I sit in PU which is a gold section and paid £735 for last season. The last time we were relegated, they dropped the ST price down to the level of when we were previously in the Championship i.e. two seasons previous to that relegation. For me that was £599. So, what do we think will happen this time? I can't see it going down to that level again. I suspect perhaps £699, possibly £675? That takes it below £700 and I can't see it going much lower than that. There will be the usual reminder about more games of course. What do you think?
If it's more than £25 a game I.e. 575 it's a total piss take. Really 460 (20 per game) is fair for Champ football and somewhere closer to being in line with comparable clubs. I think Fulham had quite a lot below 400 this season.
I'd add that it's a huge decision on the club's part. There will be a lot of pressure on Ramsey and whatever team we end up with and it'll be far far easier with a full house. If it's 12,000 ripped off punters it could turn very ugly very quickly.
For Leicester City fans who renewed early, an unrestricted view (there are no restricted views in their stadium) ST for the premiership next year costs £460, full price adult ticket. Anything more than that to watch championship football in our cramped uncomfortable stadium is taking the piss. I expect the piss to be taken.
As I am confident you will acknowledge, you do need to take account of the London thing too? I can't see it going to less that what it was last time we were in the championship.
They say Arsenal tickets are the dearest yet their cheapest season tickets I believe are around £1100 but that includes 6 cup games so about £43 per ticket. Mine at QPR was £735 this season for 19 games so that is £38.50. So mine is £5.50 less per game than Arsenal (although it is their cheaper ticket) so I wouldn't say are prices are that great value for fans.
Let's do some sums. In the bizarre circumstances that we fill our stadium 23 times at an average £35 a seat next season, that would bring in about £14.5m, or about £280,000 a week. That's enough to pay for a 25 player squad earning an average of £11,000 a week each. In reality of course both the estimated gate receipts and average wages would have to be lower for us to break even on just the first team playing side of the club. It ignores buying players, and the rest of the club. In fact the figure of £14.5m is what we have paid Barton for the length of his contract. So we have to play an entire year of home matches to pay one players wages for 4 years. This is why the owners have been throwing money at the club from their own pockets, just to pay the wages. Unless you charge Arsenal prices in a 60,000 seater stadium (neither of which are feasible for a club like QPR), gate receipts (and I reckon merchandising) are a very small proportion of income compared to TV. If we include that and the parachute payments for next season I reckon we need a salary cap of at most £20k, and an average of less than £10k a week to be on a relatively even keel financially. In these circumstances it's easy to make a positive gesture to the idiots who actually pay to watch this garbage. I don't think London should make any difference at all. LR is owned by the club, they aren't investing in it, the prices are based on what they think they can rip off a captive audience for.
But it always does. Everything is more expensive in London. By your analysis, if I've understood correctly, you might say to a home owner (with no debt attached) that their home is only worth 70% of their asking price in Northampton so would they kindly reduce the price.
