Friday Freebie: Price Point Becomes The Tipping Point
When is too much, too much?
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What’s your tipping point when it comes to ticket prices and does being able to not just rock up at the gate and pay to get in also not float your boat?
Now the reason is I ask is not Oasis tickets although I think many have been done a dirty over the poor excuse for the ticket selling site which is Ticketmaster.
No, I’m talking about Aston Villa and Champions League ticket prices and boy have they got this wrong. The cheapest ticket to watch their first campaign in this competition since 1983 has been priced at an eye watering £85. The most expensive is £97 whilst even an under 18 ticket is £30.
A family of four just on tickets alone are shelling out over £200 and then factor in travel and food, it’s money people really can’t afford any more. It’s fleecing match going supporters, away fans will be paying a maximum of £50, yep let that really sink in how much this level of pricing stinks.
An absurd amount of money to be paying above the normal cost, it’s just sheer greed that keep engulfing the game at the elite level. We’ve already seen Spurs and West Ham attacking concession prices, season ticket holders beginning to feel they’re not wanted by the club they have supported for life and in my opinion it will only get worse.
When these European nights roll around people and families will have had to make a choice between shelling out an incredible amount of money versus spending on something a lot more sensible, that realistically is the ‘cost of living crisis’.
The clubs don’t care for the ‘legacy fan’ either, that’s one whose been going since day dot, with generations before preceding them. They don’t spend enough money away from their match ticket, tourists and others who could sit in that same seat week after week would generate more, much more than you or I who has a ticket for 23 odd home matches.
No doubt Villa Park will be full for each of their group games, but how many are sitting there almost grimacing at the amount they’ve had to part with cash wise and what they have had to sacrifice in order to be there.
I’ve seen many Villa fans across social media rightly condemning the club for their move, it’s been a PR disaster. But, short memories though, Villa signed up for this in 1992 with 19 other clubs.
Other clubs have grown bigger over this time, Villa are still in the same stadium with a similar capacity, the game keeps moving. I find it hard to garner much sympathy I’m afraid, you sell your soul to the devil, you are his slave.
The more these crazy decisions continue, the more non-league football at all levels can make a killing. Granted there is the odd club around who charge a little too much for their level but they are few and far between and generally on the whole the experience is what we used to have, what we really want and best of all it’s there on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
Clubs want to do better as well, better facilities, better food, a good drink offering and the aim to build winning teams on the pitch. It’s approachable in all aspects right to the top of the National League and it’s honest but raw down in the County Leagues.
These guys don’t moan at a hard day’s graft, a two hour trip around the M25, 90 minutes, get home at 1am and up for work at 6am, they get on with it and for a lot less money.
Granted it’s not a comparison of talent, and never will be, but it’s the game we remember, money now comes before football and I hope this part never takes over at the lower level.
I know many don’t like the need to buy a ticket in advance, the National League is almost a professional league in itself and not many above in the EFL operate any differently.
There are some clubs underneath those levels who do offer a substantial discount if bought before matchday, the easiest way to tie people in days before especially with a big price difference. It can help clubs plan with advance sales despite what some believe. Cash however is king at 99% of non-league clubs and they’re grateful to receive it, to see you and for you to enjoy their hospitality.
So, where is your price point? Are you a non-league convert from the professional game thanks to their wealth, their greed and their seemingly desire for more? Let me know in the comments below.
Very interesting. I was asked recently about going to West Ham v Arsenal on a hospitality package and drew the line at £200 but that would have been a 'once a season' treat. I refuse to pay for membership to be allowed to buy tickets - that is a massive rip-off - and generally think around £30-£40 is the price I'll pay for Premier League or Championship games but I will only see about 4 or 5 of those a season. I'll probably watch Crawley the same number of times (and their prices have been very reasonable since WAGMI) but otherwise it is non-league all the way! Less commercialised, run for supporters not consumers and with the same level of passion, commitment and desire.
My first match was as a five-year-old going to see Spurs in 1967. As I got older and was taken to a few other games over Christmas and Easter bank holidays it was either White Hart Lane or Highbury. When I was allowed to go out on a Saturday with my friends as a very young teenager, we would head to Highbury, Stamford Bridge, Loftus Road and sometimes venture a bit further out to Brentford. I always preferred going to Spurs but from where I lived in North West London, it meant a bus, a bus, another bus which would go a long way down the North circular Road and then another bus down Fore Street, before the long journey home! Suffice to say that I didn’t go very often.
I have to admit here, that I started supporting Liverpool in 1971 after they LOST the FA Cup final. I was called a glory seeker for the rest of that decade as Liverpool won trophy after trophy. At least I could say that I went to Anfield and the European Cup final at Wembley in 1978.
So when there wasn’t a decent division game my best friend and I would go and watch Hendon FC play at Claremont Road. From a young team he started supporting Chelsea and has been a season ticket holder for many decades. When Chelsea aren’t playing, he goes to Hendon and still support the club by buying a season ticket. I think it gets much more enjoyment out of experience at Hendon and Chelsea, well until last year when he treated himself to a very expensive Chelsea season ticket with all the trimmings!
During the late-70s we went to a lot of England games until we got set on by other England fans, so that really tarnished any desire go to football unless it was with family.
We did go to Switzerland for a World Cup qualifier in 1981 with the official travel group. That was the one where the match was stopped because of a load of fighting in the stands. Police came tearing down the pitch and fire tear gas into the crowd it was horrible, but all I could think about was, “oh no, my parents are watching this on television at home’. We lost 2-1 redeemed ourselves a few days later in Hungary with that memorable Trevor Brooking goal.
In 1990, one of my colleagues remembered that I had said that I used to go to see Hendon FC when there wasn’t a match that I wanted to go and see. He very casually said to me “you should come to Barnet, you’ll enjoy it. It’s really warm and friendly and play some really good football.
So it was THAT season 1990/91 when I first went to Underhill. First match I could see that one person out of 4000 meant a lot more to a club than one out of 40,000 and I was immediately hooked and have been ever since that day. I didn’t intend to be a glory-seeker, but we won the title and over the last 33 years we’ve been a real yo-yo club although in the last six years we’ve been more of a yo. Given the scale of fan base across the country success for a small club may not matter to as many people in the lower leagues but it matters just as much as it does at the top and as long as the top divisions continue to serve up overpriced, nonsense there will always be la market for local football and just to make the point, I hate the term ‘non-league’ because all teams play in their specific leagues!
MN