Fans anger over ticket sellout
14 Dec 2021 08:52 am, by Ellandback1
Good Morning. It's Tuesday 14th December, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Fans anger over ticket sell-out
Hundreds of bitterly disappointed Leeds fans took to social media yesterday to vent their anger having missed out on tickets to see Burnley (hopefully) get trounced at Elland Road on January 2nd. Since returning to the top flight, membership has grown tenfold, meaning the likelihood of being one of the lucky ones to be slim at best.
Many reported waiting times of over an hour even though they had joined the queue before the fight for tickets had started. To make matters worse, dozens of seats appeared on tout sites yesterday afternoon for that very match, including VIP Hospitality tickets!
Many Elland Road regulars have vowed not to renew their membership after continually missing out week after week! Should the loyal Leeds fans who supported their club through the dark and gloomy periods of the Championship / League One have a preferential right to tickets, or should it be first come - first served?
Is 55,000 capacity enough?
As we know, plans are underway to extend the capacity of Elland Road to circa 50,000 - 55,000, an increase of between 12,000 - 17,000 seats; but with a waiting list of 20,000 and growing, is it enough. Leeds are a one City club, and arguably the largest in Yorkshire. They have the potential to rival the red side of Manchester (74,140) if top flight success continuous on an upward curve!
Is a 55,000 capacity enough? Should Leeds have ambitions to build a state of the art Stadium from cratch, instead of tinkering with Elland Road?
Hay lays in Leeds bully boys
Leeds journalist Phil Hay has laid into Leeds fans following the online abuse of midfielder Mateusz Klich, and also took a swipe at a minority of fans who taunted Conor Gallagher during his recent encounter during Crystal Palace's visit to Elland Road. He describes the Polish International's 92 game streak as the 'shift from Hell', and suggests the Polish International may not have fully recovered from it.
This is where you traditionally jump in and say it was a minority that was abusing Klich, an unrepresentative corner of the Leeds United fanbase who cannot avoid acting like children. Which is true. But it is always a minority because as with the homophobic chanting towards Conor Gallagher at Elland Road, if everyone was doing it then a club would be in an existential crisis. The numbers are irrelevant when someone like Klich is compelled to make himself scarce online. It has happened with Tyler Roberts too and it does not take much searching on Twitter to understand why they backed away.
Klich can probably live with being called a c***. He can probably live with some of the other slurs too, pitying the ignorance. But why be present in a world of conversation where criticism is so thick and irrational? Klich was always a good sport on Twitter, a joker with no PR grease in sight, and he has been an incredibly easy player to relate to at Leeds.
Ninety-two league games back-to-back — from the start of Bielsa’s Championship odyssey to the very end of it — was the shift from hell. Perhaps he is paying for it with some of his form since. He was the scorer of that first goal against Stoke City, the hungover face on the morning after promotion, the man who spray-painted “Champions” on a wall by Elland Road’s East Stand. Is this not a lasting friendship, safe against mistakes or falling influence?
