Showing posts with label liverpool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liverpool. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 October 2016
Monday, 8 February 2016
Enough is enough
Article from football365.com http://www.football365.com/news/enough-is-enough-youre-damn-right
regarding the crazy price of football match tickets, greedy club owners and Liverpool's fan's walkout protest.....
Enough really is enough.
£77 for a ticket see a football match is far too much money, especially when the income from fans is a small percentage of revenue from everything else. Of course, the £77 Liverpool want to charge is only 200 tickets for 6 games, but it is symbolic of the direction of travel. In a society where the wealthy elite operate a policy of divide and rule with ruthless determination, the Kop walkout was a welcome bit of collective action.
Business people who run football clubs as though they are normal businesses, who refer to merchandise income streams in the same breath as they call fans customers, are to everyone, except themselves, some flavour of awful. When Liverpool fans complained that £77 is too much for 90 minutes of football, some pointed to similar ticket prices for one-off gigs and for other forms of entertainment, seemingly forgetting that most fans want to go to support their club up to at least 19 times per season. Seemingly forgetting that sitting outdoors on a plastic seat in February is not the same value product (to put it in their own language) as sitting in a warm theatre on a plush velveteen seat. Also forgetting that this is a hugely wealthy industry, made wealthy by the presence of fans who are not wealthy. In redux, the rich want the poor to pay more. Enough is enough.
I can fill my car up for £55 and get 600 miles out of it. That is much better value in my life. For £77 I could dine out at an excellent local restaurant and have a three course meal, three times a week. For £77 I could buy two bottles of Glenmorangie single malt and kill myself with pleasure. Or I could drink 77 halves of beer in the Pound Pub in Stockton-on-Tees and try to pretend life had meaning. In other words, if we’re going to get into the relative value of a £77 investment in the entertainment business, football loses at every turn. Enough is enough.
Ian Ayre went on about how they have some £9 tickets for category C games and how 1000 tickets per season are given away free to kids. That’s 1000 out of about 800,000, Ian. Very generous of you, that. Bragging about this sort of thing shows the gulf of understanding. First, £9 (not that there are many tickets at that price) should be a not untypical price for any game, not just the PR giveaway for the games you consider will be the worst attended. This ranking of games into categories, though entirely normal nowadays, is a classic divisive principle. Can’t afford to go to a good game? Here, have a cheap ticket for a rubbish game. We all take for granted that things work like this in 2016, but it’s a choice, not an inevitability. No matter you may have paid into the club for 35 years, if you can’t afford it anymore, screw you. Your loyalty is only worth what you will pay today. The 10,000+ who walked out of the Kop are making a stand against that principle. Enough is enough.
These corporate culture-inculcated capitalists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. They look at us like we’re fools, buying into their warped view of money, even though it does us down. Well they need teaching a bloody lesson. Screwing more blood out of the fans while they unconscionably squander money elsewhere on poorly scouted players, lavish directors and managerial wages and over-remunerated players, is their agenda. They pander to the executive box culture, because it’s the culture they know. They cut the jobs of the regular people at clubs, while they dip their snouts ever deeper into the trough of money that they do little to earn, but wallow in, as though it is all of their own making. Enough is enough.
People say, well you should stay away if you don’t want to pay the money, it’s a free market, football is a product like any other. So deep has this inculcation gone, most of us spout, as though hypnotised, the language of the free-market monetarism, without realising we’ve been taken for fools by rich men – and it is almost always men – who have sold us a form of enslavement and told us it is freedom. They have so infected us with the language of their cult that they can sit back and let the slaves do their work for them, safe in the knowledge that a pliant customer is a profitable customer. But why should the poor always surrender to the rich? We live here too. Enough is enough.
People do stay away, either morally disgusted or financially disenfranchised. Time was, you’d see loads of teenagers and twenty-somethings on the terraces. Not now. The profile of crowds has changed. The average age is, by the Premier League’s own measure, 41 and it often seems much higher than that. Worse and more offensive still, this price hiking is totally unnecessary. If every Premier League club gave away 30,000 tickets for free, every home game, assuming they’d have sold all of them at the average ticket price of £32.50, they’d be deprived of less than a million pound per home game, less than 20 million per league season. Every club routinely throws that sort of money away on at least one bad transfer. For most clubs, this is chump change in the new era of 8.5 billion quid TV deal. The idea that fans have to pay more for a big stand or for top players is ludicrous. The ticket money is a mere flea bite on the elephantine body of modern football. Enough is enough.
But there is a bigger point to be made. The corporate whore sees only the bottom line. If the stadium is full, then it’s job done, but if you deprive vast swathes of that community of the chance of seeing their local football club, that doesn’t come free of charge for the rest of us. It has knock-on effect into every day life. It is a recipe for societal discontent. Happiness 0 – Bitter Sense That Things Are Wrong 5. Enough is enough.
