We should Boycott the Leeds game

I think championship clubs, especially those not benefitting from parachute payments, are between a rock and a hard place here. Root cause stems from around 80% of football revenue going to 20 clubs, plus those with parachute payments. Twenty is plenty should be easy for premier league clubs as they can subsidise the "loss of revenue" from cheaper tickets with the millions and millions from TV deals, that's if they chose not to spend it on wages, agents, inflated transfer fees.

Then you have the Championship clubs gambling on getting back up, paying big wages for the supposed better but often mediocre players, and then there's the rest of us, with limited TV revenue, variable gate income, rents and running costs to pay and individual club decisions to make about what they're prepared to pay players. Leeds will be like many and arguably overpaying on player wages and goodness knows what else, and they'll look at every opportunity to plug the gap, with supporters just part of the solution as they see it.

It absolutely stinks what clubs are happy to charge supporters, and we're no exception in many respects, but the moral argument for me goes back to the formation of the PL. Ever since that time, the protection of the greater good of the game is a distant memory and of no interest to the PL, including the greater good of those who pay to watch in stadiums rather than on TV, where once a more even distribution of money took place and the financial structure of the game ensured the big clubs looked after the smaller ones in a balanced way. There would always be clubs who were badly run, but perhaps less, of an excuse back then for spending what you didn't have. Football now gives clubs a financial incentives that, wrongly, promote too much risk being taken. It would take a relatively small additional amount from the new TV deal to rebalance the finances of most of the other 72 clubs outside the PL.

I wish they'd scrap parachute payments and force clubs to act more sensibly and agree sensible wages/contract terms with players outside of the top flight and stop bleeding fans dry. Our season tickets are fantastic value but increasingly, employers don't just work Monday to Friday with a guarantee of getting to a Saturday home game. The whole of football needs to address this from within but there aren't enough sensible chairmen/owners, especially outside of the PL, who have the collective balls to stand up for the good of the whole game. The games authorities, for me, are ultimately the rotten core here.

Gets off soapbox.

 

I agree, this is one move the club have made that leaves a sour taste.

 

What I see happening with this fixture is enough fans will still attend to ensure a boycott by others is essentially diluted to the point of being ineffective. Enough fans will go to ensure Cellino gets a nice wad of cash which justifies the pricing structure. However, not enough fans will attend to ensure a great atmosphere is created, nor enough fans to ensure the lads get the backing they deserve. So what we end up with is a following that achieves none of our objectives and will probably be passed off by various idiots on social media/Elland Rd as a poor turn out in a Yorkshire derby. But this is unavoidable. People are desperate to see the lads at the moment and Leeds is a cracking match to attend. I salute any fans willing to pay such high prices but at the same time get annoyed that those same fans are simply feeding the system. I have mates that are going, mates that aren't. Both groups have totally sound arguments to support their choices. So whilst I admire the efforts to boycott this game and possibly others, I just don't see enough fans collectively acting to ensure the desired results are achieved. It's a pretty **** situation to be honest and one that shouldn't be happening in the second tier of English football.

 

They've done the same with Villa. £30/£32 for the home game when Rotherham and Huddersfield have only paid £25 at Villa Park.

 

15 quid is enough for an hour and half. when it's winter and thi toez are dropping off, it should be tenner and a free hot drink and a minimum off 2 goals each half.

 

I wasn't going anyway mate purely based on the price and did the same and for the same reason the last time we played the white ***** at theirs , 37 quid they can **** right off, sithi?

 

Just spoke to Doug from sports desk on chronicle. Hope they decide to put the info out there that some fans are prepared to boycott the game

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We sold over 700 tickets in 2 days. Wow, guess I'm too late trying to get the info out there. Sad face

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Some people just don't see the bigger picture. Prices will continue to get higher and higher until they do.