NESV/Fenway Sports Group: Owners of LFC

I'm surprised we haven't had a good old pre season moan about this.

Apologies if this is already somewhere else:

LIVERPOOL: MAIN STAND SEAT SELL OFF – WHY THE CLUB HAVE GOT THIS SO, SO WRONG

by Ian Salmon // 9 July 2016 //







I RECEIVED an email this morning. Some of you may have received the same email. If not, you may have possibly noticed it mentioned in passing on Twitter. To be honest, I found out about it from Twitter before I saw the email. Don’t check my emails that often at the moment, they only ever seem to be trying to sell me something.

Ironic, that. Really. F***ing. Ironic.

The tweet came from Mathilde Delamotte. You’ll find her on @Delamotte_m. I don’t know Mathilde, I’ve never met her. I follow her on Twitter, although I didn’t realise that I did until I saw the tweet.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Delamotte_M/status/751764709058150400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I was prepared to knee-jerk. I’m quite happy to knee jerk. Ask anyone. I held back; thought: “Well, there’s no confirmation and stories like this keep doing the rounds.”

I tweeted back: “Are they selling them? Thought they’d all been skipped the day after. I’d have happily bought mine on the day.” Then I decided to do some digging. Surely an idea this ludicrous could only be scaremongering. Like the anti-Brexit arguments. EXACTLY like the anti-Brexit arguments, if you get my drift.

I found an image. An image of a seat in a box. A red seat in a box. A seat with the number 134 on it. Not sure how many people sat in seat 134. Loads of them. How many rows were there in the Main Stand? I’ve no idea whose seat 134 this was. Nor do the club. It’s just a seat, isn’t it?

And you can own this seat. This fairly random seat 134 in its nice black presentation box. This “limited edition product” in its “Iconic Presentation box” with its “Certificate of authenticity” and a “Main Stand history booklet” which will be “Despatched in a protective delivery sleeve via DPD (UK) with the “Product to be despatched from week commencing 15 August”.
The product. The f**king product.

The price should be £225 but the “Season Ticket Holders & Members Price” is £200. Which is nice. Saving £25 there.
The last home game of the season. Remember the last home game of the season? I’ve got to be honest, if you had asked me about it I couldn’t have told you what it was. Had to check the closing chapters of my book (They Say Our Days Are Numbered out August 14). And, yes, I do understand the utter irony/hypocrisy of me getting in a plug for my book while I’m about to rail, and I mean really RAIL against unbridled commercialism, greed and lack of consideration for the human spirit but sod it, I need the money a hell of a lot more than Liverpool FC does).

Chelsea. 1-1. Can’t really remember the game, can’t be bothered checking. It’s not important. What’s important is this: It was the last day of the old Main Stand.

We knew this. It might not have received the worldwide coverage that the last day of the ‘storied’ Boleyn Ground garnered but, God knows, it saw a hell of a lot more glory.

We’d waited for announcements all season. We’d had our chance to pick our new seats and, if desiring, remain as close to our current location as possible. I desired to, I did. Some of us were lucky. We thought there may be a chance that we may be able to buy our seats. Take them home with us. Display them, cherish them, keep our memories.

We thought that the club may have the foresight/sense/wisdom to sell the seats to us. Let us pay in advance and reserve our seats to be collected. OUR seats. Not just seats but OUR seats. The actual seats that we sat in, that our hearts belonged to. OUR part of Anfield. We thought the club may charge, say….£50, donate all proceeds to Alder Hey or some other, club-linked, charity. No. Nothing. No word at all.

As the game ended, you heard the noise start. A cracking. A splintering. The sound of those who had chosen to take their seats. You may have seen the newspaper coverage the next day, the next week. West Ham fans had “sought souvenirs from the Boleyn Ground” in as romantic a manner as possible. Us? Thieving Scouse Bas**rds as per normal, thanks.

The announcement came. “This is a public service announcement for all supporters in the Main Stand. Unauthorised removal of club property is theft and you may be arrested.”

