by Noel Draper
In the summer of 2006, Arsenal Football Club, following the advice of a lone voice in the head of a late 80’s Kevin Costner, opened a state of the art 60,000 all seater stadium. Obviously, with such a magnificent stadium to pay for, ticket prices went up for both the home and away supporters and yet Mr Postman was absolutely correct as they did indeed “come”. All was rosy in the North London field of dreams until just over 900 Manchester City fans baulked at the £62 cost and the world of the internet went ballistic.
Twitter, forums and the like exploded with outrage. “How much?” they cried as nearly one voice. “That’s disgusting”, some of them continued. A Manchester United fan joined in by saying that Manchester City fans aren’t rich just because their owner is. One Arsenal blogger completely missed the point and put forward the idea that Manchester City fans weren’t used to being a top club and therefore didn’t have the support to fill the 3000 seats that were originally offered.
It was at this stage in the argument that the fans suddenly remembered that it wasn’t just Arsenal that charged ridiculous prices for the privilege of a uncomfortable seat and a lack of atmosphere. When Manchester City rolled into Norwich a few weeks ago their fans had to stump up £50 quid for the pleasure and this didn’t include a Delia half time team talk. This is the same Manchester City who made Arsenal fans pay £52 each to sample the late September sun north of the Watford Gap and yet will charge Fulham fans £32 for the same experience in a couple of weeks albeit without the promise of some winter rays.
Every club in the Premier League operates a category system meaning a huge discrepancy between ticket prices. This was originally done due to the old adage of supply and demand, a bigger club meant more travelling fans, but now this just won’t wash in a modern age where football fans have an increasing array of options open to them for viewing matches without leaving their armchairs.
Football clubs in this country need to take heed to what the German football clubs offer. A match ticket for 15 euros with a bus ticket to get home after is not uncommon. They can drink beer and stand safely as well, the lucky gits, and each ground is jammed to the rafters and the atmosphere is fantastic. If a German club put their prices up to anything like the Premier League standard there would be justifiable outrage followed by a boycott and protests.
The Football Supporters Federation estimates that clubs could cut £32 from every ticket sold purely from the increase in television money offered to them but we all know this will never happen. What will also not happen is a combined protest from all football fans. We like to talk a good game in this country but actually doing something about it? Not likely. Which is a pity because I think I might have an idea and it’s this…
A weekend is picked in the near future and, instead of forking out huge sums to sit and watch a team play another loathsome eleven, everyone actually goes and watches their local non league side batter another local-ish non league side. My local side charge a whole £5 entry fee. For this miserly sum I can stand behind whatever badly painted white barrier I like, I can drink from my hip flask or from a container made from glass and I can wander off and eat chips whilst standing in a puddle. I can do all of these things and still not miss a ball being hoofed or a tackle from behind completely ignored.
Hopefully, if enough people do this, the clubs will realise that they can’t just charge whatever they like whilst getting away with it and your local club will receive a much needed financial boost.
Everyone will be a winner but especially you, the fans, because you will have witnessed football at it’s brilliant best. A football without histrionics. A football without the theatrics. A football stripped back to base. A football that got you interested in the game in the first place.
A football for the people.
Good article. I hate to say it though, but these sentiments have been doing the rounds since the late nineties, and that’s only according to my own recollection of fans sentiment and journalism. There seems to be no upper limit to what fans will actually pay, regardless of actual affordability. AFC know it, Chelsea know it, and even the Rolling Stones know it.
It bothers me that Arsenal are always held up as being responsible for high ticket prices in the Premier League. They didn’t come up with the original idea of exploiting their fans and using the ‘supply and demand’ argument – not even before the move to Ashburton Grove (I refuse to refer to the official ‘branded’ name) in 2006. I used to go to a home game or two at Highbury every month in the nineties and early part of the noughts, and usually picked the same area of the North Bank to sit. Prices generally rose by a reasonable pound or so every season, although the most noticeable increase was in the 2001/02 close season, when the price of a North Bank ticket rose from (about) £22 to (about) £30. This co-incided with the retention of some fairly high-profile player contracts, as well as the Bosman signing of Sol Campbell on club record wages. Even then, despite winning regular trophies, and receiving no end of praise for their entertainment value, Arsenal didn’t apply price bands according to the reputation of the opposition. This, from a fans point of view, is a load of nonsense, as we’ve all seen some terrible games against Man Utd and Chelsea, and some absolute crackers against Charlton and Wigan. I know for a fact that West Ham’s prices were out of control as far back as 1998, when I had a colleague who was paying £50 for tickets at Upton Park against Man Utd (I paid £20 for the Man Utd fixture at Highbury in the same season), so to blame Arsenal for the current price of the game is inaccurate and unfair.
