Liverpool's Ticket Price Increase: TAW Unwrapped

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1:26at the home depot. This is a plicee home depot.com slash price match for details. Hi, I'm wrapped and wrapping the big talking points across the football world here in Liverpool. Today we're talking about ticket price. Rises implemented by Liverpool today, joining me to do the RJ McKenna at Garif Roberts and Phil Blunder. So the statement from the club, at least in brief, reads, Liverpool Football Club can confirm it will increase general emission ticket prices, limited to inflation for the next three seasons, a freezing junior and local general tickets and £9 each. So I just want to first of all, Gents Gage, sort of headline reactions to this from each of your first and foremost. So Jay, I think I'll come to you first. Placing and I spoke to some Jay list about this as you're imagining when the news has come out. And I think the polite thing that says cheer to the sports board, being in those rooms is extremely disappointing. And you know, the emotions on this from supporters around the table have been varied, but but everyone saying to globally didn't need to do it. I'm disappointed that they've gone up, but I'm also disappointed what feels like a missed opportunity. We wanted

2:29and want as the supporters board, as if it's a shankly, the other groups on the table to have a big conversation with Liverpool about its support. This isn't just about price. This is about its support, the thing you sell, the thing that the players and manager past and present, talk about being really important. We use it to market, we use it to sell games on the television. We wanted to protect that the whole way. The Gareth and others have been involved with the FSA about protecting the current current support, the future generations. It just feels like we've missed that opportunity to do it. I'm not only then said, well, we're going to put them up anyway, but now we're going to commit to that for three years, every morning, three some prices for fans at a very difficult time anyway. When the club's making loads of money, it just feels like it was a decision we didn't need to make a missed opportunity. As I say, a lot of disappointment from the people who have been involved in the conversations with the club. Gareth, obviously, as part of the spirit of shankly, you've been really involved in the stop exploiting loyalty campaign. Just for people who maybe don't know, can tell us a little bit more about that and how this kind of flies in the face

3:30of that, really. The campaign is more that, obviously, we're around the table to talk about Liverpool today, but right across the country, there are supporters who feel the same way. If generational supporters, you've gone with the more more that's added or the grammar, the granddad, whatever, and it's been passed down that they are a football fan who goes the match and goes regularly. It's becoming harder and harder to do that. There are people coming together right across the country, basically, under the hat of stop exploiting loyalty because that's what's happening. It's happening on every turn. What are you talking about today? Liverpool, putting the ticket prices off, but feeling I was someone who goes to absolutely everything. Everything is going up. The travel goes up. The food and the drink goes up. TV subscriptions go up that you're likely going to need another one next season to watch all the football that's on the tally. If you're a mum or your dad and you are a kid who's a Liverpool fan, saying to hear that I want the latest kids. The zoo was the latest kid. The latest kids going up in price as well.

4:31That's what the stop exploiting loyalty thing is about. It's trying to appeal to clubs to say, think about the people who make your product, think about the people who are filling your grounds, think about the people that provide that unconditional support we have to reach. The thing that's most disappointing to me about what Liverpool have announced here, 3%, it's not the 3%, and it's not a pound, this and all the rest of it. To me, it's normalizing ticket prices. That is the thing that I think should really be, sorry, normalized and ticket price rises. That's the thing that should really be worrying on funds for me because by announcing 3 years, you're almost ending the conversation. You're almost making what me and J2 and others redundant. So are we not having a conversation this time next year then? Do we not get in a room with them this time next year and say, this is why you shouldn't do this? It's almost like, we're doing it, and we don't care, we're doing it, and there's nothing you can do about it. And I think that, in particular, should worry funds because right across the league, we're seeing price rises, right across the league, we're seeing things that are not palatable, you know, like

