To:
Jonathan Jackson
Ian Wadsworth
Jason Taylor
WASC Committee Members
By Email
10th December 2014
All,
You may have seen the article that was published on the This Northern Soul website yesterday regarding a possible boycott of the away game at Leeds on 26th December 2014. This article was a response to the club’s announcement of ticket prices for that game and a general ground-swell of opinion that the prices being charged were unacceptable.
As a club that has worked hard over the years to keep football affordable, I’m sure you will appreciate that £41 for a match day ticket over steps that boundary by a long way, so does £36 when you consider that this is likely to be a game between two teams in the bottom half of the second flight. These prices represent an increase of over 200% in the ten years since we first played away at Leeds and I know I’m not alone in thinking that’s too much.
- Not because it’s Christmas, but it is and there are families that won’t be able to spend £41 on presents for their children this year.
- Not because we’re living in hard times, but we are and there are families that are having to spend much less than £41 on their weekly shop.
- But because it’s just too much to charge for a football league match.
It’s great that individual fans are starting to recognise this but they need support in their efforts. I’m writing to you as representatives of the club, the supporters’ club and fans’ liaison officers to ask for that support.
I’d love to ask you to return our ticket allocation for this match and to cancel any travel arrangements you are offering, but I appreciate that would have both financial and reputational implications so instead I would ask that you:
- Publicly demonstrate support for those fans that are choosing not to attend the Leeds
- It will be a hard choice for some of them and to know that the club and supporters club are behind them will be of comfort.
- Recognise that the boycott is about saying that it is wrong to charge those sorts of prices, not to pay them. Whilst it would be great if there was 100% non-attendance at the Leeds game this should not be about driving rifts between anyone who chooses to boycott and anyone who chooses to attend.
- Promote the attempts to raise money for The Brick Homeless charity via a Virgin Money Giving page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LeedsBoycott
- Make contact with Leeds Utd FC and their supporters’ organisations to make it clear that there is an active boycott, that you support it and support the idea of making football affordable.
If any or all of these requests are unreasonable, or you don’t feel it is appropriate for you to offer support in this way then I would appreciate it if you could reply, in a manner that can be shared, publicly, with other Wigan Athletic supporters.
I’d also extend an invitation to any of you, and your colleagues, who are not required to be at the game in an official capacity to (publicly or privately) join those who are choosing to boycott the game.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
We’ll be publishing more information on our fundraising effortsvery soon. In the meantime if you’d like to support what we are saying then feel free to write to the club and supporters club yourself. You can use the above text if you like.
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