Manchester United fans have accused the club of giving fans a “kick in the teeth” after announcing matchday ticket prices could reach £97.
The most expensive matchday tickets at Old Trafford last season were £66. There are four categories, with the lowest reserved exclusively for “some” cup games.
It means the lowest priced ticket for a Premier League game is £37, for the two category C matches against Sunderland and Wolves. That figure rises to £97 for the highest priced tickets in category A, which involves games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Tottenham.
Club officials argue the £97 applies to less than 1% of the available tickets.
"When the club said they were introducing this new model, we urged them to keep the majority of matches at current levels and only apply the highest price category for a small number of the biggest games and reduce prices for lower demand games.
"Once again, they have failed to consult any of the fans’ representative bodies on the details of the decision and once again they’re making choices against the interests of fans and, we believe, the club as a whole.
And in a wide-ranging interview with United We Stand published on Wednesday, United chief executive Omar Berrada said the rollout of the £66 decision, which was subsequently reversed, was “not good”.
I was speaking with a friend about football, that I used to be people’s game, almost anyone could go, but now days this changes year by year. I think this article is a proof.
In the main the big clubs do not care about the average fan, they are only interested in rich fans who can pay a significant premium to go every week and “casuals” who go to one or two games a season. The latter group spend more than they would normally as they do not go often and as its a treat more likely to buy tat from the club shop, consume overpriced food and beer, etc.
More and more people are being pushed into that casuals group and, at least at Villa Park, being forced to buy overpriced for shit location, premium GA+ tickets as the only way to get a ticket for a category A game as the few non season ticket normal tickets go to people with significant booking history in minutes.
During the O’Neil era I switched my season ticket from the Holte to the North Stand when they issued the £200 adult/£50 U12 season ticket. I can spend that £200 now on one GA+ ticket. Even a normal ticket for a category a game in the Holte is like £90 now.
It has gotten to the point that I only go to a few games a season now, and then only because it means a lot to my now adult son as father son time. I am at the point I would rather cut my losses and just go see a local National League side instead. At least it would be affordable, and the games not moved all over the week making it impossible to commit.
A few weeks ago I met a Man U fan. That person doesn’t live in England, so far them being able to watch a game once in a while is a big thing.
They paid 500$ for one match in the VIP zone.
Top football is mostly about money at this point.
Oh for sure, and for a Villa fan its conflicting as I know the club needs more money to push on from the fantastic strides we made from where we were, but I wish it wasn’t the case. If I was a United fan I would be furious as the club has wasted so much money on shit and the Glazers have just plain stolen even more.
PSR doesn’t just fuck the clubs who are trying to move up it also fucks the fans as you have to increase revenue to compete. I would much rather we replaced PSR with budget caps and fixed price home game tickets as we have had with away game prices.