Arsenal come out as one of the most expensive clubs to watch football at. With the highest single priced ticket for a match and the highest season ticket option. It should also be noted that Arsenal also offer some of the cheapest tickets for Capitol One cup games. My Solution - Some of the money from media deals should be ring fenced to offset the price of tickets. The FSF make the point that fans are an important asset in the product of football and a major reason why the EPL is so attractive to the media. Without the fans, there would be no atmosphere and thus the product would suffer and it's commercial value would decrease - so it is therefore congruent that fans should be included in the asset mapping of football's commercial value, that along with the argument that top players should be paid top wages as they attract money into the game, the fans also attract money into the game and should be remunerated by this income - as per my suggestion, by it being offset to pay for the cost of tickets. Another solution - Safe Standing. As used by the Bundasliga in Germany. Clubs could increase capacity and reduce the need to build new stadiums, with the huge debt and environmental issues that it brings. Also they could reduce ticket prices for those who wish to stand. The huge benefit for fans is that they get cheaper tickets and get to choose to stand with fellow fans who wish to sing and stand. The atmosphere inside grounds would benefit, fans would benefit, clubs would benefit and the game would benefit as a whole. For anyone not familiar with safe standing design in modern stadiums, the FSF are running a campaign here http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/safestanding.php
In all fairness high ticket prices that you guys charge is completely at your owners discretion, there is no need to charge what they do and they do so as they like to rake in the profits. Our prices our still bloody reasonable (£38-43 for a Kop ticket for a big game) but they will be hiked soon to "cover the cost of the expansion"....
I think the prices rised to pay for the stadium - but I also assume the owners justify it with the huge waiting lists we have for season tickets, and the difficulty/demand there is for normal tickets. I would hope however that when the new sponsorship deals are in place then ticket prices would be frozen/lowered. The Safe Standing initiative is interesting, and does seem a world away from the 70s/80s set up.
Might I respectfully point out that you pay more to watch your team than the vast amount of Arsenal fans do, and at the moment, we probably get better value for our money as well.
Hopefully. When you compare our commercial earnings to the really big sides, it's where we are lagging behind. 2014 is massive year for the club and hopefully we can get some really good deals.
You have to be very careful when you quote statistics and the conclusions you draw from them. Piskie's statement "Arsenal come out as one of the most expensive clubs to watch football at." could be countered with the statement, "Arsenal come out as one of the most inexpensive clubs to watch football at." Based on the fact that they offer the cheapest league matchday ticket.
I guess in that case they should look at the standard deviation rather than just the average, as it appears our ticket prices in that case are pretty close to the average whereas yours vary wildly between min and max (depending on corporate seats?). I'm also surprised Chelsea aren't up there, I think they charge a fortune for their tickets I've heard
High ticket prices have always been around and will stay high whilst there is demand for the product (simple economics) - what really pees me off is the ridiculously high charges all stadia make for refreshments - that is a rip off that many people are ignoring. It extends into motorway services stations, railway stations, airports, airlines (easyjet being worst culprits), hotels......sorry, I'm ranting now. I'll get me coat.....
Chelsea also appear as an average to be quite cheap. Season ticket prices cheapest adult (per game): Arsenal £37.88 (includes 7 CL and FA cup games) Liverpool £38.16 Spurs £38.42 Chelsea £31.32 Non-Season tickets (Average cheapest with cat A) Arsenal £38.79 Spurs £39.16 Liverpool £42.32 Non-Season tickets (Average cheapest without cat A) Arsenal £30.50 Spurs £35.08 Liverpool £40.75 (note Liverpool have 7 games rated cat A - More than Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea Please also note that Arsenal have 24k seats available, Liverpool 12k. Spuds it's the south & north lower (numbers unknown). This is why it pisses me off when people say Arsenal have the highest priced tickets. They do, but they also have a large number of excellent seats available at cheaper than a few clubs. Liverpool surprise me in the fact that their lowest priced tickets are the most expensive of any clubs that I have looked at. £30.50 to watch Arsenal against anyone but Man U, Man C, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea isn't too bad in my view.
We do have the most expensive season tickets. Manunited's highest season ticket for this season was something like 985, compared to what I paid, 1,385, and I don't that's even the highest season ticket price at Arsenal!
I quite agree. I was quoting the article, but in relative terms we do also offer some of the cheapest tickets and we offer great seats with terrific views and punters get to see some of the best football going. You could argue that you could pay significantly less to watch Montrose play average football from a restricted view in a crap stadium with poor facilites and thus the price would reflect that. It's like comparing buying a cheap can of beer from the supermarket and drinking it outside in the rain, or sitting in a plush restaurant whilst the waiter pours you a glass of premium lager and brings it to your table - both are beer, but the quality and experience are vastly different.
In the context, i don't think it's actually too expensive. Ivan (for once) has been pretty smart. By upping the highest priced tickets, we're able to lower the other ticket prices. As the higher priced tickets are bought by those who can afford them, it doesn't affect everyone else negatively, it's actually beneficial.
