I find it slightly staggering that nobody has posted up a thread of the recent survey of the cost of football. Clearly, every fan who follows Southampton FC is so wealthy that the priority for this talking point is about as low as it gets. I'm surprised. Players earn a Mint and 71p is said to come out of every fan's £1 in order to pay their wages, on average. Yet Borussia Dortmund can offer a season ticket as low as £160. Only Charlton Athletic [£150] and Eastleigh Spitfires [£105 Yay..!] beat that, in this country. Something is very wrong indeed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29618299
Indeed. We're obviously quite satisfied with the amount we pay to go to watch football. Someone prominent must have suggested a players salary cap because none other than Frank Lampard [Jr, for you young at heart people] has jumped up and said there would probably be too many legal pitfalls. Well, that's that idea quashed then: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29627241
That calculator puts mine £1k.... That doesn't include travel or my son's season ticket. Travel for us is 200 miles a game. Still, how do you stop going, once you are going?
Prices will only fall if people stop going...why would Saints fans stop going when we are doing so well. It is easier for top clubs with big commercial earnings to keep prices down...which makes Arsenal prices more shocking than ours. I am aware how much we are spending to get us settled into the PL, however, I think it would be a good PR to freeze ticket prices next season at Saints bearing in mind the massive income from Sky.
Interesting and honest take on the ignorance shown by Premier League players: http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29638128
I don't think it's a low priority, I think it's more a case of a cloud of defeatism that borders on despair. Having come of age in the 1970s, I often wonder why people in this country aren't taking to the streets to protest about a whole range of issues, the price of football included. Apart from a brief protest by the Occupy Movement outside St Paul's Cathedral a couple of years back, we as a nation seem to just quietly accept growing social inequality, stagnating wages, a housing crisis that puts home ownership beyond the reach of a whole generation, university tuition fees saddling that same generation with debt before they even start work, food banks, beggers in the streets, and a whole host of other ills. Personally, I find the sight of the rich - be they footballers, bankers, movie stars or aristos - flaunting their wealth before the rest of us frankly distasteful. Seems like I'm in a minority there though (until the flames go up in the nation's cities again). Rant over.
Would have loved to see fans who stuck with Saints by purchasing tickets in League One given a proper discount in the Premier League 2 years later. That being said, since promotion, I don't think our price rises have been unreasonable given the quality of football on show.
In plenty of Premier League, Champions League, Cup games etc... people aren't going. This isn't just confined to Southampton. In fact, I think we manage it reasonably well here, even though the tickets are 6% above PL average. But before anyone actually bothers to form an opinion, read about Dortmund in the BBC article. They are the best example but they are not atypical of prices in Germany. A country where earnings tend to be higher than here amongst the football attending populace.
If I'd started a thread about this I'd have 'gone off on one' about wages. Of all the craziness in the world of football this is the most crazy. I'm not going to rant though, that'll be my morning taken up!
I guess we are of a similar age. I took to the streets of London a few times back in the day. I must admit that with age (and wisdom!) I thought my socialist days were over but your post is spot on. Unfortunately, I now know what I didn't know back in the 70's. There is no easy solution! Certainly with the only political alternatives being pretty much the same animal I don't know what needs to happen. Maybe UKIP, heaven forbid, but at least people who seem to talk straight. Have they done the maths though?
There is a reason I am a sofa saint. I simply can not afford to get a season ticket or since we have been in the permier league even to the odd match and have not watched Saints properly since we were in the championship. Have to say thought with FFP in place now clubs need the money from season tickets to help try and compete with the established top sides. With that in mind I can not see lowering prices of matches as if we did, what is already a hard gap to try to bridge will be even worse. If a club is ever going to change the order of things now it is going to have to come from the fans pocket in some form.
No shame in being a sofa supporter. I find it very hard to comprehend how family men with modest jobs can justify spending all that money on a season ticket! I try and make it to about 5 games a year, as the OP said, this kind of money would easily get me a season ticket to a top German team. Would actually piss me off if I bought a season ticket and then a lot of the bigger matches take place on a week night, which I would be working and woudln't be able to make anyway.
A chap here who ditched ManU to support his local team: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29600765 I think I can already sense a few out there thinking... why wasn't he supporting his local team first and foremost anyway..? It's modern football supporting, and it is something I really can't get my head around. The supporter in the video had zero affinity with ManU but had supported them over his local team. For me, there are two, maybe three, categories only where your support can have some connection. 1] Your place of birth, 2] Where you live, and possibly 3] Your family settlement area. You can change where you live, so maybe that is less well founded than the other two. I was born in Southampton. I was told stories of Southampton's All-Star Premier League winning Speedway team, but they were sold off before I was of an age to go to watch. My other sporting passion was football, so I automatically watched the Saints. Both historic teams played in the stripes. What other choice was there..? Anyway, back to the video. One observation. The man said that he found it very hard to have a connection with a player who earned more in one week than he would in a decade. A Decade..! That really brings it home. The two seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as we were in League One. It's still interesting to me that we all enjoyed Leagur One yet effectively wanted it to end in the shortest possible time. And it nearly did.
The main achievement is gaining promotion...so hard to play well and stay where you are. Also we were doing well, but at a relatively high cost...needed promotion to get some of that money back. Losing in League 1 and the Championship wouldn't have been such fun. We'll just have to have our happy memories.