5:33money and I to just the sadden in the middle of the season, everything's 66 pounds, and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, there is, and we've proven that before, you know, there's the war how 10 years ago over 77 pounds tickets. Well, this, what has been announced today, it looks like 3% on the surface and it raises 1.2 million next season, which Liverpool, that doesn't make them capacitive, that is business critical. But you look at your potentially looking at 13% over the next three years because it's capped at 5%. When I look at Anglo-Express on inflation, but when there's wars going on and everything else, I don't think it's going to go down. It's going to go off. And so, you know, you're looking at the reality of, in three years time, tickets that's nearly 70 pounds to get into Amphield, and you're looking at season tickets that are over 1,000 pounds. Now, I've always said and talked and written about tipping points for people, and I feel like 1,000 pounds season ticket might be a tipping point for a lot of people. Yeah, and there's a lot of season fill that could be a tipping point as well. Me and you are kind of coming at us from different perspectives really because you're a season ticket

6:36holder. I'm not, I just have a membership, but you know, for both of us, we've had to experience cues that I'm filled this season that have been, you know, quite frankly ridiculous in terms of, you know, stunting how the mood we go into the ground with, the football on the pitch has been turgid as well, and then suddenly there's this, and it's just constantly eroding that good will of fans, and that's the bit I'm worried about as garages at, like, what is the tipping point for people to start fucking it off basically? Yeah, I think one thing that probably should be pointed out of the difference between seasons and goals, remember, the seasons and goals get there, seat effectively cheaper. Like, if someone bought the seat next to me on a game-by-game basis, I think it's for 13 or 14 pounds a game more. So this is, so that seat has become more extortion, it's not that it's gone up, it's the different things have gone up in different people as well, and I just don't think that is a particularly healthy way. Anyway, not damn saying that season ticket holders should be higher, but it tells you that they can sell the seat for less than its worth because they do do it on the big other big sis. So when they say it's got to go up,

7:37hang on, you charge different prices for the same seat or season effectively, so at some point you've got to think, hang on, maybe this doesn't, doesn't quite marry up, but they will become a point where people just, just can't afford it. I think most people, I know, are fortunate enough, but it's not how it works for everyone, is it ultimately? There has to be a point where you're like, I'm sorry to just, I can't do it anymore, and that is completely against the ethos of what football should be. It's not, it shouldn't be about, you know, eroding people and removing from football grounds because they can't afford it, and that would, especially when, you know, it's all well and good putting them up when things are going well, but it's been an absolute pain to get in the season, as you've said, you know, I don't think necessarily has that much correlation, but the football's not, you know, I'm not going to watch Liverpool win every week, am I? That's, you know, wouldn't make me go, well, that's fine then, but at least I go, well, at least I'm watching as when, and now you're being, you don't know what next season is going to hold, you don't know what European competition we're going to be in, there's just so many moving parts that ultimately think you get a 1.2 million quid or whatever it is, but what are you getting out of it?

8:39Like, you made 703 million. Can you not just pay the public, 1.2 million for good publicity? Yeah, it's what you'd be surprised to have such a good fund. Sentiment, good work. What's your head up? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I was going to say to you to ask, well, as someone who's, you know, going into, into the ballads and all the rest of it and all that, that kind of stuff, when I talk about, you know, you are normalising that price has gone up every year. There's loads of stuff that's happened in football, or I did that to become normalised, that we just don't question. So you'll pay to be a member, to essentially go into a lottery to try and get a ticket, and you pay them for that privilege to go into that lottery, and you're just going, that's the way it is. And so all of a sudden, in three years time, loads of funds going, do you go up every year? That's the way it is. Yeah, I'm paying to add my work data structure because some of the sales are at 11 a.m. and I like this stuff, there's so many different sort of kick-ons of this too. And it's about the future generations as well, if you think like, I've got a season here, I'm fortunate, I'm going to start going, and I know what made me or my mate who got to think, if one of us can't go, we largely will give it to one of our, you will give it to each other, so what someone can say to the kids? But I know those people,

9:42who I, for say, do you want to take it for this game? And the idea that you're paying just 40 pounds, might take a quick, you know, I said to them, it's 30 pounds, 40 pounds, it's not a thing. So you've got to get people in the habit of going, you're not going to get people in this city, in the habits of going, or even beyond, if you keep charging more, there'll be someone who will pay, but the pool of people in which you can, you know, have the future generations, will diminish and will decrease, and that's a big worry for us really. My concern of it is, it isn't just that it one of us pays a bit more, or one of us gets priced out, it's that other person doesn't get in, somebody else is put off by doing it, and you're probably going with your kids and you're paying a little bit more, and it just adds up, and it adds up, and it adds up, and it adds up, and it's very, it's very insistent that people will say, this is just inflation, for both of us have just the inflation in previous years, but that means it just pulled up, and people have got other bills, like the pool of the pool's reason for this, inflationary is, the bills are coming up, oh yeah, so two of your revenues, it would be like me getting a, you know, a job, winning the lottery, buying a man's shirt

