One of the most striking bits of AC Milan’s draw against Juventus was the protest from the Curva Sud over ticket prices.
As MilanNews recall, the game brought to light the clear rift between the Milan fans and the club/ownership. Even though fortunes have improved on the field compared to one year ago – with a Champions League place increasingly likely – the supporters haven’t forgotten their treatment.
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On the contrary , discontent with the management and ownership remains very much present. At Casa Milan they are well aware of this, and a further display of it came on Sunday night.
A display of discontent
At the ceremony for Ruud Gullit, in which the Dutchman rightfully entered the club’s Hall of Fame, there was no senior official present during the warm-up on the green pitch of San Siro to present the trophy to the former midfielder.
Then, the build-up to the Milan-Juventus game has been marred by a heated debate over ticket prices. Even in the most popular sections the tickets were priced very high, with the main offence being the €139 charge to sit in the Secondo Anello Blu – the Curva Sud.
The ticket price figure was the choreography chosen by the fans, who lit up their phones to display ‘€139’. This initiative didn’t get the coverage it deserved on live TV, but it exposed that year after year, the cost of attending a live match skyrockets, in Italy and across Europe.
Just this weekend, Liverpool fans protested against the owners, in a decidedly less polite and calm manner, calling them ‘greedy b*stards’. Clubs aren’t charities, and profit is certainly a primary goal, but it’s important not to push things too far.
The fact that San Siro is always packed shouldn’t be misleading: once you factor out sponsored seats, season ticket holders and tourists who buy tickets through various agencies at crazy prices, is there really enough of a core group left to guarantee peace of mind?
The risk of transforming San Siro into a very expensive theatre and then finding yourself without a passionate audience is not small, especially since what you see on the pitch, especially in terms of entertainment, is often not worth the price of the ticket.
€139 Milan Juventus
Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images
Gerry Cardinale has seen with his own eyes what kind of atmosphere the club is in and, above all, what the hardcore fans think, the ones who love Milan and will love it even beyond this ownership. It is perhaps good for the owner to realise he’s never many negative results away from the return of the ‘Cardinale, you have to sell, go away’ chants.
Ivan Gazidis – in the year of the return to the Champions League – had the smartness to lower the ticket prices. Paolo Maldini – during the Scudetto run – imposed extremely popular ticket prices to turn San Siro into a fortress. Now, Gerry must listen too.