Liverpool announced a fan meeting for the expansion of the Anfield Road end, on the same morning that many experienced difficulty buying tickets.
Frustration with the club’s ticket sale system for members is a common occurrence throughout the season.
The latest wave of Premier League tickets were made available this week, with the initial members’ sale on Tuesday being for the clashes with Man United, Southampton, West Ham, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Chelsea.
To purchase tickets for those, members required a record of at least 13 home games attended last season to purchase, with this reduced to four for the meetings with United and Chelsea from Wednesday.
On Thursday, all members were able to buy tickets for the fixtures against Sheffield United, Southampton, West Ham, Bournemouth, Palace, Aston Villa and Burnley.
This tiered system has long sparked issues with fans, who are often forced to wait in online queues for hours, on a weekday, with no guarantee of tickets as the club confirm they are sold on a “first come, first served basis.”
Residents invited to consult on proposed Anfield Road expansion https://t.co/kbGlPFfqRo
— Peter Moore (@PeterMooreLFC) November 21, 2019
And with Liverpool announcing a fan consultation over their plans for the expansion of the Anfield Road end on Thursday morning, complaints on Twitter were prominent:
Characteristically savvy of the Liverpool™? Football Club® machine to roll this news out today. The members' ticket sale was a complete farce as usual:https://t.co/xDhAGpOSqN#LFC
— Ant Haddley ? (@AntHaddley) November 21, 2019
So today’s sale has over 75,000 in browsers on the website queuing to get tickets. Someone who has not been a single Liverpool game in their life (ALL Members) has the equal chance of getting a ticket as someone who has been EVERY home in the past seasons @PeterMooreLFC @LFC
— JW (@JamesWortho__) November 21, 2019
Minimum an hour wait for these Liverpool tickets, Shocking to see that fans who have 19 games from the previous season having to wait with new members, we deserve first dibs on every game
— Hasan Matwadia (@hasanm_986) November 21, 2019
Saaaaake! Took the morning off work & got up waaay earlier than I need to. Queued for over two hours, left the screen alone for about the last quarter of that, come back and I've been completely kicked out?!? What the fuck Liverpool, need to sort these Members sale out. Ffs…
— Pete Edwards (@PeteEdwards) November 21, 2019
Liverpool FC Members' card increasingly becoming a waste of money as well as time. Failed to get a single ticket in this season's sales. Online since 7am. Queue still over an hour long. No reward for loyalty. Change the system @LFC.
— Paul Mahoney (@MrPaulMahoney) November 20, 2019
Liverpool should do a auto cup scheme style sale for the 5000 members with 13+ credits. Members should be treated like season ticket holders when they go the same amount of games!
— The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) November 19, 2019
Fantastic news. All you need to do now is set up the ticket sales as a ballot instead of making people take half a day off work for this….. pic.twitter.com/XdlxJnnfT4
— ?Liverpool™ FC ?????? (@Ra58U) November 21, 2019
People who have been going for 10 years could miss out to members who have only got their members card a week ago Peter, absolute joke putting members with 13+ into a free for all just to get 2 games.
— hoppyLFC COLFC (@johnhopwood1) November 21, 2019
Wrong time to be tweeting anything at this moment ? #MemberSale
— Rameez (@Rameez7860) November 21, 2019
There is, of course, an argument that expanding Anfield will aid problems with supporters aiming to buy tickets, with the club’s current plan being to increase capacity to over 60,000.
But given many fans’ issue is with new memberships being as valid as long-serving, match-going memberships for certain games—such as Sheffield United and Villa—this may only exacerbate the issue.
Furthermore, it should be noted that regardless of the fairness of the members’ system, the same tickets are then being sold on third-party websites immediately after:
They need to Stop websites like this!! How are they getting tickets ? pic.twitter.com/Kaz3VB7BCX
— Fox in the box (@dave_foxy) November 21, 2019
It is a difficult process which the club have seemingly attempted to solve with the Fan Update scheme introduced last month.
Liverpool explained that this aimed to “help supporters who currently have more than one official membership or season ticket to clarify who uses the tickets going forward.”
But the regularity with these complaints highlights a big issue, though addressing this is not the intention of the club’s Anfield Road end consultation, which will be held at The Kop Bar on Nov 29, Dec 2 and Dec 3.
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