10:48and saying, oh my god, I can't really believe, like, you know, that me energy bills are coming up, it's like, yeah me, but so's the money in your bank, you've got loads more, you have to pay, you know, it's almost like, and we have said this to them, it feels like they're saying, well we've got to turn the lights on, on the floor's lights, and we've got to pay the stewards, and we've got to do all of these things, so you as the fan who comes has got to pay more for that, but you don't get to sell the television deal, if you don't turn the lights on, you don't get to sell Expedian and standard chartered, new, there's unless you turn the lights on and put them players on a football pitch, that's the product, that's what you are selling, it is a product, they are selling it, we are part of that, and all of these things are part of it, by the way, absolute huge part, you look at all of the clubs, Martin, what it sells with its partners, what it promotes on all its images, on the coach website, everything, it sells it, was the not an opportunity to do something different and work with us to find a way to reward that loyalty of the people, and imagine the goodwill as you say, Phil, of saying, we're not going to do this, we're going to lead the way into some different, that was the window of opportunity that our water is missed.

11:48I want to ask you about that, Jay, about the level of communication and I guess, you know, cooperative work, and has been here, because in the club statement I say, the support board has been clear from the outset that it's wish for a season ticket, for a ticket price for you, sorry, for two seasons in line with the Football Sports Association campaign against ticket prices increase, however after careful consideration across several meetings, the club said this would not consider viable in highly competitive environment operates, as it continues to invest on and off the pitch and rising costs across the club that are outside of its control, the support board also made clear they were opposed, and if any inflationary increase being applied for more than one year, however, following due consideration the club concluded that in order to limit price increases to CPI, such increases shall apply for a three year period, and that's where it comes back to what Gareth was saying before about the idea that does it mean now for the next three years, they're just hands on it is, so everything that the sport board goes somewhere, or Spirit of Shancry goes somewhere, that'll spy on Cop Ghost, and that's the concern for me, as this conversation now just stopped and gotten completed for three years. That is the worry that it's stopped and done, you know. I work for the trade unions in my day job and people negotiate pay deals that are like three years

12:52long, but you have check mechanisms in them, you have a bit like, you know, where they might say, we'll review this and we'll check in and if it falls this or costs full, this is saying that of costs, you know, Liverpool's justification for this is costs of increased. If costs go through the floor next year, and you know, that includes players salaries, which we've we've heard a lot about recently, but if costs go through the floor, much the price is still cheap going up, if revenues massively increase if Sky or some of the else comes along and pays even more for television rights, we sell all our players, we, you know, some billionaires just give us the way it goes off the way it's built, don't we, do we still pay more like, what's the, there's no check and measure on this. They are right, they've had an engagement with us. I think our view is that wasn't enough and it's a missed opportunity. Last year when the club froze prices, we said to them, let's work together on this, now let's get ahead of this, let's not have this conversation every single January, to be fair to them, we didn't have an January this year, either in February because it started later than it should have. We meet the borders part of the supporters board, we meet the ownership, I met them along with

13:54Gareth and some others in October last year, again that usually takes place in December, we went to them proactively, I said, let's do this earlier because you know you need to have that conversation for them to set a parameters for the club to come up with what I want to do on pricing. We had that meeting in early October, we didn't hear from the club then, on price or so and we wrote to them as Gareth and others were involved in, we didn't meet with them then till February, until they were ready to stop or till prices, that's a missed opportunity to find other ways. We did have meetings with them, you know, with outline, this in a fair the supporters board statement, today in SOS and others, but with outline, you know, the kind of conversations that we had, we had several meetings with three meetings I think in total with clubs or four, maybe with club staff this side, they presented their proposal, which in largely unchanged, maybe it's tweaking what month's inflation they measured this on but that happened, they did change, they proposed to increase the age at which senior concessions were happening, which is an issue across the league, we pushed back on that change, other stuff hasn't, it's inflation,