Theft. So the club agree with the Daily Mail on that one. The ones further back were undeterred. Seat backs vanished into jackets and wended their way through Stanley Park to a permanent home. I’ll be honest, if I’d been more prepared I’d have had a tool kit with me to help disassemble my seat. I wasn’t. I didn’t. And the steward standing 10 feet from me and staring at all around made my mind up. Still, I hopped over the seat back and flexed my knee against it. Just to see if there was any give. Any subtle give. There wasn’t.
And I thought: “This was my dad’s. This seat was my dad’s. This season ticket was my dad’s. He wanted me to have this and I have it. I’m not losing my dad’s season ticket for a piece of wood.”

So I took a photo of the seat and I took a photo of the view from the seat, because the view next season will be slightly different, and I headed to a traffic jam leading to a recording of The Pink. I’d half-thought that I would enter the studio with a seat in my hands as a conversation starter. I didn’t. We spoke about Eden Hazard’s goal instead. I didn’t get my dad’s seat.

Main Stand. Turnstile U or V 1-4 Block M8 Row 6 Seat 92. My dad’s seat. I’ve told this story before ( http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2014/11/well-meet-wall-match/ ) but for those who didn’t read it, I’ll recap. We lost our dad in November 2013. He’d attended his last game some time before. West Brom. Hoped for the Real game, hoped for the Chelsea game. Couldn’t do them.
When he saw his last game he didn’t know it was his last game. He thought he’d seen his last game the season before. He wasn’t well and his eyesight was going. He considered not renewing his season ticket but he kept it. He kept it in the hope that I could continue it. Because that’s important isn’t it? That legacy, that passing on of the torch, that instillment of passion? That’s what we’re about, isn’t it?

And I kept it. I sat in it all last season. My first season as a season-ticket holder in my own name being the last season that seat would be there. I found something quite poetic in that, something that spoke of transition while retaining history.

And you know what? Anfield were brilliant. To be precise, the Anfield ticket office were brilliant. There were stories that warned that you shouldn’t admit to the ticket change, that you should keep your mouth shut and just keep going, that there were people in the Main Stand who were still miraculously match-going at the age of 125. But the light on the ticket thing at the gates? Flashed amber instead of green. So I rang the club. I rang them in January and it took them until August but they did it. They changed the ticket into my name. It didn’t go to a tour company, it didn’t pass on to somebody different each week, it passed on to me. As it should, as he wanted.

I don’t know how many times the Main Stand has been redeveloped since the early fifties when my dad started his lifetime pilgrimage to Anfield, I don’t know how many times he moved seats. I know that he sat in this seat for as long as I can currently remember. I know that the grooves on the edge of the seat back come from his back along with the feet of whoever sat beside him. I know that the seat held his weight. I know that he sat in it, rose from it, sat in it, rose from it, acclaimed glory and endured defeat for decades.

Taking that seat home would be taking a part of my dad home. And there are lots of parts of my dad here. His photo is to my left, I have his watch, his ties, some of his books, a suitcase he used for holidays before I was born. I have him. I always have him. But the seat? The seat was a link. It was a link to Liverpool and to what we shared. Specifically, what we shared. We shared that view and that seat and the camaraderie of those who sat near us. And I know that those who sat near us have the same stories. I know that pretty much every season-ticket holder has a similar story. Every single seat has a story. Every single seat is personal.

Don’t get me wrong here. Anfield are capable of doing fine things. Sorting my season ticket obviously but the stones in the new walkway? They’re great. The stones are great. I’d hoped that the club would do something along those lines from the day that my wife organised her father’s stone at Goodison — it’s genuinely a beautiful thing to have. Buying the stone was obvious. And the message our kid decided should go on it? Magnificent.

