Earlier in July, Liverpool announced that official members who had ‘recorded fewer than 13 Premier League home games from either the 2018-19 or 2019-20 seasons’, would have to enter a ballot for their chance to go to matches next season.
It has now been confirmed that ‘more than 100,000 applications for tickets for Premier League home games in the first half of the 2022-23 season’ were made and the chances of success were shared by the club.
Of the six-digit number of applicants who registered their interest for each respective game, they had the following chance of getting a ticket:
Liverpool v Crystal Palace – 1 in 17 chance
Liverpool v AFC Bournemouth – 1 in 17 chance
Liverpool v Newcastle United – 1 in 22 chance
Liverpool v Wolverhampton Wanderers – 1 in 22 chance
Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion – 1 in 22 chance
Liverpool v Manchester City – 1 in 3 chance (4+ games)
Liverpool v West Ham United – 1 in 22 chance
Liverpool v Leeds United – 1 in 26 chance
Liverpool v Southampton – 1 in 22 chance
Liverpool v Leicester City – 1 in 22 chance
This is the club’s efforts in trying to ensure that everyone who has a membership has a fair chance of being able to attend a game at Anfield but the above shows how slim the chances are.
The only way to buy a ticket for a game is by owning a membership (costing up to £37 each year) and that only provides a chance of a ticket, not a guarantee.
Seeing as there were over 100,000 people applying, which doesn’t include members with more that 13 games and season ticket holders, that’s a maximum of £3.7 million received by the club in this season alone.
The idea is to build up your credits so that you can be in the better sale, which provides a greater chance but any new members this year had, at best, a 1 in 17 chance to watch Crystal Palace or Bournemouth.
It’s a fine balance to appease supporters, provide them a chance of going the game and keeping it fair on those who have committed years to the club already but surely there needs to be a cut off period on how many memberships there can be.
This figure of members and applicants will continue to rise each year and, although the stadium capacity is increasing because of the new Anfield Road End stand, there will never be enough seats for all the members.
It’s hard to think of an outcome that will please everyone but there needs to be more clarity for new members that they have such a small chance of tickets and the club needs to stop allowing more people to purchase memberships – or at least stop charging money for it.
