With the BBC releasing another ‘price of football’ survey and Bayern Munich fans planning to boycott the opening minutes of Tuesday’s Champions League clash, Arsène Wenger has defended the ticket prices at Arsenal.
It is true that the very top games at Arsenal cost a lot to watch, but season ticket prices are unfairly judged without including cup games that are included – something most clubs fail to do.
Regardless, it’s very expensive to watch Arsenal. Are fans offer value for their money at the Emirates Stadium?
“It is my job to do that,” Arsène Wenger said on Thursday.
“Overall I feel that we have made a conscious effort in our board meetings to block the increase of our tickets and in seven of the past 10 years we have not increased our prices.
“Overall there is a desire on our board to stabilise and make the tickets more affordable for people. Is football more expensive? Yes, but Saturday or Sunday if you want to go to rugby you will see the tickets are expensive there as well. It is maybe part of professionalism and a modern society.”
The ideals of the board are mentioned, but it’s hard to take them seriously when fans only ever see an increase in prices. Seven of the last 10 years the prices were frozen, but that means three years saw an increase and that’s what fans everywhere – not just at Arsenal – are uncomfortable with. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis, unsurprisingly, sees it differently.
Ivan “what it means is in real terms tickets at arsenal have fallen by 20%”
— Darren (@DarrenArsenal1) October 15, 2015
That’s an incredibly hard line to sell, but it has gone largely unmentioned that Arsenal have offered tickets to local young members for just £10. The result?
Ivan says the £10 per game young gun enclose usually does not sell out.
— Darren (@DarrenArsenal1) October 15, 2015
It’s undeniable that the club can, and should, do more, but cheap tickets have been offered to the ‘next generation’ who are so often painted as being priced out of football. If they didn’t take up the opportunity to buy those tickets, and the club were left with empty seats, that’s far from ideal.
Arsenal aren’t alone, clubs all over England need to start being more sensible with ticket pricing. But then it requires work from the fans as well. There are brilliant campaigns like Twenty’s Plenty out there doing fine work; when the clubs offer something, fans have to show appreciation for it.
Unfortunately, the Young Gun enclosure doesn’t seem to have worked but – if the club is as dedicated as they say to improving the price of tickets – they’ll work harder to find a solution.