14:55even as late as what we're doing now, with Thursday, late last week, we wrote back to the club saying to them, we know you're going to do inflation, we can't or, you know, we don't think you should do that but we absolutely don't think you should do multi-year, let's talk about this for longer, let's get in a room and have a conversation what we can do, so they could have done that this year, they could have given us another year and they said we'll listen, we try to talk and she's about it, it hasn't worked, we're going to have to just do this anyway, if they felt that was necessary, again, they didn't, they've said it was inflation only if it was linked to multi-year and the indication from that was that if it wasn't inflation for three seasons, they would have put it up of inflation this year, so regardless of what was happening, prices were going up, supporters will ask themselves, as I'm sure people around the table have in the meeting to the sports board, it's to the level of meaningful engagement, I feel like now I'm sure the club will say and have said, you know, what stuff we've said is influenced them, if it's influenced them, yet to be inflation for three years, I would dread to think what it could have been before this and you know, maybe there's some credit in the bank for supporters for doing that but

15:57it's still that direction of travel and that missed opportunity and I think, you know, certainly as the chair of the sports board, message to LFC, if you think I'm not going to say to you in the next three years, the next three weeks that you should revisit this because we want to talk to fans about it, but if you think I'm going to sit here for the next three years and never mention ticket prices to you again, like you're going to be severely disappointed, I said this to the owners last year, I've been saying it pretty much all of my adult life involved in supporting campaign and I won't want ticket prices going up, SOS dozens, sports supporters don't, like you want to raise more revenues, let's find an alternative way, let's stop having this argument between two and a moveable forces every January and it seems that the solutions that was always put them off for three years and we don't have to talk about it, that's not going to be the end of it. The way I see it as well, I haven't been in these rooms and on these calls and all the rest of it is that there's a level of mixed messages and to me, this is very much a decision that's being made by Boston, by the very top, by the others of FSC because the reason I say that

16:59is we're looking in the white to the eyes of some people who, you know, including people who are on the board but are based there and I think some of our arguments look like they were in, they look like they knew what we were talking about, when I'm talking to them about cost, the living crisis, when I'm talking to them about the fact that people are in less than this city than they do in other cities in this country, all of those things, when I'm putting out that, John and we said a long time about it in an interview with the Enfira that, you know, you can't afford Chelsea or Arsenal ticket prices in this city, you recognise then the economic differences, what's changed during the year, and so when we were putting some of that stuff across, it felt almost like it wasn't said ever, this is my interpretation of it, I feel like I'm entitled to it, it felt like it was like, yeah, but they said, and, you know, so I think people's eyes should be sent that way really because it's them who made that decision and also there's a bit of a mixed message for me as well in that, you know, you mentioned stuff, exploiting loyalty before and the document we wrote for that which we talked to Parliament and all the rest of it

18:04and it ended up like a blueprint document that is how I cut these off. When we produced that, one of the things that we talked about was getting the Premier League to basically get clubs to sit around the table and talk about this and listen to our arguments, take them in and almost like, is there a way to put, you know, on this, is there a way to say, we all just stop, you know what I mean, because part of the justification from Liverpool or other clubs is they always say, well, they're putting them up, evidently putting them up, man you like to put them up, ask them to put them up, we can't not put them up because we're losing ground, that's one of their arguments. If you all stop putting them up, like they did with away tickets, we just move on, don't we? I mean, move on in a positive way. So when we were putting this to Liverpool, you know, one of my strong arguments to them is be, why can't you advocate for your own funds? Why can't you advocate for people that go? Because in your own documents, in your own ticket, ticket and values, you recognize a scout's heart to the club, it says that. And I'm like, so how does doing this help the scout's heart? It doesn't. So why don't you

