The Absolute Chaos of Getting Liverpool Tickets: My Practical Log
Listen up. If you think buying a ticket for a match like Liverpool vs. Leicester City is as simple as clicking a button, you are living in a dream world. It’s a total mess. People are trying to sell you the shirt off their back just for a seat in the cheap nosebleeds. I spent the last three weeks digging deep into this specific fixture, and I’m going to lay out exactly what I found, from the official routes to the absolute ripoffs.
My goal wasn’t just to buy one ticket; it was to figure out the actual baseline price—what you should be paying—and how to spot the cheaper, legit deals before they vanish. I started this whole journey because I promised my nephew we’d go, but I refuse to pay three times face value just because some tout thinks they’re smart. I approached this like a military operation, covering three main fronts.
The Official Route: Ballot and Membership Hell
First thing I did, obviously, was check the official club site. This is where the price is fair, but the availability is zero. If you don’t have a membership, forget it. If you have a membership, you are thrown into the dreaded ballot system.
- Step One: Membership Check. You need at least a Light Membership, costing maybe £30, just to qualify. If you don’t have one already, buying one now might not even help for a high-demand game like this, as they prioritize tenure.
- Step Two: The Ballot. I tracked the declared ballot prices for this category. Standard adult ticket prices ranged from £37 for restricted view up to £59 for the prime areas. This is the gold standard price. If you see anything near this, you are winning.
- Step Three: The Result. My ballot entry? Failed. Every single time. That’s the reality for 90% of people trying this. You spend the money on the membership, wait anxiously, and then get hit with the automated rejection email. Zero tickets secured through the official front door.
Hitting the Secondary Markets: Seeing the Price Hikes
Once the ballot failed, I moved straight to the secondary market—the dark side of ticketing. I logged my findings religiously over a 72-hour period right after the ballot results dropped. This is where the prices go absolutely bananas.
I tracked four major sites, plus a few fan forums known for reselling. I filtered specifically for single tickets, as pairs or groups are always more expensive and harder to find. What I found was shocking.
- Viagogo/StubHub: These are the big boys, and they are brutal. The cheapest ticket I saw listed was £195 (Upper Anfield Road End). The average price for anything decent (Main Stand/Kop) was hovering between £300 and £450. This is nearly ten times the face value. And you still have to worry about whether the ticket will actually scan.
- Official Resale Platform (If Available): This is your best bet outside the ballot. The official resale platform is where season ticket holders who can’t make the match put their seats back up for sale, usually at a slightly elevated, but still controlled, price. I spotted two tickets pop up here: one at £90 and one at £110. They were gone in less than three minutes. You need to be fast, paranoid, and refreshing constantly.
The Real Discovery: Why I Go This Deep
Now, you might be thinking, “Why bother? Just pay the £300 if you want to go.” This is where the personal practice log comes in, and why I track this stuff like it’s my job. I’m not doing this just for a cheap deal; I’m doing this because I learned the hard way that you cannot trust the system.
A few years ago, I was trying to get tickets for the Champions League final in Madrid. I used one of those flashy secondary sites everyone talks about. Paid $1,200 for two tickets. Flew out there, everything ready. When we showed up to collect the tickets from the supposed ‘concierge,’ the guy vanished. We had no tickets. We were stranded. Lost the money, missed the game.
That absolute disaster cost me a fortune and ruined a huge trip. It taught me that unless you understand every single loophole, every scam, and every legitimate side channel, you are going to get fleeced. That’s why now, I approach every major ticket purchase with this level of obsessive research.
The Final Tally and the Cheap Deal Winner
After all this running around, here’s the bottom line for Liverpool vs. Leicester City:
The Latest Price Check (Today): The market is stabilizing slightly. The absolute rock-bottom price on the secondary non-official sites is now sitting at £180, but those are generally dodgy seats. The standard price is still closer to £250-£350.
The Cheap Deal Winner: The only reliable way to get a genuinely cheap deal is through the official resale mechanism, despite the competition. I managed to score one ticket by sitting on the official portal for an entire afternoon, hitting refresh like a maniac. The price? £85.
You have to be obsessive, ignore the touts, and dedicate serious time to monitoring the official channels. That £85 ticket was proof that the cheap deal exists, but finding it is harder than trying to win the lottery. Don’t waste money on those huge resale sites unless you have absolutely no other choice and money is truly no object. Stick to the practice: membership first, constant refresh on official resale second. Everything else is a gamble.