There are a few interesting pieces on the BBC Sport pages today about the cost of football and alternative approaches. The first one that I noticed focused exclusively on Dortmund's model, revealing a very different view of the game and the fans to the average club here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29624410 1,000 fans find a cheaper and better experience by travelling from these shores to join the Yellow Wall at every home game. It matches a quote from Uli Hoeness last year about ticket prices at Bayern Munich: 'We could charge more than £104. Let's say we charged £300. We'd get £2m more in income but what's £2m to us? 'In a transfer discussion you argue about that sum for five minutes. But the difference between £104 and £300 is huge for the fan. 'We do not think the fans are like cows, who you milk. Football has got to be for everybody. 'That's the biggest difference between us and England.' Damning and accurate, in my opinion. The second article highlights prices across Europe, whilst the third compares increases with the lack of similarly improved wages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29622950 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29614980 It's hard to avoid feeling ripped off and undervalued as a fan of club football in England at the moment, but the comparison with other countries makes it even harder to take. The problem is that people keep paying the inflated prices and attending the games, as they feel that they have little choice, especially as lower league games are often equally expensive. When things do change though, I'm sure that clubs will be moaning about how unfair it is to see them go to the wall.
Hoeness might not be the best source on financial matters , but I take his point. Gate receipts aren't the leading clubs' major source of income any longer. They are dwarfed by TV revenues, commercial activities and sponsorship. So why not make ticket prices cheap and ensure grounds are full all the time? We see empty seats for some games at all clubs. Or if they do charge more, a significant percentage should be a levy on behalf of the lower league clubs to maintain/improve stadia and/or reduce ticket prices.
The cost is the reason i rarely go to games. Nothing will change while the clubs are selling out their stadiums though
If, as the Premier League claims, they are running at 95% sold, then unfortunately that will be used as justification that prices are not too high. Personally, I don't understand how the average working guy can afford it, TBH. I can only surmise that the days of taking your kids to the football are pretty much over?
I think they can afford it because they make sacrifices elsewhere in their life. Maybe such as going to the Lane is the only event in their social life or maybe not having a holiday. I am only surmising, but somehow they do afford it. There's a lot more tourists at the Lane these days, and much as the club will be reluctant to admit it, the past two seasons has seen a lot of season ticket holders decline to renew and I have no doubt finance is one of the main reasons. Let's be honest, our price structure is awfully expensive, £81 in the west stand for a category A game is outrageous.
The atmosphere at a lot of Premier League grounds is pretty poor at the moment and I believe that a large part of that is down to fans thinking about what they've given up to be there. When things are going against your side, it's far easier to write off £9 than £81 and that's before you've paid for every other overpriced element of the day. Just knowing that the clubs understand that much and have concerns about it would help, but they're all about maximising revenue and screwing people over for every penny.
Unfortunately, for the vast majority of football clubs nowadays it really is, "all about bucks. The rest is conversation"
I am surprised to hear that going to Dortmund can be done for as little as £65 which apparently includes ticket, travel and accommodation. Dortmund is around 270 miles from Calais and the route planner says a one way trip would take 5 hours, so I suppose they must fly there. I read of someone who went to watch Lille games, but as the French League often has Saturday night games, I doubt if he was going there and back in a day.
The article said they went on the channel tunnel. Tickets £9 so that is £56 for travel and accomodation. I want to know where they're getting their chunnel tickets from as it was more than that for me to go to Paris, which is closer.
Maybe for United but not many others have other lines of income that "dwarf" gate receipts. It is far too expensive though and s**ts on the core fanbase which traditionally comes from working class backgrounds. The only solution for fans is to go to a local lower league team, which probably isn't a bad idea, although they're not as cheap as they should be either.
The reality at Spurs though, is that if 35000 people made a protest at the high cost and boycotted the games, there would be another 35000 who would happily take their place and Levy well knows this.
Just another example of the increasingly unequal society the UK is and how the system works. As others have said as long as people pay in sufficient numbers the current pricing will continue. Spurs are investing some 450 million in a new stadium, they are not about to double their capacity to halve their ticket prices are they. Don't just compare football prices with Germany compare many aspects of daily life, the UK does not come out well.
they say they go eurostar and make a weekend out of it,even if you fly it will be cheap,on one of the budget flights
"even if you fly it will be cheap,on one of the budget flights" Even cheaper if you buy well in advance. I have just bought 8 friday early afternoon flights from Dublin to London for 26 quid a go.
Exactly. I went to Spurs-Chelsea last year and reckon the whole day (ticket, petrol and anything I bought up there) cost me about 150 quid. I barely justified it by telling myself it was a big game and I don't go to many at all. Would've been worth it if we'd won though
" 'We could charge more than £104. Let's say we charged £300. We'd get £2m more in income but what's £2m to us? 'In a transfer discussion you argue about that sum for five minutes. But the difference between £104 and £300 is huge for the fan. 'We do not think the fans are like cows, who you milk. Football has got to be for everybody. " There you go - that sums it up perfectly. And it reminds me once again that apart from watching it, playing it, thinking about it, reading about it and talking about it I don't half bloody well hate football.
The grounds are full of old fat geezers trying to get away from their wifes . The clubs will cream them and we have a master because they are stupid to pay those prices for a absurd overpriced product . Todays football reminds me " Emperor's new cloths "
Luckily for me I live a 10 min walk away from WHL so I don't have to worry about petrol/ travel costs or having food for the day out so it allows me to go all home games without much of a financial hit so to speak. That said, the price to watch Spurs and pretty much any English club these days is outrageous. Especially as the likes of Bayern/ Dortmund who are far bigger than us, charge pennies. I'm a fool for paying the prices in fairness but feel weirdly obliged to just keep going. I'd love for there to be some sort of protests to the FA to stop ripping off the fans. A tweet on twitter went around yesterday saying Alfreton Town charge around £18.50 for a ticket, you can a ticket for the same price (albeit likely to be in the gods) at Barca and Real.
Sutton charge £12 and have done so for about 3 or 4 years now,concessions are 6 pounds for oap's aged 60 and over and £3 for kids