I’m not sure the people in charge of football today have any idea how skint many people in Britain are and how unaffordable even the typical £32 ticket is. I bet they think £32 isn’t much money. But we have at least half a million people using food banks. At least one and a half million on minimum wage (excluding the ever-expanding self-employed – many of them on zero hours contracts). One in five people earn less than the living wage. Average income is around £500 per week, often with at least half of that absorbed by housing costs. We’re a low-wage economy and yet the Premier League clubs all too often charge as though the opposite is true. Enough is enough.
Even if a ticket is £32, we’re told to think it’s good value. It isn’t. That’s still too expensive and anyone who thinks it isn’t has drank too deep from football’s propaganda smoothie. Premier League football should be £5 – £15 for all regular tickets. Clubs can easily afford that and frankly, it’s a not unreasonable charge for the unluxurious experience of sitting on a plastic seat, usually in the cold, for 90 minutes. It’ll take prolonged collective action to break this financial and cultural hegemony which infects top-flight English football with its scorched earth capitalist principles. The odds are stacked against it happening, but the 10,000 who were reported to have walked out of Anfield are heroes fighting for a better, more fair world. They’re for inclusion, not exclusion. For together, not apart. For community, not individuality. For love over gold.
Because enough really is enough.
regarding the crazy price of football match tickets, greedy club owners and Liverpool's fan's walkout protest.....
‘Enough is enough’? You’re damn right it is
Date published: Monday 8th February 2016 10:20
Enough really is enough.
£77 for a ticket see a football match is far too much money, especially when the income from fans is a small percentage of revenue from everything else. Of course, the £77 Liverpool want to charge is only 200 tickets for 6 games, but it is symbolic of the direction of travel. In a society where the wealthy elite operate a policy of divide and rule with ruthless determination, the Kop walkout was a welcome bit of collective action.
Business people who run football clubs as though they are normal businesses, who refer to merchandise income streams in the same breath as they call fans customers, are to everyone, except themselves, some flavour of awful. When Liverpool fans complained that £77 is too much for 90 minutes of football, some pointed to similar ticket prices for one-off gigs and for other forms of entertainment, seemingly forgetting that most fans want to go to support their club up to at least 19 times per season. Seemingly forgetting that sitting outdoors on a plastic seat in February is not the same value product (to put it in their own language) as sitting in a warm theatre on a plush velveteen seat. Also forgetting that this is a hugely wealthy industry, made wealthy by the presence of fans who are not wealthy. In redux, the rich want the poor to pay more. Enough is enough.
I can fill my car up for £55 and get 600 miles out of it. That is much better value in my life. For £77 I could dine out at an excellent local restaurant and have a three course meal, three times a week. For £77 I could buy two bottles of Glenmorangie single malt and kill myself with pleasure. Or I could drink 77 halves of beer in the Pound Pub in Stockton-on-Tees and try to pretend life had meaning. In other words, if we’re going to get into the relative value of a £77 investment in the entertainment business, football loses at every turn. Enough is enough.
Ian Ayre went on about how they have some £9 tickets for category C games and how 1000 tickets per season are given away free to kids. That’s 1000 out of about 800,000, Ian. Very generous of you, that. Bragging about this sort of thing shows the gulf of understanding. First, £9 (not that there are many tickets at that price) should be a not untypical price for any game, not just the PR giveaway for the games you consider will be the worst attended. This ranking of games into categories, though entirely normal nowadays, is a classic divisive principle. Can’t afford to go to a good game? Here, have a cheap ticket for a rubbish game. We all take for granted that things work like this in 2016, but it’s a choice, not an inevitability. No matter you may have paid into the club for 35 years, if you can’t afford it anymore, screw you. Your loyalty is only worth what you will pay today. The 10,000+ who walked out of the Kop are making a stand against that principle. Enough is enough.
These corporate culture-inculcated capitalists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. They look at us like we’re fools, buying into their warped view of money, even though it does us down. Well they need teaching a bloody lesson. Screwing more blood out of the fans while they unconscionably squander money elsewhere on poorly scouted players, lavish directors and managerial wages and over-remunerated players, is their agenda. They pander to the executive box culture, because it’s the culture they know. They cut the jobs of the regular people at clubs, while they dip their snouts ever deeper into the trough of money that they do little to earn, but wallow in, as though it is all of their own making. Enough is enough.
People say, well you should stay away if you don’t want to pay the money, it’s a free market, football is a product like any other. So deep has this inculcation gone, most of us spout, as though hypnotised, the language of the free-market monetarism, without realising we’ve been taken for fools by rich men – and it is almost always men – who have sold us a form of enslavement and told us it is freedom. They have so infected us with the language of their cult that they can sit back and let the slaves do their work for them, safe in the knowledge that a pliant customer is a profitable customer. But why should the poor always surrender to the rich? We live here too. Enough is enough.