19:08advocate for the scout's heart, advocate for match going funds? Go to the Premier League, get your counterpar to our table and say, is there a way we can stop doing this? And they've said, they'll do that. They've promised us that they will do that. So how can you promise to do that, recognize the problem on one hand? And on the other hand, say, we're putting them off for three years, and you're making the problem worse. That's the bit that I'm really struggling with at the moment. Yeah, and you know, leaving you hanging for months as Jason there at the timeline of, you know, October, February, I read in the letter that you wrote to the club from January that there was no meaningful engagement on this at the time. And that's, that is again, the sort of concern for me as a fan is that basically because the ladden Boston had sat in this ivory tower that's like the means is untouchable for them. All this, all this is just falling on deaf ears like the constant campaign and the different sets of fan groups. And by the way, there's, you know, there's even different kind of interest within the fan groups. They're like the OLC network is a part of this. And I'm sure there's, you know, some of some of those people from around the world who might benefit from rise pricing in the sense of, you know, it maybe makes it more of an open shop long return. But I think even those people would recognize that that that scout's heart, that that core

20:11support really needs to be there for the lagzoo for the lads who, you know, literally fly the flags on the cup every week, for example. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I think we've probably all seen spine cop, same reaction this one and to, uh, to the announcement. And, you know, that's very much part of of this campaign as well. You know, there's always the talk of the price and the reality of how much a ticket actually is and all that. And that's part of the argument. But part of the argument is also just the cultural thing of we all love the fact that, you know, the cup is part of the Liverpool. We all love that that is a well-famous thing. We all like to say that we've got a culture of support of flags of banners of noise, all of that kind of stuff. A lot of the people that create all of that stuff, it's generational, it's being passed down, it's almost that Liverpool way thing. You're chipping away at that. You know, people are making, I've got to make decisions about can I go the match and kind of still feed me family and do that. You know, when things are going up and up and up and everything is, you know, there's anyone filled the car up lately. Do you know what I mean? Everything's going up and it's like, and you're putting this up as well,

21:13people will start to make decisions where they're like, I can't go or I can't take me like, or and then if you're not taking your lad, does your lad end up into it in the same way? Does your lad want to create banners? Does your lad want to sing songs? Does your lad want to go away from home? Or is he quite happy to just watch it on the tally and be a bit disengage and go the odd game? And it goes all the way back this to, I think Richard's school, the more said one star, you know, people should be able to go right killing but perhaps not every week. So that just shows you like the mindset for me that exists to them board rooms for a very long time. Yeah, as you mentioned about the difference in prices before, I was trying to sort of work it out in my head roughly. I reckon it's the third highest expenditure I have, like putting the roof over my head being one, the sustenance that literally keeps me alive being two and it's probably the sort of tickets I get in the member cell from this. And that's the thing that kind of frustrates me Phil because one of the arguments that maybe, you know, some sets of fans have is that, you know, because there's an inflationary price rise, you know, we're actually not being massively overcharged for tickets. And it always seems to me like it's an arbitrage rise and that's

22:15the thing frustrates me. There's some of them in the FSA here that I want to quote in 2024. I said the Bank of England's inflation calculator says that a ticket cost in £4 in 1990 will be £9.59 in 2024. The cheapest ticket on the cop in 2024 is £39. The cheapest for board tickets have increased astronomically compared to other products and are now 875% higher using live pool as the other day to point bearing in mind of pool generally better than most of the Premier League clubs as well. If shops followed football's pricing model your low for bread will cost £4.88 and a pint of lard would set you back £11.80. And that's where, like, if the club were arguing to people like Gareth and Jay and other supported groups saying we're being left behind here, well for one other point of the Premier League table and be like, by who? Because you're telling me that I was on the top of the table because they've got some of the most expensive ticket pricing the league, like I would struggle to hear that argument and not laugh my head off to be honest. Well, like the amount of money is just small flyers and I think the pools gave receipts about £140 million. That includes, does that include, like,

