Jonathan Agnew in his blog.


England will be hoping of repaet scenes in the next ashes tour.

The reason why many believe England should win is because of the lack of quality in the New Zealand ranks. In the blog the corridor, he like Agnew believes the Indian Premier League has left the New Zealand with a lack of quality in their bowling attack with Shane Bond swapping international cricket for the money spinning Premier League.

Overall, this test series offers the perfect chance for Engand to get back to wining ways, and a convincing win will no doubt boost their confidence, but if they are to succeed in the future consistency within team selection is vitally important, otherwise the team are unlikely to progess to the standard needed to reagin the ashes.

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Changes need to be made in One Day Format!

Despite a spirited fightback in the previous two tests, England have lost the one day series in New Zealand but what needs to be done to change their fortunes?

While other countries are effective in the early order batting, for example South Africa with Graeme Smith and the effect Adam Gilchrist had with Australia, England seem to struggle and this is echoed by Jonathan Agnew's blog, " I hope England learn some important lessons from this experience. The first is that, in order to score quickly at the start of the innings, you do not slog.

"Adam Gilchrist does not slog, and neither does Graeme Smith, but Philip Mustard aimed a dreadful cross-batted swipe in the second over and gifted New Zealand a confidence-boosting early wicket."

Also if we are to improve Agnew also argues a change in the batting order needs to occur. He stated: " This brought Ian Bell and Alastair Cook together, and regular readers of this blog will know that I have a problem with these two in the top three. Both are fine batsmen, don’t get me wrong, but they are one-dimensional and incapable of innovation in one-day cricket – it just isn’t the way they bat. There is room for one of them in the same one-day team, but not both, and I think Kevin Pietersen should be batting at number three."(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tms/2008/02/england_pay_for_batting_uncert.shtml)

So if England are to improve changes have to be made because the cricket which they are producing is just not suited to the one day game and leaving the inexperienced bowling attack with little to defend.

England's Tour of New Zealand

After it finally seemed England had got to grips with 20-20 cricket, impressively defeating New Zealand on two occasions, you could have been forgiven for thinking the England cricket team were coming into form.

However, just like it was in the World Cup, England have failed to build on the platform theses two victories should have given them, and once again disappointed in the one day format of the game.

After losing the first one day game by six wickets, after some abysmal batting, England were looking to make their mark in the second match of the series, but once again they failed to deliver.

Batting first England looked to be in a good position at one stage being 90-2 but a horrendous batting collapse meant England were all out for 156 on an excellent batting wicket and had it not been for Alastair Cook’s 52 you begin to wonder how bad it could have been.

New Zealand then made the most of the excellent batting wicket with the impressive partnership from Jesse Ryder, who hit 79, and Brendom McCullum, who hit 80 from 47 balls, which meant England suffer their heaviest defeat in the one day game, losing by 10 wickets.

Although New Zealand are the third best team in the world at the one day format, England would have been expecting to perform a lot better than have so far and England captain Paul Collingwood will be certainly looking for improvement especially from the big players like Kevin Pietersen, to give their inexperienced bowling attack a chance to defend a bigger total to win the match.

All in all, England will know improvement needs to made if they are going to compete with teams at the top of the game, but if they don’t stop the silly mistakes such as the three run-outs in this match, they will be punished by teams of the quality of New Zealand and it will be interesting to see how they perform on Friday in the third match of the series.