People do stay away, either morally disgusted or financially disenfranchised. Time was, you’d see loads of teenagers and twenty-somethings on the terraces. Not now. The profile of crowds has changed. The average age is, by the Premier League’s own measure, 41 and it often seems much higher than that. Worse and more offensive still, this price hiking is totally unnecessary. If every Premier League club gave away 30,000 tickets for free, every home game, assuming they’d have sold all of them at the average ticket price of £32.50, they’d be deprived of less than a million pound per home game, less than 20 million per league season. Every club routinely throws that sort of money away on at least one bad transfer. For most clubs, this is chump change in the new era of 8.5 billion quid TV deal. The idea that fans have to pay more for a big stand or for top players is ludicrous. The ticket money is a mere flea bite on the elephantine body of modern football. Enough is enough.
But there is a bigger point to be made. The corporate whore sees only the bottom line. If the stadium is full, then it’s job done, but if you deprive vast swathes of that community of the chance of seeing their local football club, that doesn’t come free of charge for the rest of us. It has knock-on effect into every day life. It is a recipe for societal discontent. Happiness 0 – Bitter Sense That Things Are Wrong 5. Enough is enough.
I’m not sure the people in charge of football today have any idea how skint many people in Britain are and how unaffordable even the typical £32 ticket is. I bet they think £32 isn’t much money. But we have at least half a million people using food banks. At least one and a half million on minimum wage (excluding the ever-expanding self-employed – many of them on zero hours contracts). One in five people earn less than the living wage. Average income is around £500 per week, often with at least half of that absorbed by housing costs. We’re a low-wage economy and yet the Premier League clubs all too often charge as though the opposite is true. Enough is enough.
Even if a ticket is £32, we’re told to think it’s good value. It isn’t. That’s still too expensive and anyone who thinks it isn’t has drank too deep from football’s propaganda smoothie. Premier League football should be £5 – £15 for all regular tickets. Clubs can easily afford that and frankly, it’s a not unreasonable charge for the unluxurious experience of sitting on a plastic seat, usually in the cold, for 90 minutes. It’ll take prolonged collective action to break this financial and cultural hegemony which infects top-flight English football with its scorched earth capitalist principles. The odds are stacked against it happening, but the 10,000 who were reported to have walked out of Anfield are heroes fighting for a better, more fair world. They’re for inclusion, not exclusion. For together, not apart. For community, not individuality. For love over gold.
Because enough really is enough.
Monday, 2 March 2015
Anfield Police Station
Photography by me
1st March 2015
Old police station,
Anfield, Liverpool
Photography by me
1st March 2015
Old police station,
Anfield, Liverpool
1st March 2015
Old police station,
Anfield, Liverpool
1st March 2015
Old police station,
Anfield, Liverpool
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Birdman
Went to see Birdman on Sunday, really good film made even better by FACT Cinema in Liverpool where the Screen we saw it in is full of sofa chairs. No contorting your body into rows of cramped chairs instead you can stretch out and slob out on the sofa like you're at home, pretty cool.
Birdman has a jittery jazz drum soundtrack throughout giving it an edgy but cool atmosphere along with artistic cinematics, subtle dark humour, slightly surreal fantasy intertwined in gritty reality which simmers on the brink of psychotic meltdown. Hey I should write film reviews! *no spoilers*
Birdman has a jittery jazz drum soundtrack throughout giving it an edgy but cool atmosphere along with artistic cinematics, subtle dark humour, slightly surreal fantasy intertwined in gritty reality which simmers on the brink of psychotic meltdown. Hey I should write film reviews! *no spoilers*
I suggest you go and see it. If you go see it at FACT then try and make sure it's on 'the box' screen, that's the one with all the sofas. While you're there there's also a nice cafe and some art exhibitions. A much more satisfying experience than your average junk food fueled generic outing to the odeon.
Birdman (Trailer) from Somesuch on Vimeo.
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Saturday, 15 November 2014
Budapest to Liverpool
Back from Budapest yesterday and out for the day today in that other wonderful European City of culture..... Liverpool.
