I just got my renewal for the Premier club for next season and it has go up by 8.8%, maybe an indication of what all passes may go up by.
The rate of CPI inflation is 1.5% ... It really shouldn't be more, unless we're being punished for being 'hooligans'.
RPI is the better rate to use when you're talking about a specific product as it's calculated using arithmetic rather than geometric methods. CPI is better when you're looking at the cost of living as a whole as that involves a range of items (although bizarrely the official figures include rents etc in RPI but not CPI). Really for this you need to be looking at the cost of all season tickets in football, and trying to look at what Swansea and other "2nd year" club prices were compared to their first season after promotion. Last year I paid for my season ticket on 2nd April. That means promotion was a long way off being sealed. Prices were therefore announced as a Championship club. The improvement in the quality of the product on offer (being PL vs Championship) and the reduction in the number of games both make using either rate of inflation a completely meaningless exercise. For what it's worth though, since the 2002/03 season my seat has gone up an amount equivalent to about 3.25%. In that time we've been promoted 3 times (the 4th offset by the relegation) so there's still the (much bigger) quality difference and reduction in games to allow for. The same rate again would be a £15 increase (but would also be a really stupid pricepoint to use psychologically) and an 8.8% rise would be about £35, so it's really not much difference.
I'd be amazed. The current prices are pretty much optimal, that's why we only sell out a few days before each game. A big increase in season tickets would need a big increase in match tickets as well. They might not know football, but they know business and about optimal prices. It'd also be suicidal in terms of large numbers of the increases looking massively bigger than they are. The reason shops price things at £2.99 rather than £3.00 is because the leading 2 makes people think it's cheaper. I know it is 1p cheaper, but it's psychologically a lot bigger a difference when people see it. I'm assuming most East Stand tickets are the same £380 or £390 that I paid, so a £130 increase will push it over £500. £390 to £520 looks a bigger increase than £360 to £490. Just look at how you'd describe them when you were whinging about it, the first is OVER £500 now and the second is JUST under £500. The only reason to tip that second £100 mark this summer is if they're planning on increasing it to high £500 next year, that way they can try and PR it and say the reduction is much less next year by putting it in the same £100 block.