23:17hospitals, hospitals? Yeah, yeah. And they include, they have the, you know, right? So you think about what percentage of that is being increased there? 1.2 million. Yeah. What is, there's no gain from this. There's no gain from this. And it's, it's a wide thing as well in terms of you were talking about people making decisions before. For example, some people might carry on going, but then they might adapt their behaviour on the day. There's an ecosystem in, in, in Anfield. Money flows into Anfield and it might stay. But if people go to the match and then adapt their behaviour, they might, you know, you might go and pub four pints, bin the four pints off and go, well, I'll save some money that way. That takes money out of a business in Anfield, which then reduces employment levels in Anfield. There's so many different knock-on effects of this. It's not, the, I could sort of accept the money going off, the ticket to the money going on. The ticket price going on, people have more money. But we will do not have more money to spend. It's not like you're getting more money to spend than you're able to spread it wider. That's not how this works. The knock-on effects are wider than just

24:21paying a pound or two pound more to go to a single football match. It's just a much wider thing. It's just, ultimately, it's just unnecessary, isn't it? I think it must be difficult for the owners of any club to understand what we mean by two pints. Flying in on private jets and stuff like that. How do I ever have an exclamation on direction to your left when there was so much of the IC by in the club and they'd create a supporters board for you know. And they were like, you know, would you be the fan on the board and maybe talk to a city fan you don't know at the time? It was like, his life was hell. But it was like, well, what, what would I do at the time? I didn't have enough one month. We've got the bus to Anfield. Get off the bus on out of here. We're going to a two pound ticket increase to like, people who, what don't? That doesn't figure in there. I think it's so far removed. And it's what it looks and feels like. I think you're right for letting people make choices. They won't spend as much. It also just affects their mindset to it. They go in there thinking, these are just trying to rip me off. And that's not the only thing you can enjoy. Well, if you change, you might stay. And if you look at what happened

25:22from 2016, and I know that was the war, how to do this. But everyone stopped worrying about that for the little bit. And everyone just can't sit on it being on the pitch and dead. Well, then let's be honest, it wasn't always dead. Good on the pitch. You know, cheers. Everyone just can think, oh, well, that's because it's a clap when we were playing. But then you know, then every year, you know, and prices didn't go up. And if you look at and the pool of talk about, you know, costs have gone up. We have music on a possibly in that time. And they, they will talk about kind of, you know, the clubs made a loss over a long period. Since 2016, on which were we at the warhouse, on we had eight years of freezers, which deep mentions in their release should be points dealt. They've had eight years of freezers because there was a global pandemic in which, you know, doing years and which people couldn't go to for foreground. And because we walked out, could you try to challenge 77 quit? I mean, if we're giving credit for the eight year freeze, like feel free to name check, like the other things that happen. But if that's a cons, if that's a thing, and it is a thing that they cite, we would dead successful financially, and we would dead successful on the pitch. So if it's about competing with other clubs, and they do that, they will compare to other clubs. This compound effect of the increase this

26:23year isn't going to get us near to Arsenal. Arsenal have grown flowing back up the Deloitte League because of Champions League money and thingy. This 1.2 million pound, as you say, you know, the goodwill, the PR, absolutely think they should do that. You might have probably said to yourself, a position in the league is where 2.7 million pound alone. I reckon I'd rather have a little been dead would he never mind the Champions League money being dead would he have had an extra place in the league this year for 2.7 million pound. You play Champions League, getting out would you get more money for your result? We play extra games in that due the year when we won seven of eight. They win. There was no bit, no way. Anyone inside LFC projected Liverpool for Borklub to win. You got about 2.2 million every time you win the Deloitte Champions League. Compared to the draw, that was the increase. And you get 700 grams for the draw, but I like one win was the increase in that. We beat PSG, we get money for winning and the next round. There's no way they project that. So revenue still go up elsewhere, but they still want more on tickets. That's the bit the unnecessary bit. We've said to them, that's why we wanted the freeze. Let's see if there's another way. I would have happily sat

27:25down the table with Liverpool for months on end and give me time to do it. If I was thinking, can we find, can we explore all the other ways we can avoid doing this? And if they said to me, we've tried sponsorship opportunities or deducing agent fees which we've pushed with them and raised it to try death for now, then I might sit there and go, listen, Andrew, there is no other way. We haven't done that. And I think that's the bit that I personally feel, particularly disappointed about. We could have tried to find another way. We've asked them to do that. It hasn't happened yet. Yeah, Garif, I think them sat in other clubs, sort of backfires on them in a way, they're probably not anticipating here because I think if I was being sort of soft towards the owners, you mentioned about AIM and I are towards them, like I would say, the better the most owners in the league from a very fucking low bar, by the way. But whenever things have happened in the past where they've made mistakes, they've come out and sort of held the hands up and acknowledged them and learned from them. But I'm almost worried now that the pattern of behaviour actually is, well, every time they're enabled to do something like join the super league or like, you know, trademark the name Liverpool or do this because other clubs are doing it, they're just going to do it and they're not going to actually care about the people who are on