This though? This selling of ‘a piece of LFC history’? It’s disgusting. It’s a new low from a club that I thought couldn’t show itself more insensitive to the fans’ feelings than it did over the ticket price fiasco. This is worse. To me, this is much, much worse. This is a disgrace. This is a sign that there is somebody in the club’s commercial department that doesn’t get it. Or, that there is simply ABSOLUTELY NOBODY who DOES get it.

There’s a lack of understanding here that is staggering in its depth. There’s a lack of empathy to what this club actually MEANS to the fans who have paid for season tickets for decades. There appears to be nobody at the club who has had the foresight to realise that the seats have value to the fans who have sat in them. All they have seen is that these seats, these generic seats, this f**king PRODUCT has generic ‘value’. There is money to be made here. There’s no place for sentiment. There’s money to be made. It’s as wrong-headed as business ever gets. It’s as lacking in humanity as commerce manages.

And, again, don’t get me wrong. Thirty years in retail. I know how to sell stuff. I’m bloody good at selling stuff. I understand that we’re viewed as customers by the men who run the business. Not fans; customers. And I’m genuinely okay with that idea. I’ve defended the club on that concept quite a few times. “We should be told what’s going on behind the scenes.” Why? Why should we be told? Because we’re fans, because we give them money? Justin Bieber fans will claim the same allegiance to their love as we to ours. And, yes, they’re completely bloody different because theirs isn’t going to transcend the ephemeral and enter history while ours has, but we still have no say over how the business is run, how the money is spent, who gets the top jobs.

And I’m fine with that.

These seats aren’t about commerce though. These seats are about having the chance to show that the club can do the right thing for the fans. They did the right thing for me with my season ticket, I applaud them for that, I make sure — in my own little way — that people know that they did that; that they’re not as heartless as they’re often painted.

This was a chance for them to show that on a large scale. £50 for the seat? Money to Alder Hey? Sound, where do I sign? Will cash do? Sorted. How beautiful gesture would that be?
£225 for A seat. Capital A. A seat. Just A generic seat, one of thousands. A seat in a box with a booklet. Hideous.
And there are people on Twitter who agree with this viewpoint. And there are those that don’t.



I don’t know if it breaks down by location, I’ve not looked. I’m not going to, I’m not interested in us vs them, Scouse vs Wools — I’m not here for that. There are those who say “why do you want it?” I hope I’ve explained that. I hope I’ve explained it on behalf of a lot of us because I know, I bloody KNOW, I’m not alone. There are those who say “but you’re just renting that seat”, that you have no ownership. There are those that point out that we’re being asked to pay £225 for a seat that we’ve already paid thousands for but it’s not even that.
We’re not being asked to pay for THAT seat, we’re being asked to pay for A seat. For SOMEBODY’s seat. Not ours. There are those who think FSG are appalling. I don’t agree with that, I think they’ve got this very, very wrong and I don’t think there’s any way out of it. And there’s the old “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it”. And that’s also not the point.

The point is this: seat 92. Show me a seat 92. Show me one of the, what, 70, 80, 90, seat 92s? I reckon I could pick mine out. But you can’t. It’s in an iconic presentation box in a warehouse.

Seat 134. That seat you’re using to advertise this whole bloody thing? Whose seat 134 was that? Which row was it in? Who sat in it? Who was his favourite player? What was the best match he ever saw? Was his name ever called on the tannoy? Did he ever have to leave the ground for a birth or an illness? Did he stand on it for St Etienne or Chelsea or Dortmund? Did he slump on it against Arsenal? What did he feel? What did he see? What did he remember? You have no idea, do you? On every conceivable level you have no bloody idea.

We’ll sell you a seat. You can buy a piece of history. And it’s not like selling the bricks from the Kop. I’m not having that one. And I didn’t want a brick from the Kop. I didn’t stand on the bricks, I didn’t touch the bricks. Each brick was one of thousands. Millions. Many. Each seat wasn’t. Each seat was worn down by us, by our loved ones, each seat held the magic. And you pulled them apart and threw them on the ground and you put them in storage and then you placed them in iconic presentation boxes and called them product. They’re not f**king product. They’re people’s lives and hopes and memories. They’re the moments that they loved and everything that they gave to the game and the game gave to them.