The thing is – Arsenal, along with most other top-flight football clubs, have long ago dissolved the relationship with their grass roots fans, but just haven’t actually got round to saying so. Think about it. The stadium holds 60,000 people. Consider the number of corporate freebies and executive boxes that get used every week, and the number of seats for ‘actual supporters’ drops a fair bit. Consider too, the number of relatively wealthy fans who can pay the £1000+ season ticket (or those with access to a credit card), and the overseas supporters clubs, and the bewildering number of tourists from Asia and the Far East who seem to have no difficulty at all in securing a match ticket, and the fact is, there’s not an awful lot of space left for the average punter who might fancy 6 games a season when he can get a break from work or family duties. To be an Arsenal supporter, you’re either in (to the cost of thousands of pounds), or you’re frozen out. The PR exercises about their ‘community engagement’ work is just annoying after a while. Visiting some kids in hospital is all well and good, but telling them they’ll have to get better and land executive jobs before they can afford a match ticket seems hypocritical.
There are other things that bother me about the Arsenal set, and I guess they’re related to ticket prices. The average age of the punters at AFC is too high. That’s not to say that it should be an exclusively young person’s event, but there are fewer and fewer young children being taken to the game as I was when I was 9 years old. In the short term, a 50-year old money is as good as everyone else, sure. But in 10 or 20 years time, AFC will have to convince a new generation of schmucks to take up football attendance at a huge cost when many young people these days don’t even consider the possibility of ever seeing a live game in the flesh. They take for granted that football is a televised event, and will remain as out of reach for them as a Buckingham Palace Garden Party is to the rest of us. I’m 35 years old, and I bet I’m in the youngest 20% of people in the stadum when I go. That’s not a good thing. It’s like being at Rolling Stones concert – it’s kind of enjoyable, but deep down, you wish you could take the clock back a few decades.
Here’s another. The AFC stadium crowd is nowhere near representative of the people in North and East London who actually support Arsenal and their players. The stadium crowd is not anywhere near as ethnically or socially diverse as the young people who actually spend all day talking about Arsenal and play football in the parks dreaming of emulating their heroes. The people in the stadium by comparison, are a bunch of over-privileged whinges who claim to be dissatisfied with prices and performances, but don’t have the gumption to stop going and save the money.
If you genuinely love AFC and the Em****es Stadium, then go forth and enjoy it. If you’re only going to save face and ‘not miss a match’, then you’re as gullible as the old dear who genuinely believes they’ve won millions on the Dutch Lottery that they’ve never played.
Years ago, there was no greater insult than to be called an ‘armchair fan’. I never liked talking football with someone whose experiences never go beyond watching the MOTD highlights, but my attitude has completely turned around on that. Anyone who is actually signing away £67 on a match ticket every week and coming away moaning is as much the root of the problem as the price itself. The fans who once attended, and now stay away have my understanding and sympathy.
Tomorrow, I’m going to see my local club (Dartford) play an FA Trophy match against nearby rivals. It will cost me £15. It’s within walking distance of my home. I will stand on terraces. I will be in a crowd in which the minority of people are wearing club merchandise, although I might treat myself to a t-shirt or a new scarf for a few quid. It’s how football should be for everyone, Arsenal fans included.
Many of the people I go with and speak to tomorrow will be lapsed fans of bigger clubs who no longer feel included in their first club’s activities or ambitions. Dartford are geographically well placed to mop up jaded fans from the London clubs, but they also do a fair amount of work to invite new people in and make them feel welcome. After all, there’s always Charlton Athletic, Gillingham and Millwall…
I would seriously advise anyone who feels frozen out by Arsenal, Chelsea or whoever else that those big clubs SIMPLY DO NOT NEED YOU. So don’t need them back. It’s become like an absusive marriage where one partner plays away and constantly takes the piss, but the other partner stays out of blind loyalty and the hope that things will change. They won’t. AFC haven’t got time or space for someone with only £20 a week to spare – there’s a waiting list of richer people ahead of you. But there are several divisions of cracking football clubs all around the country who will make you feel like football did when you were a little boy (or girl) – excited by the game, and involved in the match experience.
A brilliant response Richey and one that makes me think you should have written the article and not me!
Just one point mate, Arsenal were picked, not because they stand out in the hall of shame regarding ticket prices, but because they were topical.
Enjoy tomorrow, I know I will.