The ‘Price of Football’ Report

[Snake]

Plenty of tosh in there, as per usual. So Kidderminster have the most expensive pies on the football planet at £4.50? Anyone who has eaten there will tell you it’s not only the best value for money, but also the closest thing to proper food you can get inside a ground.

And Man City have STs for £299. How many I wonder?

Nothing in there about a pint of beer at Old Trafford costing £11 last season. I kid you not. £5.50 for a half pint bottle of Cobra.

[tomoufc]

Do we still have the most expensive tea? That really gets my goat - I don't see the point of queuing up at half time to down a bottle of lukewarm lager from a plastic bottle in five minuets flat.

[Snake]

Now the Sports Minister comments on that crap report. Can anyone work out which football team she supports, or if she has even been inside a football ground?

https://twitter.com/HelenGrantMP

[slappy]

Plenty of tosh in there, as per usual. So Kidderminster have the most expensive pies on the football planet at £4.50? Anyone who has eaten there will tell you it’s not only the best value for money, but also the closest thing to proper food you can get inside a ground.

And Man City have STs for £299. How many I wonder?

Nothing in there about a pint of beer at Old Trafford costing £11 last season. I kid you not. £5.50 for a half pint bottle of Cobra.

comments on the Man City prices here
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ut-7935773
The Blues are currently rebuilding the South Stand to increase the stadium capacity by 6,000 to around 54,000, and have outline plans to develop the North Stand along the same lines.

When the extended South Stand opens next season, seating sections will be aimed at the cheaper end of the market, with prices from £299 to £459.

The expansion of the stadium was criticised when the Blues had 9,000 empty seats for the recent Roma game, with ex-United star Rio Ferdinand among those questioning its wisdom.

But City have based their future plans on the basis that every Premier League seat was sold last season, and the same applies this season – and they have a 7,500-strong waiting list for the cheaper seats in the expanded stadium, with fans paying £100 deposits.
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This survey is so tricky to judge, when many of the L2 cheapest prices are for terracing, and the most expensive tickets can be premium priced with lounges / car parking depending on the club. Also, when clubs offer discounts for renewals or early take-up, which 'price' are they using in the survey?

[ty cobb]

It does highlight what I've been banging on about for a while now, the £20 on the day price for a ticket is far too expensive and puts people off coming along.

Personally given the level that we're at I would feel £15 was a reasonable price to watch Oxford.

[YF Dan]

Totally agree, Ty.

Because it's not just £20, it's the bus fare (£3-4), plus whatever other costs we chose to cough up on the day.

The young kids for free thing is good, but all kids might as well be free, or a token £1.

We just need to fill the place now.

Whatever it takes. I'm sure a full house would lift the players, and the thing is, kids just love it. I took my son and his friend to a dour 2-0 defeat last season, an awful game, but they both had a brilliant time and wanted to come again.

[Snake]

It's become a political football now, but surely you cannot force a private company to hand over part of its control to anyone, can you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29652317

[slappy]

It's become a political football now, but surely you cannot force a private company to hand over part of its control to anyone, can you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29652317

In theory I guess it could be a condition of membership of the football league / premier league. I don't know what it would achieve having a minority shareholding, does the 11% minority shareholders in OUFC make any difference?

[Kernow Yellow]

Do we still have the most expensive tea? That really gets my goat - I don't see the point of queuing up at half time to down a bottle of lukewarm lager from a plastic bottle in five minuets flat.

There's an easy solution to that - don't buy it! I don't give a flying one how much a cup of tea costs. Who goes to the football to have a cup of tea? And if you're that desperate for a cuppa, take a flask.

Agree with Ty and Dan about ticket prices though, especially for kids. Prices for an 8-year old at the Kass are really quite steep, unless you want to sit in the isolated, windswept family area.

I read an interesting interview with someone at Bayern Munich a while ago, saying that one of the reasons they (and other German clubs) charge so little for tickets and season tickets is because the potential lost revenue is peanuts compared to TV money, sponsorship etc. So they can easily afford it and there's no point pissing off their core fanbase. The same arguments could be made for most Premier League clubs, but what about L1 and L2 outifts like ours? Ticket revenue accounts for the vast majority of our turnover.

The only way to make it work across the board I think is to insist more TV money trickles down to the lower leagues on the strict understanding that tickets are capped at a certain level. But I can't see that ever happening sadly.

[tomoufc]

Do we still have the most expensive tea? That really gets my goat - I don't see the point of queuing up at half time to down a bottle of lukewarm lager from a plastic bottle in five minuets flat.

There's an easy solution to that - don't buy it! I don't give a flying one how much a cup of tea costs. Who goes to the football to have a cup of tea? And if you're that desperate for a cuppa, take a flask.

