NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

i am considering not releasing two zings a season that further hit the pockets of hard-pressed snark fans

I do wonder what hardnosed businessmen do upon receiving instructions from anonymous groups about e.g. the dangers of short-term greed.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 12:28 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hopefully they tell them to stfu.

Yeah the Premiership really should be encouraging more clubs to dick over their fans with high ticket prices.

Al-Fayed was right, "Go and support Chelsea" (xp)

Love this kind of fronting where fans organise a "protest" from a pub they were going to be in anyway to a stadium they were going to anyway, though.

"dick over". they have a product an astonishing amount of people want to see with only limited amount of tickets to sell. If people will pay for it, then people will pay for it. Also helps them get closer to affording going out an buying 1970s Ajax to immediately win everything like the fans want now.

The rapid decline of the Old Trafford season ticket waiting list would probably prove otherwise, whatever the quality of the "product".

Nah, I think the quality of the product is def the most important thing there. If Utd could still afford to show the likes of Ronaldo and Tevez every week, that wait list would still be huge.

In which case Arsenal have a "product" that isn't as good as it used to be coupled with a stadium that's much bigger than it used to be and the highest ticket prices in the league. Even the lamest head-in-the-sand free-market footballing wonk can surely see that isn't sustainable.

Except the product has been getting progressively better over the past five years? Hey, you used to go see Silvestre and Aliadiere, now you go see Vermaelan and Nasri?

(and yes i know those examples are scewed)

If Utd could still afford to show the likes of Ronaldo and Tevez every week, that wait list would still be huge

The waiting list was non-existent when they were still playing, as I posted on ILX at the time: season tickets have been on open sale to the general public for years. The waiting list is just a piece of fiction.

When was the last time you saw Vermaelen? Progressively better for fans of other clubs 'cos now they don't have to worry about Arsenal actually winning anything.

That's nonsense, you could just as easily say "you used to go see Henry now you see Bendtner".

also the waiting list thing is a bit of a misnomer anyway - they still fill the stadium every game.

So what you're saying is that as long as the club is filling the stadium every game the fans, especially those on lower incomes, should STFU and stop whining about not being able to go as often?

I'm just proving that Arsenal fans are dicks, aren't I?

So what you're saying is that as long as the club is filling the stadium every game the fans, especially those on lower incomes, should STFU and stop whining about not being able to go as often?

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 12:59 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Why not?

Musicians don't ask the people who illegally download their records what their next song should sound like?

Filling the stadium is the thing - if they do that they can charge as much as they like. Fans' grumbles are basically wanting the seat for less, in face of evidence that plenty of people would pay a bit more. Nothing wrong with that - there is a good argument that 'real' fans are the only guarantee of long- term revenue. But then they do undercut that argument at every opportunity, what with paying higher prices anyway, buying two new strips at gunpoint, etc etc

this is also the first time the season ticket price has been put up since moving into the grove and they supposedly won't do it for another five years. what horrible capitalist bastards.

Why didn't Arsenal make the stadium bigger btw? 60,000 doesn't seem like enough.

Ancestral memories of the days when Bruce Rioch was manager perhaps?

1. Because it would be physically a lot bigger and we could only get so much space.
2. So that it could be one round stadium where you are supposedly guaranteed a great view wherever you sit; trying to bunch it all up would have changed that, or so it has been said.
3. The waiting list and filling the stadium at 60k has never been guaranteed in the long term, and the board works on a budget of only filling 50k - having 30k of seats empty on 2015 editions of motd may not help promote a healthy image etc. People now don't turn up to see Wigan because people don't currently turn up to see Wigan (if their fans don't even care, why would anyone else?)

Despite any lack of trophies I'd much rather be an Arsenal fan right now than a fan of any other PL club. Arsene's getting top four results with a bottom four budget. I would be very nervous if I were a Chelsea fan, whether Roman stays or goes.

even 'bottom four budget' seems a stretch, they must have made a profit in transfers in these trophyless years due to the sales of e.g. Henry, Toure, Adebayor?

Any profits made were reinvested in Carlos Vela's wages and Denilson's signing on fee, though.

For the rest of us the concept of a 'bottom four budget' in the Premiership provokes a hollow laugh and few bitter tears

I still insist that Vela's going to be world class, Football Manager told me and Football Manager never lies.

Are Arsenal really not in the top 6 for wages?

I would be very nervous if I were a Chelsea fan, whether Roman stays or goes.

What's the point of being nervous? If shit happens, shit happens. AFC Wimbledon have changed everything.

shit i'm always in the car for the good bits eh

We are 5th with wages - I believe Liverpool still beat us and City are now up there.

Oh sorry, 4th, Liverpool now spend less than us.

Mancienne is now a right winger? No Guedioura, No Milijas, No Hammill. Jesus.

okay ESPN graphic was bollocks, Mancienne playing alongside Henry in a 3 holding midfielders set up.

Kenwyne Jones puts Stoke 1 up. Twat.

Amazingly from a cross down the right, currently being defended by the awesome skills and athleticism of Stephen Ward.

looks like Etherington mightn't be going to Wembley either

It least it wasn't from a Delap long bomb, the helplessness and despair that engenders is next level in my opinion

Give it time. Mick's "10 blokes behind the ball punting it up the wings" approach might need looking at now we're a goal down, but I'm totally sure he knows what he's doing and has a plan.

fucking Shawcross okay don't think we'll be out of the bottom 3 tonite

Doyle in a fucking wheelchair wd be more use than Fletcher imo

http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com/2011/04/you-shouldnt-laugh-but.html

Bit late on that one.

oy sam check out my fb update btw

lols.

wolves hurt themselves last night

deuce killing in for fulham this eve

Steven Ireland too flaky for Newcastle. Quite apart from any of the detail here, though claiming that LA is his natural habitat is nice, why would a French magazine be running interviews with Ireland anyway? Last time I checked FourFourTwo spreads on Valenciennes' Foued Kadir were notably absent.

seems to fit in with a certain level of feckless absurdity that the french might appreciate i dunno?

No-one really knows a great deal of Charlton's Carl Jenkinson.