28:28the ground here. Yeah, and what they're doing is it is probably them preaching people that have gone to the match for a long time and eventually, like I say, they will be at tick and point and that will add to be, that's when people will stop going or it will be that people will again turn to the idea of where we need to be protesting, we need to be putting pressure on sponsors, we need to be walking out, whatever it might be, that's not something that me or Jay can do, that's not something that's bittershankly or the supporters board can do, that's something that fans have got to come together and do because I think part of the problem in all this is apathy, you know, like you look at that statement's gone out this morning, there's a lot of people who are angry, there's a lot of people who are reacting, there's a lot of people who are negative about it, there's a lot of people who seem to be having affiliation to live up to, you stroke the shoulders about, and you know, even among my mates, I have that sometimes when they'll say, it's only X, and I'm like, it's only X, but you mentioned the figure before, 875%, you know, how can you suddenly

29:28care about inflation in 2026, when you haven't cared about inflation for 30 years, you know, like it's disingenuous to suddenly say that's an issue for a football club, when it hasn't been for all this time, I rose a piece, the week about looking back at synthetic, and I know that's a very long time ago, it's a year after I've been born, but you know, the point was, you watch the foresight of that, you listen to the crowd in that, and even across a video it still comes across, the atmosphere is unbelievable, everyone who is there talks about how great it was, I think Emlin, who says something like it, you know, it sounds like there was 150,000 people in the ground, and it's like, do you want that then, do you want that to still be what Liverpool is, or do you want it to turn into something else, and it feels to me that too many of the boardrooms are like, there's demand for this product, there's people all over the world that want to come and watch, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's like, but let's have a race then to get the richest, let's see how much we can put prices up and up, and people still come, but there will be a point where it drops off, and also the other thing is that I think, you know,

30:33we've got a culture, haven't we, you know, you support the club through the wind and the rain, and all that kind of stuff, but, you know, people who were less engaged, and just as a fancy coming, and say a bit more of a like, this is an entertainment product, like going to the pictures or the theatre, or whatever, will they turn off, if there's another Roy Hodge on the area, will they turn off, if there's another guy on soon as the area, will they turn up to watch, there's gonna be pie blackpool, and I have a man to say in Northampton or boss, I would argue maybe they wouldn't, and if you think back to those times, they tend to just drop off by that way, so when it's even more now, and it's taking more out of people's pocket, what would be the effect of a drop off this time? So, you know, I just do feel that they need to get around the table, and I know that it's difficult because of regional differences, and, you know, one of the most short-sighted comments I've ever heard from anyone involved in football, was when Jim Rackliff said, I don't understand why a man United can't charge, the same as fallen, well, walk around the streets in sulphur mate, and walk around the streets in West London, and come

31:36back to me on that one. So, I get that, it's difficult, generally speaking. That's gonna look at the size of the ground, the deity, but, you know, so I get that, it's difficult, and I get when people in football say to me, it's difficult, but equally loads of things are difficult, but the answer isn't, we'll just keep putting them up there, and, you know, Liverpool, to me, are special, I've got something special, the crowd is brilliant, the support is brilliant, and, you know, I don't go to loads of ways, but when it's you go to them, I see loads of the same faces all the time, and I think it's some commitment to do that, and that commitment should be recognised, and, you know, I think Liverpool was thinking about mentioning that tickets are still £30, cheers Liverpool, that's not for you, would you? You know, you can't take care of it, if there's something that wasn't you, but if the throw's the tickets this year, if the throw's tickets next year, as we proposed, if the sat down like Jay said and talked about alternatives and things that might be palatable to fans in 2026, that may be where it wants before, like, you know, could, like, if the club turned to all of us now and said, like, you know, maybe we

