Slaven Bilic seems to have his way with spot on comparisons when it comes to football-political subjects. Recently Liverpool owners decided to raise ticket prices to maximum of £77. This led to a massive protest among the supporters, and they left the game on the 77th minute against Sunderland.
When Slaven Bilic was asked about his opinion on this subject, he said to the Mirror:
It’s not polo, it’s not golf, it’s not a sport for upper class. It’s the most popular sport and shouldn’t be a privilege for a family to go and watch. It should be affordable. It should be like that with football.
This is not Les Miserables, this is football.
Next season, West Ham are moving to the Olympic Stadium, and this will lead to an incredible decrease in ticket prices. West Ham are offering season tickets for as low as £99 for u16s.
We are a good example, the board and club are progressing in that way. We definitely for next season will have cheapest season tickets and cheap tickets for under 16s. Club needs money but not from tickets.
Bilic also mentioned that ticket sales shouldn’t be the main source of income for football clubs and insisted that the last thing any team wants to have is an empty stadium with no fans.
As far as I know clubs are not living out of ticket sales. They have much bigger income from other things. I think a balance can be found to keep fans happy. Otherwise we will have empty stadiums.
We should keep the fans happy not only with the quality of the game but also with the prices of tickets.
It is not the first time Bilic has gained the affection of football fans with such quotes. After the win against Manchester City earlier this season, he claimed it felt like “walking into a pub full of girls”. Earlier in his career, he claimed: “With the greatest respect to women, football is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
