When is enough actually enough? What is the point beyond which the cost/value equation is irrelevant and “things” simply cost too much to have any value?
The answers to these questions are behind two extraordinary events this weekend, where fans from the rival football cities of Manchester and Liverpool have come together at Old Trafford and Anfield to protest at the inexorable rise in ticket prices under the #stopexploitingloyalty campaign.
Are football tickets going the way of mid-range restaurant chains, gigs and train tickets, olive oil and stamps: simply too expensive to be worth it?
The story has made it across the Atlantic to The New York Times, because Premier League football is one of our most successful exports, with truly global appeal: a multibillion-pound industry. Football fans are united in believing that, rather than benefiting from its popularity, they are paying the price for it, literally and metaphorically.
As a Fulham fan, at a club with some of the most expensive single match and season ticket prices, I listen to people around me complaining sadly about this every week. Some have been coming to Craven Cottage for over four decades. They wonder how much longer they can afford to do so.
There is a huge variety in the cost of the cheapest season tickets at Premier League clubs – generally more expensive in the south. The least expensive (West Ham: £345) contrasts wildly with the most expensive (Arsenal: £1,073). Good luck trying to obtain one of those. Many clubs have long waiting lists. Fans are left clamouring for single match tickets, often priced over £100. Consider the overall cost of taking two children to a match, with perhaps a Coke and a hot dog as refreshment. Half of Premier League clubs now charge £80+ for a replica shirt. Want to watch on TV? You now have to stump up for combined Sky, TNT and Amazon Prime subscriptions.
These eye-watering prices come against a background of the extraordinary rise in the Premier League’s broadcasting and commercial revenues, up 17 per cent in its latest three-year deal to £12.25bn. The Premier League is hot property. Part of the global attraction is stadium atmosphere. However, increasingly the “is this a library?” taunt from rival fans is depressingly apposite. Many clubs are transferring seats to “Club” or other hospitality tickets. Prices for Chelsea’s “Dugout Club” hit £3,000 last season – for a single cup-tie!
Small wonder, then, that much of the atmosphere is now generated by away fans, protected by a £30 single ticket price cap. Great value, but the problem is the train fare to get there and back: £100-plus each for Liverpool when I looked recently.
How long will that £30 cap survive? Will season tickets still remain an option? Many clubs, like Fulham in London, can make more money out of single-match tourists than my season ticket friends and I. Tourists will buy the shirts, programmes, food and other merchandise. But favouring them comes at a cost in that atmosphere, which is increasingly dwarfed by Germany’s Bundesliga, where both single match and season tickets are so much cheaper; to stand on Borussia Dortmund’s famous “yellow wall” costs under £210 a season. Small wonder the Bundesliga now has Europe’s highest attendances.
The Premier League is in real danger of killing its own golden goose.