32:40couldn't, you know, name the ground, something, would we take that over pricing fans out? I think we might do, but I can't speak for all Liverpool's fans in the world, so you'd have to have the conversation, and then I'll have the conversation, are they? That's the worry for me, Jay, I'll give you sort of last word on this, really, as I mentioned before, by the owners, feeling like a navel to make these kind of changes, and, you know, generally facing very little sort of upwards management from people at the club, and that's not to blame people at the club, by the way, it's more to sort of angle that towards the owners again. My worry now is, is like, what's next? What's the next thing that they do that continues to, as Gareth said, you know, before, increase this sort of apathy that fans are already feeling? This is, I remember in 2016, when there was the war halt, people said to me, oh, you know, what you think, and we'll have to have the fight next year, if they get away with this one, I hope there's no, there's no next year. If they've got 77 quid, there's no next year, you then don't get to go up, and then we'll have an extra quid to the problem now, because it's not, it's been in gun, you know, barn door, all that stuff. This is so much similar, because if you say,

33:42well, okay, they're gonna go for the next three years, and then we'll pick it up again in three years, so I mean, would it normalize? And if Liverpool do it, other clubs will sit there and go, well, we'll have a better day, because if they can get away with it, Liverpool and all the snarks aren't gonna kick off, you know, then, then, then what's the, then we can do it. And that, they will be watching that, and other clubs will watch that, and they'll wonder what they can get away with. I think there's a big question, you know, football to address this, and stop itself, stop eating itself. I think there's a question for the owners about this, and I think I'd make a blog and, you know, people on sports would sit there. Come and have that conversation with us, come and sit in a room, I'm sorry, they have to come and sit on a podcast, but if you don't, on the ownership group of Liverpool, come and sit in front and hear it from other people, because I think sometimes, in the past, I have certainly thought, do you think, what do you aim at getting it? Would say that. But I'm not saying it on my behalf. Might say it feels reasonably priced, I feel okay, but come and listen to all these other people, you feel strongly about it, we're representing that voice, you feel your condition, come and hear it, come and sit again,

34:42come on the 12th man, go on the Glen Buch, come on the car, go on the main stand, see what people put off with, queue up to get in the outfield road, feel it, live it, see it, breathe it, and see what people think, and I think that might make them nail as, but if you think you can just keep getting away with this, something's going to break, I've said this to them previously about taking a price and another stuff, we have this thing, every year, we have an argument about it, and most years in the past, when they put them up, they've got away with it, and then, oh, life of punched junk box there, does a walk out, knocks them out, and, you know, F and 4 is a powerful little bit, let's avoid having that fight, but if you want to keep doing that, at some point that's going to come, the straw is going to break, the town was back with it, this year, next year, something else, the year after, and you're going to sit there and go, maybe we shouldn't have done that, and we go, and oh yeah, we've been telling you this, so let's avoid that, and I would ask them, we can say that what you're doing now, on this, the multi-year element, the increases, sit down, we are willing, we are capable, and we are determined to find the way forward, I want them to be successful, that involves them making loads of money,

35:45I want them to make loads of money, compared to others, I think they're really good owners, they're, you know, sustainable for both of them, compared to others, I just don't want it being out of the pockets of supporters, we're happy to do it with them, and that's the better last time to do it, appeal to their better nature, if that, you know, if they, if they, if they, with solicences, and I'm sure club staff will, I'm relation with this, sit down on the table, it was like this, and so on, and find out the way, because if you keep doing these things, at some point, people literally go, what's the point, and I think the unique thing you've got, I make sure that's so valuable, that makes the football club what it is, will be damaged, and the problem with those things is once the slide happens, it can be very difficult to pull it back. Yeah, well to echo two of Jay's sentiments from earlier, extremely disappointing from the football club today, and if I think this is going away, then it's actually just to start, so that's been your tour, and wrapped nice ones to these lads, up the reds. The comedy movie of Ven of the Year, Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice, now streaming only down below in Disney Plus. Time to party. That's a great attitude. It's a time-travel egg, ass kick egg, movie of that. You sound insane. Starring Vince Vaude, James Marsta, and Ace of Gonzalez.

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