Ticket Price Campaign Meeting - London, 31st Jan

[FSF]

Last week fans from clubs across the north west came together in Manchester at the first of the FSF’s Score Campaign events, to discuss ideas on how to make football more affordable for the travelling fan.

The idea behind the Score Campaign is simple – we want clubs throughout England and Wales to agree to charge no more than £20 for away match tickets (£15 concessions). The Manchester meeting marked the encouraging first steps in combining the various campaigns and initiatives that are already in place, and harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of fans from across the region behind a national campaign on away ticket pricing.

The next regional meeting takes place in London.

Where and when? Thursday 31st January (7pm-9pm): The Blue Anchor, off Chancery Lane, WC2A 1EL.

If you’re a fan based in the capital, we’d love to see you there – simply email your name and club you support to tickets@fsf.org.uk and come along to share your ideas.

If you have any questions or comments on the Score Campaign, want to get involved in campaigning at your club or hold a local event, visit www.fsf.org.uk or drop us an email to info@fsf.org.uk.

[creative_username_1]

If you don't want to pay over the odds don't go to the games

[Bandini]

How much is entry?

You shouldn't be fussy, TSW. Something called the "Score Campaign" seems like it was set up just for you.

[Green]

If you don't want to pay over the odds don't go to the games

Exactly, it's just market forces at action.

No amount of pressure from lobby groups is going to send as a strong a message as empty stands, and until we see that happening on a regular basis ticket prices will continue to rise.

[Green]

And would you not be better off kicking this off in somewhere like Yorkshire?

[retro_royal]

Have the FSF ever actually achieved anything?

[Stuka]

Yeah my away ticket to Stoke was £25. I'm not going to quibble over a fiver you tight bastards

[cmonurz]

If you don't want to pay over the odds don't go to the games

Exactly, it's just market forces at action.

No amount of pressure from lobby groups is going to send as a strong a message as empty stands, and until we see that happening on a regular basis ticket prices will continue to rise.

Nail well and truly on head. Why on earth would clubs come together to reduce away ticket prices when away attendance is at, say, 95% capacity?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

If you don't want to pay over the odds don't go to the games

Exactly, it's just market forces at action.

No amount of pressure from lobby groups is going to send as a strong a message as empty stands, and until we see that happening on a regular basis ticket prices will continue to rise.

Nail well and truly on head. Why on earth would clubs come together to reduce away ticket prices when away attendance is at, say, 95% capacity?

Although I'm not personally endorsing this campaign, a few simple answers to those questions are :

- away attendances are falling significantly, which reduces the quality and attractiveness of the TV "product" to broadcast partners and so the potential value of that product

- the "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs" principle applies, as there is a whole generation being priced out of PL matches who are getting out of the habit of going or who have never got into it. It'll take years for this to have an effect, but the long-term good of the game is at risk.

There's no doubt that those who run clubs *should* reduce ticket prices for the long term good of the game. But I also have no doubts that they *won't* - because short-term thinking and greed is what motivates, then, not the long term good of the game.

[cmonurz]

95% was just a guess, but I haven't perceived a significant drop in away support. Away fans always seem to fill their end, in the games I watched on TV. What are the actual numbers?

[Green]

Don't disagree with any of that, but this has about as much chance of success as motorists lobbying BP to reduce their petrol prices.

[Green]

95% was just a guess, but I haven't perceived a significant drop in away support. Away fans always seem to fill their end, in the games I watched on TV. What are the actual numbers?

I imagine there's huge regional bias here too - London away games will generally sell out, less so those in the provinces.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

95% was just a guess, but I haven't perceived a significant drop in away support. Away fans always seem to fill their end, in the games I watched on TV. What are the actual numbers?

At most grounds they don't have an "end", they have a "section" - and the allocations clubs are taking are getting smaller and smaller. There's huge variability across clubs and geographies, but the below are all facts :

- away allocations are getting smaller for most clubs
- the average age of PL attendees is now over 41 (over 44 for STHs) and that figure has been consistently rising since 1992
- there's no longer a waiting list to buy a season ticket at Old Trafford - anyone can do it now

There's no short-term problem for the clubs, which is why this campaign won't achieve much apart from raising visibility - but there's certainly a long-term problem that current owners don't care about.

[sidewinder]

I do like the idea but the £20 cap seems too low to me...it will create a huge disparity between what the home and away fans in a stadium are paying. I understand the rationale, in that away fans are already paying lots of transport costs etc (or they could live around the corner) but £25-30 seems like a more sensible figure to aim for

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Don't disagree with any of that, but this has about as much chance of success as motorists lobbying BP to reduce their petrol prices.

The only way (IMHO) that anything will change is when supporter votes with their feet - but the two problems with that are that at the "big brand" clubs there's always a supply of "football tourists" happy to take the place of those priced out (and they spend more at the Megastore, too....), and also that English supporters are so tribal that they won't work together.

As a perfect example, when Manchester City supporters voted with their feet not to pay £62 for an evening match at Arsenal, many Man Utd supporters were giving it the biggun about "lack of support". Whilst tribalism and scoring points off other supporters is more important than the common good nothing will ever get achieved.

[Silver Fox]

- away attendances are falling significantly, which reduces the quality and attractiveness of the TV "product" to broadcast partners and so the potential value of that product.

You've mentioned this a few times, how so? If I'm watching a game on TV the last thing I need to make it worthwhile is a full away end, I don't even need to see it

[Alexander Litvinenko]

- away attendances are falling significantly, which reduces the quality and attractiveness of the TV "product" to broadcast partners and so the potential value of that product.

You've mentioned this a few times, how so? If I'm watching a game on TV the last thing I need to make it worthwhile is a full away end, I don't even need to see it

You need to hear it, though - the PL's broadcast partners sell English football partly on the noise, colour and atmosphere of matches (amongst other things, of course) but they do see it as being a vital part of the TV product.

But it's the away support that predominantly creates the atmosphere - reduce that and you have an anodyne backdrop to the game, where you can only create noise by having mongs with musical instruments, clapperbanners, and taped songs for the crowd to sing along to.

[Green]

I think you're overplaying the crowds involvement here, Dirk.

Next you'll be arguing that a good crowd can make up for an extra player on the pitch.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I think you're overplaying the crowds involvement here, Dirk.

Next you'll be arguing that a good crowd can make up for an extra player on the pitch.

Nothing about what happens on the pitch, but much more about what provides a backdrop to the TV "product." The PL and broadcast partners sell the complete package, and that includes a vibrant and noisy atmosphere.

[creative_username_1]

The crowd make the game what it is. I'm sure i remember watching a game (on TV) that was played behind closed doors due to fan trouble. May
have been an italian game. Was not a lot different from watching a park game.

How do you allocate who gets the tickets? Trying to predict how a policy is going to effect things in the future is IMHO a waste of time