Ian Ayre, the Liverpool chief executive, has said he is staggered that supporters would walk out of Saturday’s game against Sunderland in protest at rising ticket costs at Anfield and denied prices could have been reduced thanks to next season’s record broadcasting deal.

Liverpool’s new ticket price structure has attracted fierce criticism since it was announced some seats in the redeveloped Main Stand will cost £77 next season, with the club’s own supporters’ committee, which was consulted on the proposals, leading the charge. The supporters’ group Spion Kop 1906 has proposed a mass walkout in the 77th minute against Sunderland, the first in Liverpool’s history, and fans will be leafleted before the game about “the first stage of many planned protests against the club with regards to the ticket prices at Anfield for the 2016-17 season”. Some season tickets will cost £1,029.

Liverpool fans plan first ever walkout protest at Anfield over £77 ticket prices Read more

Ayre has called the planned protest “disappointing” and claimed the controversy over the most expensive seats should not detract from other initiatives such as almost £9 tickets for category C matches and 1,000 tickets over the season being given free to local children.

“I think there is a difference between somebody creating whatever noise they feel they’ve got to create to get people’s attention and the facts,” he said of the mass walkout proposal. “If you look at £77 as a ticket price and want to walk out on 77 minutes then it is everybody’s right to make that decision. But what I would say to fans who are not sure and are thinking about it is: ‘Read the facts’.

“£77 is guiding people in the wrong direction. It is 200 tickets at £77 for six games a season – it is less than half a per cent of the total capacity.

“Of course everybody would like the tickets to be cheaper, including us, but that’s not an option for us right now. What is absolutely the case is that this initiative, supported by the owners and the football club, is letting more local people in, letting more kids in and the vast majority of season tickets are down in price. I think it is staggering that people should walk out over that.”

Liverpool FC (@LFC) #LFC will be hosting a live Q&A with Ian Ayre on Monday February 8 at 6pm GMT regarding the new pricing and ticket structure for 2016-17

Liverpool’s chief executive rejected claims that the club’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, is pricing out many supporters with the new ticket structure. He added: “How are we pricing fans out of the stadium if 65% of season tickets have flattened or come down, and 45% of matchday tickets have come down? Aren’t we feeding what we – certainly me as a Liverpool fan - have been saying for years: more young people, more local people. These initiatives are feeding that.

“Some season tickets are cheaper than they were two or three years ago. You can never give everybody what they want but you have to try and create a range. What’s affordable for one person isn’t for another person. I’ve no doubt that there will be 200 people happy to pay the £77 for that seat for that game. Shouldn’t we do that to drive price down at the bottom end?”

All Premier League clubs will benefit from the new £5.14bn broadcasting deal when it comes into effect next season but Ayre claims that revenue, and repaying FSG’s interest-free loan for the new £114m Main Stand, are separate business streams. “We can’t devise a business plan for the facilities of Liverpool and include all the revenues we expect because of a TV deal,” he said. “TV deals move around. The TV revenue goes into a completely different product on the pitch and the prices of that could be X, Y or Z. We can’t build a sustainable solution for the stadium based on what we may or may not spend in the transfer market. It’s the same plan we’ve always had for the stand and tickets.”