I Wandered about for a couple of hours while Bec did a yoga class and not being a big shopper went taking photos and listening to buskers. was a bit gutted I didn't take my proper camera but these ain't too bad from my phone. Listened to a guy busking for a while, it was kinda guitar hip hop soul jazz, sounded great so I went over to speak to him briefly, he calls himself Elavi, check him out http://www.elavi.com/index.html
I Wandered about for a couple of hours while Bec did a yoga class and not being a big shopper went taking photos and listening to buskers. was a bit gutted I didn't take my proper camera but these ain't too bad from my phone. Listened to a guy busking for a while, it was kinda guitar hip hop soul jazz, sounded great so I went over to speak to him briefly, he calls himself Elavi, check him out http://www.elavi.com/index.html
Monday, 25 August 2014
Swim, Bike, Run
Defending her title in Manchester at Salford triathlon Bec finished 1st. A brilliant achievement you'd think but despite beating 2nd by a clear 5 minutes there were a few groans (from Bec not me) about her swim and bike time. It was windy and rainy and numerous people crashed on the slippery bike course but even so Bec wanted to do better and that's what keeps her going. This was last weekend but I've been a bit too busy to be making blog posts recently.
The week before Salford was Liverpool tri. Big Hurricane Bertha was waving her big butt about causing all sorts of havoc. As a spectator it was brutal, I was battered by the wind and rain whilst struggling along carrying Becci's kit bags, whilst Bec had the advantage of being able to cycle and run to keep warm. Good race by Bec but of course she was disappointed not to beat her last year's time despite racing in a hurricane. The swimming didn't look so nice either especially as the docks are full of jellyfish. The photos don't really convey the rough weather but they cancelled the men's race in the afternoon when Bertha was really really getting quite irrational and throwing street furniture around for no good reason. typical women.
 |
| swim |
 |
| bike |
 |
| run |
 |
| winner with both of her cups |
The week before Salford was Liverpool tri. Big Hurricane Bertha was waving her big butt about causing all sorts of havoc. As a spectator it was brutal, I was battered by the wind and rain whilst struggling along carrying Becci's kit bags, whilst Bec had the advantage of being able to cycle and run to keep warm. Good race by Bec but of course she was disappointed not to beat her last year's time despite racing in a hurricane. The swimming didn't look so nice either especially as the docks are full of jellyfish. The photos don't really convey the rough weather but they cancelled the men's race in the afternoon when Bertha was really really getting quite irrational and throwing street furniture around for no good reason. typical women.
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| liverpool triathlon |
Friday, 9 May 2014
Monday, 28 April 2014
love it, love it
With the Premier league title going right down to the wire Mourinho, Rogers and Pellegrini are all still playing it down insisting that the other two are favourites "we can't win it now, the pressure's on them", well it's all very cool and everything being so calm, philosophical and aloof but what we'd like to see is some Kevin Keegan style passion back in these post match interviews!
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Fat legs run fast
Not a bad start to the season for GB triathlete Super Becs. 6th in Liverpool half marathon today from a field of 3251 . Maybe just for a few days she will stop asking if her legs look fat!
Monday, 17 March 2014
back of the net!
This Premiership season is the best for many years, not just because of the four teams fighting down to the wire for the title but because of the hilarious demise of Manchester United. Utd have had a bad season, poor Moyesy looks more desperate every match and Ferguson looks seriously glum up in the stands whilst being secretly delighted with his calculated timely exit. Man Utd 0 - 3 Liverpool, brilliant! The way Liverpool are playing I'm tipping them for the title. Liverpool will take the title and United fans will hate that even more than City winning it which makes them perfect targets for poking fun at their once previously smug faces. It's only a game though right?
 |
| Man Utd 0 - 3 Liverpool |
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| David Moyes is a football genius |
Some of the best fun of all is goading any Utd fans you know. As you can see below sending a few friendly messages seems to do the trick. You know what? They don't like it!
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| Cheer up! |
Friday, 5 October 2012
when the chips are down.....
Went to Anfield last night and came away bemused at how Liverpool could enjoy 72% of possession but still lose 3-2 to Udinese! When I thought about it though it was probably the sideways passing that bumped the possession stats up and the mixture of old horse Carra and new kids in defence that leak too many goals. Suarez and Gerrard were brought on with 25 mins to go and were significantly in a different class, they are far superior to most of their team mates and that's Liverpools problem all over, with the money they've spent in the past few years they should have a team comparable to Arsenal or Spurs but they haven't got the quality they've paid for. On a more positive note the chips, peas and gravy from the chippy across the road from the stadium were well worth queuing up for, excellent quality grub! Maybe Brendan Rodgers should pop in and get some advice on what value for money means.
On last nights evidence they didn't play badly and didn't really play badly enough to get beaten by Udinese but the defence is not solid enough and they need a few more players with skill, energy and motivation comparable to Suarez and Gerrard. Doesn't look like Liverpool will have the edge to win trophies this season and certainly not the Europa cup with their 2 best players starting on the bench!
On last nights evidence they didn't play badly and didn't really play badly enough to get beaten by Udinese but the defence is not solid enough and they need a few more players with skill, energy and motivation comparable to Suarez and Gerrard. Doesn't look like Liverpool will have the edge to win trophies this season and certainly not the Europa cup with their 2 best players starting on the bench!
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