The Price of Football

There's 30 minutes dedicated to this pricing article on BBC news at 6:30pm tonight - should be interesting. Barcelona and some of the other other big European clubs only charge around a 𧴜 for a season ticket.

Robert Elstone, in a retort about the way that the BBC has conducted the survey, says on the OS:

"A quick scan of a published price list, at a certain point in time, picking up only 'highs and lows', misses all of this, and broadcasts to the nation misleading and flawed conclusions.

"By way of illustrating some of these points – and highlighting the real price of football from an Everton perspective – consider the following in relation to our match-goers in 2014-15:

* 1 in 5 (17%) of our 27,500 season ticket holders pay less than 㾶 per game, representing 1 in 8 (13%) of the paying Goodison attendance.

*9 out of 10 of our season ticket holders buy early and benefit from an average discount of 䀁. The highest price this overwhelming majority of fans pay for their season ticket is 𧼏 (compared to the BBC's reported highest price season ticket of 𧾇).

* Only 500 supporters (1.3% of the average gate) paid late and paid the reported 𧾇 after the early-bird window closed.

*60% of the gate for Saturday's game against Aston Villa will be paying 㿊 or less.

* Only 6% of fans at Goodison Park, across the entire season, pay more than 㿔 per seat; and

* Over the past five years, the amount of money we take per seat – all games and all seats – has reduced by 15% when compared to the rate of inflation.

I must admit that is a funny way to conduct your business even at a time of economic austerity to reduce your income at the gate by 15% – but we are Everton, aren't we.

4% increase in cost across the PL to the fan, yet how much more in revenue from overseas contracts to the clubs?

It costs me more money to see some crappy league cup match than it does a top of the table bundesliga clash.

The bottom line is that football admission prices are far, far too much and football players are the only working class people whose wages have continually increased over the last few years.

They get paid too much and no-one can deny this. While we fans do nothing to stop this, they will continue to be paid more and more.

I don't think they are paid too much, as their wage, as the argument goes, represent market value in a hugely lucrative industry. The FFP will keep this in check (for the majority of clubs) so some don't do a Portsmouth chasing a golden egg. If Aguero is paid 𧵬k a week and Man City see a return on that investment, is that a problem? Though instead of salary caps, ticketing caps should definitely come in.

Fair enough, Nick, but I think both salary and ticketing caps should both apply and the quicker the better.

Nick? 𧵬,000 per week for kicking a football around and you don't think they are paid too much?

I would love to see every live match boycotted by the fans. I'm sure if this happened then it wouldn't take long for the price to come down.

Jock Stein's words about football and fans rings true and if clubs want to protect there future then the price would have to come down.

A mate who originated from the same working class background as I in the Dingle just returned to Oz from his long awaited holiday in England and was confused.

His words were, "Hardly anyone has a real job yet most have at least two cars in their drive, a television in every room, several high-speed computers, and always have cash for a bevvie or three. They have regular holidays abroad."

Now I read of the astronomical cost of a basic ticket.... Things seem to be out of kilter.

Dick, that may well be true of a section of the community but it is not truly representative of most working class people that I live and work with. Many people have and continue to live in a fool's paradise and use credit to pay for their lifestyles which includes paying for their Season Tickets over a six to nine month period.

Those such as myself who are old-fashioned and see debt as a burden and who deal in cash purchases only find it very difficult to pay for a season ticket as it has become a major purchase, when in the past it was not deemed a luxury.

I'm not saying that people who are in work are living on the bread-line, in comparison to our parents we are relatively well-off but the cost of entertainment has in general risen far faster in the last twenty years and it becomes a difficult choice as to how you spend your money.

BT, Sky et al are the beneficiaries of the high ticket prices as more and more supporters abandon the stadium's and prefer to subscribe to those media outlets or go down the pub to watch their favourites on the big screens. The demographics inside a football stadium today are far different to what they were even ten or fifteen years ago and certainly are a far cry from a quarter-of-a-century ago.

According to something I read today 71p of every ٟ earned by football is paid to players leaving just 29p in every ٟ to the clubs; that cannot be sustainable over the next 20 years or so but I suppose as long as the TV companies continue to recruit new subscribers and raise advertising revenue the spiral will continue for a good while yet.