EXCLUSIVE
By Bob Paisley
A tiny non-league football club has egg on its face after raising its admission price to £77 to match Liverpool’s plans – only for the Merseysiders to back down at the last minute following fan protests.
Bungay Town FC, currently second in the Anglian Combination League Division 1, decided to raise revenues by charging their handful of hardy fans the same as the lofty increase proposed by Premier League Liverpool.
But the move backfired when Liverpool changed their minds, realising £77 was far too much to charge hard-working supporters, even for a Premier League club.
While Liverpool were able to make the switch, prompted by fans’ protests at their last home match, it was sadly too late for North Suffolk side Bungay.
The club is already advertising prices and printing tickets for next weekend’s crunch match against Bradenham Wanderers.
It means the team, which is in the TWELTH tier of English football, is now the most expensive side to watch in England. Club officials took to Twitter to vent their frustration…
Just as we put our prices up to £77 Liverpool back down, we're going to look stupid now.
— Bungay Town FC (@BungayTownFC) February 11, 2016
It is believed the club, known as the Black Dogs, will reduce prices as soon as they can in the coming weeks.
A Bungay Town FC insider said: “It’s all rather unfortunate. We thought we couldn’t go wrong by raising prices to £77. If it’s good for Liverpool, then it’s good enough for us.
“Frankly I think it’s better value to be one of a dozen people watching us against Holt United than be part of the Kop watching Liverpool take on Manchester United.
“But it’s irrelevant now – Liverpool backed down and it’s too late for us. So we are now officially the most expensive team to watch in the country.”
For £77 spectators can take their pick of vantage points from which to watch Bungay Town at their impressive stadium at The Maltings. With only a few people attending, and the odd dog, it is certainly not cramped.
However, fans can enjoy brilliant hospitality in the Maltings Pavilion.
The club insider added: “As Liverpool have left us in a difficult position, perhaps they would consider loaning one of their players to us?
“If we could have England wide man James Milner until the end of the season, I am sure he could help us in our dream of winning promotion to the Anglian Combination Premier Division.”
Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp told the Suffolk Gazette: “We have not yet received an offer for any of our players from Bungay Town.”
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