Saints have already frozen ticket prices and I'm sure they are not alone in the Premier League. The ST renewals for 2015/16 were the same as the 2014/15 season and the wings were actually £29 cheaper. Whether the prices are too expensive in the first place is another question altogether. I'm fortunate to be able to afford 2 season tickets but I'm not sure at what point I would give them up because they were too expensive. A number of things come into consideration before doing that. Affordability and a sense of real enjoyment are the two main requirements and at the moment, I've got both.
Individual ticket prices are too expensive at the moment. I can't justify shelling out £40 plus other expenses on a regular basis and I can't afford a season ticket.
I don't see how any club can even consider raising ticket prices, given the extra money coming into the game, BUT I won't hold my breath on that. It's not just the clubs that have a responsibility to do the right thing, though, the players also have a responsibility to think about the impact their wage demands have on a club's finances. I was reading this morning (might just be paper talk), that Payet is already asking for a new contract, raising his pay from £68k pw plus £10k per appearance to £125k pw. The same with the pundits, who are saying that clubs shouldn't raise ticket prices. It's just lip service. If they were still playing, they'd be looking at the amount of extra money each club will make and be saying "I'll have some of that".
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But we finished 7th and 8th in our past two seasons. We're closing in on 6th. So are people prepared to pay the 6th most in that case? Genuine question.
If people have the money then of course they are prepared to pay it, it's more the pricing out working class fans that pisses me off a bit. That's the problem though, for every person who will say "that's a rip off I'm not paying that!" There will be someone to jump in their place - Paticuarly more of an issue for the big clubs. It's a shame that clubs don't seem to care about the fans so much anymroe, just 'customers' not. (Note this a general point n not slagging Saints off before anyone takes it that way) Do you have any idea what our plans are for next season, another rise?
Averaging over £35 a pop is pretty poor for a smaller club outside of London imo, regardless of anything else.
I consider there is more to the whole finance of football than just ticket prices. The money coming into the game should be benefiting the game as a whole, not just the top clubs. Local grass roots football is dying (Wimborne Town latest example) without sugar daddy financing. Lower division teams (which make English football the game that it is and where the England team get most of its ardent support from) get the scraps from the table. I would like to see a co-ordinated response from ALL premier league club's supporters for one weekend next season, instead of going to watch their team they go to watch a lower division or non league team. This would mean virtually empty stadia at all premier matches at the top end and some welcome income at the bottom end. I know it won't happen, but what a message that would send! And, yes I am priced out of going to matches at the moment and feel a little bit sick having to pay the amount charged when £x 000s per week trips of the tongue so easily. Fans should not have to stump up for these ludicrous salaries, TV has brought them about and TV and TV alone should finance them!
You're right it wouldn't happen but it would be a fantastic way to protest which would drum up worldwide interest. The TV companies rely on the stadiums being full as part of the 'product' if that was genuinely at threat think we'd see some panic from some corners. To be fair to the Liverpool fans though they have done well to get this discussion going again and as I said in the OP there's rumours that FSG (the owners) are reconsidering.
If Saints don't lower their prices then I will expect us to improve on the field. Win a cup or top 6 finish at least. There really is no excuse not to lower prices next season.
The truth is that now due to the tv money, even if no fans turned up for a game it wouldn't hit the clubs that badly. Therefore clubs have no reason to care what fans think, same with FIFA.
Only financially. However, an empty or largely-empty stadium makes for a bad spectacle. Part of the lure of watching the PL on television is packed, colourful stadiums and emotional crowds. Strip that away and you've just got 22 men kicking a ball about. Nowhere near as marketable. No matter how good the players are. It'll be interesting to see where the line in the sand is eventually drawn.
A couple of years ago the Echo calculated that the current deal paid Saints about £30 per seat per home game. That's likely to go up to about £50 (with the 70% increased deal).* That shows that it's not an utterly vast amount of cash per seat. Certainly, dropping £20 off the ticket price, as being bandied about here, will leave us using all the increase in Sky money to reduce the price of something that pretty much sells out, making it purely a cost. They would be giving away £11.5M for nothing but goodwill. No business would sanction that. Nor, in my opinion, should they: it would leave us too disadvantaged in the player market. Equally, with reference to protests, as it isn't a vast amount per seat, people not turning up would hurt - the other side of the coin. Vin * All figures quoted are based on this number. If it's tripe, the whole lot is.
It's a difficult argument with a case on both sides. I feel a bit like I should come down on the side that the clubs can do what they like, but I feel a bit bad about it (for now). Would like to see a well argued article of some kind, including maths. Protests are good for headlines during a quiet week but I'm not sure I completely get it. Yet.
There is little doubt that supply and demand will lead to higher wages. The only way that wouldn't happen would be if all the clubs got together and agreed to collectively reduce that inflationary pressure by spending some of the extra money on ticket subsidies. Yeah, not going to happen. But any club raising ticket prices doesn't have a heart. Or brain. Or probably either.
I did, but partly to feel a bit closer to the club as I don't go much now. It gets you a priority for tickets and, in my case, a reduction on the ferry ticket from the IOW. Also convenient to have tickets downloaded on your card, rather than panic if they will arrive....again especially useful if you live on IOW.
