So you want to be a fan?

By: Joe | July 18th, 2007

”Always remember, money isn’t everything — but also remember to make a lot of it before talking such fool nonsense.” – Earl Wilson

Napoli has a history of strong fan support. It was not usual to see 50,000 tifosi partenopei pack San Paolo the last few years while the club toiled in Serie C and Serie B. In fact, Napoli finished fourth in attendance last year in Italy behind Inter Milan, A.C. Milan and A.S. Roma. Not to shabby for a squad playing the likes of Albinoleffe and Crotone and in a run down stadium.

Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentis is now looking to cash in on the tremendous support for his club by dramatically increasing the price of season tickets. Last year Napoli had a season ticket fan base of almost 20,000. The expectation was that this year that number could rise to 30,000 given the attraction of having Italy’s biggest teams visit the Stadio San Paolo.

The news of the inflated ticket prices may dampen those expectations. Here’s a rundown of the new price structure:

* Tribuna Posillipo: increased 83% to 750 euro

* Tribuna Nisida: increased 76% to 360 euro

* Distinti: increased 76% to 360 euro

* Curva A & Curva B: increased 52% to 220 euro

Holy crap! This is no nominal increase designed to cover the cost of expenses. It amounts to absolute price gouging of the highest order. Predictably, De Laurentis has kept mum about the price increase. We’ll see whether or not the squad will see the bump expected in season tickets as this plays out. However, you get a sense as to why when the club announced the signings of Hamsyk and Lavezzi on Monday, there were fans displaying banners tellilng the club “out with the millions.” The fan base is looking for the club to spend more than the current total of 13 million in this calciomercato season (Domizzi 1.5, Hamsyk 5.5 & Lavezzi 6).

Speaking of being cheap as hell… Walter Gargano will not be joining Napoli this season. Direttore Generale Pier Paolo Marino said he was done with the Uruguyan midfielder and they are now looking elsewhere. Surely the dispute was over millions of euro’s and the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, right? Since the negotiations with Gargano’s club FC Danubio were already arranged the dispute was over Gargano’s salary. The difference between what Napoli offerred and the player requested? 30 to 40k euros. To say “I don’t get it” doesn’t even come close to describing the sense of outrage and confusion here. But, hell we resigned Andrea Cupi so all should be fine.

Here’s the squad that left for Feldkirchen, Austria this morning: Keepers (Genarro Iezzo, Matteo Gianello & Biago Del Giudice); Defenders (Paolo Cannavaro, Cupi, Maurizio Domizzi, Gyorgy Garics, Gianluca Grava, Ruben Maldonado, Tomasso Romito, Erminio Rullo & Mirko Savini); Midfielders (Nicolas Amodio, Mariano Bogliacino, Marco Capparella, Samuele Dalla Bona, Fabio Gatti, Marek Hamsyk & Francesco Montervino); Attackers (Cristian Bucchi, Emanuele Calaio, Roberto DeZerbi, Gaetano Grieco, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Inacio Pia & Roberto Sosa).