Liverpool to "Consider" Review of Ticket Prices in Wake of Fan Protest

In the 77th minute of Saturday's unfortunate draw to Sunderland, thousands of Liverpool fans stuck true to their word and promptly marched out of Anfield in protest of the new ticket structure that had been announced by the club. Though the new structure had, in the club's mind, addressed the supporters' groups three main concerns -- affordability, local, youth -- they weren't addressed to a satisfactory degree and, as promised, Anfield began to empty out a bit earlier in protest.

With rumours of further fan action gaining momentum online late Saturday and early Sunday, news emerged from sources close to the club that the club were "considering" reviewing the new pricing structure in light of the unprecedented backlash.  The Liverpool Echo reported on "emergency trans-Atlantic discussions" between top employees at both FSG and Liverpool that began Sunday and are supposed to continue well into the week. There is no word yet as to whether or not this will impact the rather ill-advised Twitter Q&A that Ian Ayre is set to participate in on Monday evening local time.

Though many fans considered this move by the club to be a win for the protest, that the club is "considering" reviewing is far different than actually reviewing the pricing structure let alone changing the pricing structure. They could be "considering" reviewing the prices in the same way that I'm considering colouring my hair blue. But if "considering" is merely an unfortunate and unnecessary inclusion in the unofficial-official club statement on the matter, the Liverpool fans who participated in the protest have every reason to believe the protest to be a major success.

But getting the club's ear back is just step one, and the fans who now have the club's attention need to make sure that the argument they put forth to the club regarding ticket prices is persuasive on a business level in addition to being persuasive on an emotional, even sentimental level. So far, many of the arguments in favour of lowering the ticket prices have been short on the former and long on the latter, and with the club thinking they'd done good work in addressing the latter the first time around, it's going to be all the more necessary to show them why the numbers work in the bigger picture of the club's fiscal reality.