Agree with Ty and Dan about ticket prices though, especially for kids. Prices for an 8-year old at the Kass are really quite steep, unless you want to sit in the isolated, windswept family area.

I read an interesting interview with someone at Bayern Munich a while ago, saying that one of the reasons they (and other German clubs) charge so little for tickets and season tickets is because the potential lost revenue is peanuts compared to TV money, sponsorship etc. So they can easily afford it and there's no point pissing off their core fanbase. The same arguments could be made for most Premier League clubs, but what about L1 and L2 outifts like ours? Ticket revenue accounts for the vast majority of our turnover.

The only way to make it work across the board I think is to insist more TV money trickles down to the lower leagues on the strict understanding that tickets are capped at a certain level. But I can't see that ever happening sadly.

Not buying tea never has nor will be a solution to anything!

Of course, there's an easy solution to OUFC ticket prices too - don't go! Well that's been the 'solution' a significant amount of our supporters seem to have taken anyway.

You're quite right about the TV money and how it effects lower league clubs. As for the top PL sides - why wouldn't they charge exorbitant prices (OK - there are exceptions, but looking at the big picture...? It's monopoly capitalism. Captive markets, exploitation of fans. If anyone's seen that FC United documentary there's a good quote in there about how people who live on humble wages have been priced out of the grounds, so they watch the game at home. Problem is they're even being rinsed as they sit on their sofas.That's why we need fan-owned football teams - our clubs, our rules, our game. As to the government's reaction - populist, non-committal, headline-grabbing nonsense. Does anyone really expect a Tory government to place price controls on anything?

[Eric Pollard]

Thud of jaws dropping to floor as Labour Party announce halfway decent policy.

[Snake]

Thud of jaws dropping to floor as Labour Party announce halfway decent policy.

Some parameters that I could mention to show how out of touch this survey is with reality :

1. Price of parking within a mile of the ground.

2. Beer prices within a mile of the ground, and also inside the ground.

3. Is the ticket for a seat or a standing slot?

4. What is the ‘facility fee’ (or whatever) for buying a matchday ticket online?

5. What, on average, is the time spent queuing outside the ticket office for an on-the-day ticket beforehand? And to get to the bog, or the inside catering outlets at half time thereby losing ‘x’ % of your typical match day experience of seeing what happens on the pitch?

Does anyone know if the wrong Miliband brother chosen as Leader is a footy supporter, and if so which team he supports and how much? Seems to me to be a cheap way of gaining votes, but not thought out at all. Even the Deputy Prime Minister is now passing comment on football issues (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29647263). My local MP claims to be an Aston Villa supporter, even though he lives in the Witney area. Slags - the whole lot of them, but at least I know that Andrew Smith does attend games at Minchery Farm 'cos I've seen him queuing up at the same turnstile as us 'ordinary' people on a number of occasions.

[Mr T]

My son & I went to watch Altrincham last month as they were playing Eastleigh.
It was £14 on the day to stand (£15 if we wanted to sit). Programme was £2.50.
As usual I didn't get a pie as I tend to eat lunch at lunch time, not 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon! (The only exception is Morecambe where I feel that I have to try out the highly rated, home cooked produce; never been disappointed yet)

I am contemplating travelling to Carlisle next week so have been checking out their prices; no away terrace, so it's £22 to sit paying on the day (£19 in advance). At least they do a £6 discount for 'young' people, aged 18-22. The price might just put me off. Let's see how the Tranmere & Northampton games make me feel...!

Was not happy having to pay £21 to sit at Morecambe. Would have preferred to have the choice of standing on their terrace for £17, but once again it was closed, I presume to save stewarding costs.

I think if our results improve I may contemplate more matches this season, but the long drive home after another poor result is not good for one's sanity!

[tomoufc]

I read an interesting interview with someone at Bayern Munich a while ago, saying that one of the reasons they (and other German clubs) charge so little for tickets and season tickets is because the potential lost revenue is peanuts compared to TV money, sponsorship etc.

And I'm sure the fact that, in German football, 'no "outside" investor can own more than 49% of a German club's shares and at least 51%, ie a controlling vote, must remain with club members', has something to do with it (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -ownership)

[Kernow Yellow]

My son & I went to watch Altrincham last month as they were playing Eastleigh.
It was £14 on the day to stand (£15 if we wanted to sit).

I remember going to Altrincham to watch them play Cambridge (replete with half a team of ex-Us) in the Conference in 2006 when our League 2 game at Bury had been frozen off. What a lovely non-league day out thought I - £12 to get in, some great terrace banter, an easily accessible bar at half-time. Little over a year later I celebrated my stag do watching Us play at the same ground. Still in the Conference. Be careful what you wish for...