When "your football team is winning 2-0 with less than a quarter of an hour to go, that is not usually the moment to leave the stadium," according to Josh Noble of the FINANCIAL TIMES. But "that is what happened at Liverpool last Saturday." The row went beyond Liverpool’s fans and team owner Fenway Sports Group. Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp urged the owners to "find a solution and managers at other clubs expressed sympathy with fans across the country who are outraged at rising ticket prices." West Ham Manager Slaven Bilic said, "It’s not polo, it’s not golf, it’s not a sport for the upper class. This is not ‘Les Miserables.’ This is football." Fan groups are lobbying for ticket price freezes, "or in some cases, price cuts, while a campaign to cap prices for away fans rolls on after Premier League clubs rejected the idea this month." Money and Football author Stefan Szymanski sees the "ticket price row as the result of a broader trend in the global sports:" the move toward what economists call "dynamic pricing." This system, where prices "rise and fall depending on demand," was pioneered in the '80s by American Airlines to help fill empty flights and increase revenue from full ones. It has "long been a feature" of U.S. sport, as well as supermarkets, hotels and online retail. A move toward dynamic pricing "would coincide with the dwindling influence of British owners in the Premier League." U.S. investors control five of the 20 top-flight clubs and "hold significant stakes in two more." If a U.S.-led deal for Everton is "completed as expected in the coming weeks," just five clubs would be left without foreign shareholders. Szymanski: "Dynamic pricing is something that is coming to football, regardless of whether we have American owners." He added that casual fans, who are willing to pay more per game "but only go once or twice a season, would probably become more common if such a model were introduced." The dilemma facing club owners "is not whether they can raise prices but whether they should, and whether they need to" (FT, 2/13).
PULIS CALLS FOR FIXED PRICE: REUTERS' Shravanth Vijayakumar said that West Bromiwch Albion Manager Tony Pulis wants the price of Premier League away tickets to be fixed at £10 ($14.51) as a measure to "combat rising matchday costs for fans that he believes could kill the atmosphere within top flight stadiums." Pulis: "I'd love away supporters to only pay £10 a ticket: whatever ground you go to. You can give 5,000-6,000 tickets to the away support, they'd sell them and we'd get back to the atmospheres we used to have. Clubs are getting enough money to subsidize and help the public. We've got to make sure we're not milking, milking and milking. We've got to give something back" (REUTERS, 2/12).
