There has been a lot of talk about the negatives of AC Milan’s season so far, but perhaps the biggest worry was the attendance against Liverpool which presented a first in four years.
Ahead of the Champions League fixture this week, there was a lack of tickets being sold, and tickets were still being sold on Matchday – an unthinkable event considering the magnitude of the fixture. However, there more reasons for seats to be empty than them being filled.
Starting with the pricing, the Rossoneri heightened ticket prices with some prices being raised by €80 per ticket. Understandable, perhaps, if in the latter stages of the tournament and in the best seats. However, almost every ticket increased in price.
Considering the start that the Diavolo have had, it therefore makes sense why fans were not happy to pay the eye-watering prices being requested.
Given fans were already frustrated with the way things were, pricing fans out of tickets has only added to the frustrations, and this was before the game even began. As Milan News reports, the attendance for the game was 59,826, a four-year low.
In fact, it was February 2020 when the Rossoneri last saw an attendance that low when Ante Rebic scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against Torino in front of 46,114 fans.
Before the Champions League fixture against the Reds, Milan fans were already frustrated, and after it, that frustration has only grown, and there must be some changes quickly if the club are to reconnect with the fanbase.
FONSECAOUT!!!!!!!!! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🇵🇹🤡
Serie A games are always full because Milan is invaded by tourists during the weekend. A big UCL game like this one, less than 60k attendees? The “real” fans are exhausted. Maybe it’s even worse than the banter era.
If tourists have been boosting Milan’s attendance numbers in recent years then real fans haven’t been filling the stadium since the early 2000s. Between 05/06 and 21/22 average attendance never topped 60k. In many seasons it didn’t top 50K and in some not even 40K. The last time average attendance topped 70k prior to 22/23 was 92/93, thirty years ago. So really either local fans have been tired for a while (even during the successful years of Ancelotti’s time, when by the way average attendance never topped 65,000), or simply there just isn’t a market for a 75k stadium anymore, which makes “Jerry’s” idea to build a 60k stadium a not stupid one.
Since you are a real fan and live in Milan, and ticket sales are highly regulated, perhaps you could do some investigating for us and get some statistics from the club as to what % of their tickets are sold to non-Italians, to Italians from outside Milan, and then to local residents?
American greed…
True
Why does this come as a shock?
Fr