So, the season ticket holders and the members get the first chance to buy A seat from the Main Stand. And you can get my seat and I can get his seat and he can their seat and somebody who is a member but hasn’t been lucky enough to get to the game yet (and there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s all tied into not having the foresight to go big in the nineties) can have your seat.
But that’s okay, isn’t it? Because they’re all just seats. They’re all just product.
I love my club. I adore Liverpool FC. I’ve never been as disgusted by anything that the business of Liverpool has done as I am right now.

They just don’t get it do they?

http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2016/07/liverpool-main-stand-seat-sell-off-club-got-wrong/

I'm so glad you posted this mate, I read it in TAW but don't know how to copy & paste using my phone or my pad for that matter, anyhoo isn't this a absolute travesty?
and another example of how we 'Customers' are being used as a cash cow by those deemed to have our interests at heart,

I'm actually sickened by this, this is actually worse than that f***in rag's headline of fans Robbing stricken brethren on the turf at Hillsborough,

This pissing on the memories of those sat on those seats for generations,

Whoever thought this one up shouldn't be anywhere near this club, this is what we don't do, this is f***in Chav like, it's a discusting act of betrayal,

We cannot allow this to happen, IT'S WRONG, everything about it f***in STINKS,

I think another MASS walkout might have the desired effect,

FIRST home game of the season, One minute & 34 secs into the match,
MASS EXODUS, if our owners thought they could F**k us over in ticket pricing, they soon changed their greedy little minds didn’t they?

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN!!!!
Spread the word ppl?



YNWA

Worst than the sun headline?behave.not even remotely in the same universe.walk out?over a seat?If some one wants to buy it at 200 quid,go right ahead,i still can't get my head round the obsession of a  new feckin replica kit every year but there's loads that get hard-ons over that,so no clue why anyone would want a seat.What a world we live in today.

Hang on - worse than the Hillsborough Headlines..?

I agree its nice to let the fans take the seats if they want them on the final day of the season - and they should have done this. But to be fair, they are there seats and if they want to ask people not to steal them so they can sell them on that is not unreasonable...

That is nothing as bad as Hillsborough headlines. Not even close.

They aren't the first club to do it but we're a unique club with unique support and do the club really need the £200 a seat?

They probably should have offered the season ticket holders their original seat at pretty steep discount and then sell off the rest

Discount should have been 100% for ST holders in my view.  It's a piece of wood that means nothing to the club, arguably nothing to the vast majority of fans who sat in there, but will mean something to some.

They've been peddling pish and selling snake oil, to a captive audience, for more than half a decade now: stroking them for another £200 quid is only to be expected.

They are shower of F***ing charlatans; the sooner fans wake up to it, the better.

They've been peddling pish and selling snake oil, to a captive audience, for more than half a decade now: stroking them for another £200 quid is only to be expected.

They are shower of f**king charlatans; the sooner fans wake up to it, the better.

I think we are referred to as Customers these days or in other words "cash Cows".

Worst than the sun headline?behave.not even remotely in the same universe.

Of course it is, still spinning the same old sh*te that scousers are F***ing thieves.

And the club aided and abetted the cu*ts with that tannoy announcement at the Chelsea game.

The F***ing sharks!!

OK fairy muff I might have slightly over reacted, but they are still Kunts for charging for seats after years and years of payments from the STH'S,

Some of you are missing the point,

SHARKS indeed!!



YNWA

There have been major questions surrounding the actual footballing operations of the club - though it seems as if they're learning their lessons by allowing Klopp a bigger slice of control, taking much of it away from the "American football expert" Mike Gordon (was never going to end well - considering the man has no experience in football prior to Liverpool - in my eyes, you can only be an expert with proven credentials).

