Why is English football so expensive and how can it change?

[redchamp]

Prices are set in the free market by supply and demand - everybody knows that. However, as someone pointed pointed out above, because of such fan loyalty the market isn't perfectly competitive - we won't all watch City if they reduce their prices. Therefore, clubs have to take this into account and act with sensitivity.
Overall, I think the prices at OT are fair.

The big issue is in-stadium atmosphere. United have the best away support in the league. I suspect we could take 10,000 noisy reds every week. These guys pay a fortune for their football so ticket prices not the issue for them. What the club needs to do is create a special area for the away Reds - a singing section. Not J stand but the whole lower tier behind the stretty. Make the "away Reds" a priority and subsidise their tickets. everyone else can pay full whack (I'm not an away red just a season ticket holder so not looking for freebies myself)

I go to away games. We don't even need the tickets to be subsidised - what we need is for stewards to be briefed, to stop stifling people who want to stand up and support our team. I sit in the Executive area (purely to have improved chances at away games), and as you would expect the atmosphere in there is dire. I hate the snide, sneering looks you get for having the audacity to chant! I would literally pay more to have the chance to sit with similar-minded Reds in the J Stand, but alas I don't, as the holy grail is away games, so I grin and bear the Executive areas for home games.

 

[andycolegangstainnit]

Exactly mt point. Away Reds like you should have their own section at OT to re-create the "away" atmosphere.
The whole of West stand lower-tier should be set-aside.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Exactly mt point. Away Reds like you should have their own section at OT to re-create the "away" atmosphere.
The whole of West stand lower-tier should be set-aside.

The club tried that with J stand, it hasn’t worked.

 

[Wessex Saint]

Is it expensive?

I have a season ticket in the most expensive seats at Southampton. Costs £747 a year or £39.30 a game on average. Of course, the majority of tickets are somewhat cheaper

So I look at what other entertainment there is out there that takes 1.5-2 hours and I plump on the local theatre. They have on and in the near future

Crazy for You - £24.50-£44.50
Nutcracker - £11.50-£48.50
Mike Osman - £25
Slava's Snowshow - £19.50-£32.50
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs - £15-£39.50
etc
etc

Snow White even has category of performances, based on time (rather than opposition!!). Is this really any different from football? Not price wise. As entertainment, which after all is what football is, they seem to be broadly in line with each other. But what is different is the frequency one goes to games vs the frequency one goes to the theatre.

 

[MikeSmalling]

Far fewer games in an American Football season though compared to an English football season. Then when you add in CL, FA Cup, and League Cup games you could be looking at attending 30 or more home games a season whereas those watching glorified egg chucking in the States have less than half that number of home games.

Are all of the cup games included in a season ticket? If so, that is a fantastic deal compared to American sports. NFL ticket prices are far, far more expensive on average and don't even include the cost of tickets to the playoff game(s), should the team qualify. A number of professional franchises are also now requiring fans to purchase "personal seat licenses," so then fans can pay for the opportunity to pay for their season tickets. NBA and MLB tickets can also be absurdly expensive but are perhaps a better deal since you have the opportunity to see 41 and 81 games, respectively.

I pay ~$1500 for two season (19 home games) tickets to watch my university basketball team and I don't even sit in the lowest section. Bigger, more prestigious schools that play in newer arenas charge even more. And that's at the collegiate level.

We love our sports in America. Almost as much as we love our billionaires and corporations. Team owners often extort the public to pay for brand new stadiums, often when the one they currently play in isn't even 25 years old. If they don't get what they want they pack up and leave.

 

[redchamp]

The club tried that with J stand, it hasn’t worked.

It hasn't worked because it doesn't go far enough. andycole has a point when he says it should extend across West Stand Lower Tier.

It needs to be extended across a much larger area of the stadium, rather than the tiny sliver in the corner of the quadrant it currently is - certainly there are enough numbers at away games to suggest it could be implemented much more widely at OT. Then other sections would follow the lead taken by these areas for chanting.

On topic - people tend to forget, this isn't just football any more. This is considered elite entertainment, and the hottest ticket in town - so you pay accordingly, much like you would for the most sought after concert tickets. There are enough people who would happily pay more than double what is actually paid at the moment to ensure that the situation is not going to change any time soon. Actually, rather the opposite, I am surprised that ticket prices have been kept frozen for so long.

 

[WackyWengerWorld]

Free market tend to work well everywhere but football and i'll tell you why:
- the ticket prices of your club are not really competing in the market.
If the ticket is cheaper in another club you will compare and get angry, but you can not pick another club to support.
Football is more like a market reserve than free market.

Compare it to the London property market, where workers living in London can't afford to get on the property ladder but could probably buy elsewhere in the country. They rent, I have to watch games at the pub or on a stream.

 

[IBleedRed]

Bottom will fall out eventually, even in the US most of the major sporting leagues have seen sharp attendance drops

My prediction; in a few decades, Esports will become top dog and people will look back on this as the peak era of regular sports. Regular sports will still be popular, but they won't have anywhere near as much financial power or fanbase.

 

[AllezLesDiables]

Are all of the cup games included in a season ticket? If so, that is a fantastic deal compared to American sports. NFL ticket prices are far, far more expensive on average and don't even include the cost of tickets to the playoff game(s), should the team qualify. A number of professional franchises are also now requiring fans to purchase "personal seat licenses," so then fans can pay for the opportunity to pay for their season tickets. NBA and MLB tickets can also be absurdly expensive but are perhaps a better deal since you have the opportunity to see 41 and 81 games, respectively.

I pay ~$1500 for two season (19 home games) tickets to watch my university basketball team and I don't even sit in the lowest section. Bigger, more prestigious schools that play in newer arenas charge even more. And that's at the collegiate level.

We love our sports in America. Almost as much as we love our billionaires and corporations. Team owners often extort the public to pay for brand new stadiums, often when the one they currently play in isn't even 25 years old. If they don't get what they want they pack up and leave.

Yep. Just paid 300 quid for tickets to a NHL game. Granted we saw 4th row one section left of center. Hockey isn’t even too bad compared to the NBA or NFL. Baseball isn’t too bad but 81 games x 25/30 gets to a decent amount of coin.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

Yep. Just paid 300 quid for tickets to a NHL game. Granted we saw 4th row one section left of center. Hockey isn’t even too bad compared to the NBA or NFL. Baseball isn’t too bad but 81 games x 25/30 gets to a decent amount of coin.

I get free hockey tickets all the time. Baseball. I hate it so it could be free and I wouldn't go.

 

[KingMinger22]

Supply and Demand and free market economics

How can it change? Get Corbyn to nationalise football

This.

Compared to some America sports, the tickets are cheap in the PL.

Except the part about that cnut Corbyn.

 

[SWE-Chucky]

Football tickets i Sweden are cheap, you can easily get the best tickets to the best games in the Swedish league for £50, "normal" tickets can be find for £15.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Football tickets i Sweden are cheap, you can easily get the best tickets to the best games in the Swedish league for £50, "normal" tickets can be find for £15.

Yeah but @SWE-Chucky, when AIK are playing in 50,000 seater & Hammarby/Djurgården in a 30,000, you see why.
I’d also argue 50 quid is steep to watch an Allsvenskan match, I had a bunch of free tickets for Hammarby - Göteborg earlier this autumn & honestly, free felt like overpaying.

 

[TheOrgazoid]

Free market tend to work well everywhere but football and i'll tell you why:
- the ticket prices of your club are not really competing in the market.
If the ticket is cheaper in another club you will compare and get angry, but you can not pick another club to support.
Football is more like a market reserve than free market.

Great post.