Leicester fans to join protest?

Rob Kelly might have had a shock last night if he saw the headline on the Leicester Mercury, which said ‘Fans to Protest` on the back page. However, it is the Barnsley fans not the City fans who are going to be protesting before the game on Saturday.

The reason for their planned protests is because the Leicester board have introduced a local promotion for Leicester fans which will allow Leicester fans to buy cheap tickets for the game. This has left Barnsley fans angry at the fact that they are still expected to pay £22 for the game, when some Leicester fans are only being asked to spend £5 (if bought with a season ticket).

Lets be honest, the game between Leicester and Barnsley is hardly a big fixture, both teams are struggling at the wrong end of the table and with the game only a couple of weeks before Christmas the board might have been expecting a low attendance. Therefore by introducing the promotion it will allow extra fans to come down, who might not have been able to afford it before hand.

Even though the promotion is encouraging more Leicester fans to the game, some City fans will still be able to associate with the Barnsley fans and their disgust at the low prices. Leicester season ticket holders fork out their money at the beginning of the season to commit themselves throughout the season. However, over recent weeks several promotions by the club have seen cheap tickets being available and season ticket holder questioning why they fork out so much money.

For those who do buy a season ticket the average price for the 23 home league games is between £17-£20. So far this season their have been several thousand tickets given away for free (Colchester United Game) As well as a promotion that enabled tickets for the Crystal Palace and Stoke game to be bought for £25.

The main gripe for Leicester fans is not so much the money, but the fact that rather then create deals that allow real fans to attend games. The board goes too far and you end up with some ‘Part time Charlie` who bring the cast of Oliver to watch the game.

These are the fans that turn up 10 minutes into the game and disrupt half the stadium before finally finding their seats; they then have to jump up every 5 minutes to take the next kid to the toilet. Then there is also the dagger looks if any ‘real fan` dares shout encouragement or stands up to complain about a decision. These ‘part time Charlies` then decide to leave 20 minutes before the end of the game because they want to miss the traffic and the kids have stopped paying interest in the game.

It is these type of fans that really annoy season ticket holders, they are not Leicester City fans and are only willing to turn up for the odd cheap game, but would never consider paying full price for a match day ticket. By all means the board should make offers to those City fans that do want to go down to the games, but their finances don`t allow them. They shouldn`t just start throwing tickets at anybody that has a free Saturday afternoon.

Although it is the Barnsley fans who will be standing and protesting outside of the ground on Saturday, their might be a few Leicester fans walking past that will join in with the protests.