But the fact Liverpool's value has jumped 58% in the last year and is now a 'billionaire club' tells me enough that these are the kind of shrewd business dealers that the club desperately needed over the last two decades. The club was still being run like a corner shop prior to FSG - this time though, FSG are really doing the business in raising the club profile.

Of course, success on the field would only increase Liverpool's visibility but I feel, like 99% of us, we have the right man for that in the dugout.

Fingers crossed, what with the club becoming ever more prosperous, the new stand coming in and Klopp at the helm, that this signals the advent of Liverpool's revival.

Did I read somewhere that Billy Hogan is tipped to  be the next CEO? Be careful what you wish for  I think I  posted when it  was said that Ayre was on his way out. 

There have been major questions surrounding the actual footballing operations of the club - though it seems as if they're learning their lessons by allowing Klopp a bigger slice of control, taking much of it away from the "American football expert" Mike Gordon (was never going to end well - considering the man has no experience in football prior to Liverpool - in my eyes, you can only be an expert with proven credentials).

But the fact Liverpool's value has jumped 58% in the last year and is now a 'billionaire club' tells me enough that these are the kind of shrewd business dealers that the club desperately needed over the last two decades. The club was still being run like a corner shop prior to FSG - this time though, FSG are really doing the business in raising the club profile.

Of course, success on the field would only increase Liverpool's visibility but I feel, like 99% of us, we have the right man for that in the dugout.

Fingers crossed, what with the club becoming ever more prosperous, the new stand coming in and Klopp at the helm, that this signals the advent of Liverpool's revival.

This .
All agreed.


........................ ........................


They get it wrong they get it right.
They get it right they get  it wrong.

They have just built a f**k off monster stand and reduced the debt on the club.
That'll do for me ...... with out any following analysis from any forum accountants.

Did I read somewhere that Billy Hogan is tipped to  be the next CEO? Be careful what you wish for  I think I  posted when it  was said that Ayre was on his way out. 

He seems to be the favourite. This is a snippet of an article on the Independent website from a few days ago...

Soon enough, Ian Ayre will leave his post as chief executive and although global recruitment specialists Spencer Stuart are being used to search for his replacement, there is currently a feeling within Fenway Sports Group that Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s commercial director of the last four years, will end up being appointed as Ayre’s successor. Since 2014 Hogan has been based at Liverpool’s London offices.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/new-stand-new-owners-new-deal-Jürgen-klopp-busy-creating-the-liverpool-he-wants-a7133456.html

So we are now worth a whopping £1 billion....

Thats a serious return on their initial outlay...

So we are now worth a whopping £1 billion....

Thats a serious return on their initial outlay...

It'll no doubt start going up too once the stand has been opened for a few years.

So we are now worth a whopping £1 billion....

Thats a serious return on their initial outlay...

funny that isn't it how much is their total investment worth taking out the value of the squad. they will walk when it suites them and they will make more money out of this club than anyone has ever  done. this modern football is just a big con to fleece the punters

I'll start singing FSG's praises WHEN we see some sustained success on the pitch. Under their watch we've finished 6th to 8th in all but one season and have 1 trophy in the cabinet. Shrewd they might be but the bit that matters is the bit that happens on the football pitch and its not been good.

Billy Hogan? That football mastermind?

What's all this like?

Billy Hogan? That football mastermind?

What's all this like?

Hopefully he will be taking his orders from Jürgen in things football related.

Starting to think AZ is endorsing Jürgen for President of the World.

Starting to think AZ is endorsing Jürgen for President of the World.

He might do the job better than most

He might do the job better than most

I would take him for Prez over here, miles better than the two jokers we have.

There's an article in the echo with Tom Werner, the club is NOT for sale.

Sorry but I'm on my phone and can't post the article at the moment.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/tom-werner-liverpool-not-sale-11775224

Suits me, we could be in far worse hands.

Not even been any new talk of it so not sure why he has felt the need to say it to be honest. Goes on to say about selling a stake in the club so maybe fishing for suitors.