Away the lads... at a price

[Chicken Run Supreme]

Hunting through some old programmes I found some match tickets from our Cup run of 2001. When we took 9,000+ to OT, my ticket cost £26 and yet when we played the Filth in Qtr Final at UP, I paid £45 for West Lower.
I did take advantage of the free coach travel the club laid on for the Man Utd game back then and irrespective of ticket prices for next week's replay, I do feel the club have missed a good PR exercise by not laying on free travel again.

[Wembley1966]

From a mate who is a Manchester United STH (and lives locally before anyone starts), there is an assumption that you want a ticket policy and you MUST give a card to be debited with the ticket cost. A STH can opt out of a cup ticket but your chances of getting a ticket in any ballot for things like cup finals is reduced, and as I understand it significantly reduced.

They can only opt out of League Cup games - and this was only recently changed after Fergie kept putting the boys out for those matches and supporters complained that it wasn't a first team match!

[BSB1]

Band 1 , half way line currently £860 ish iirc .

3% increase for the next 4 years would make that £967 , call it £960 for cash .

We shall see .

We could also have 6% inflation and 4% interest rates by then. That'll make those 3% increases seem like a bargain.

[btajim - mcfc]

It's a bit rich that Man City fans are complaining about rising prices when their clubs massive wages and transfer fees are a major reason why costs in the game are going through the roof. They should try to get their own clubs finances in order first and think about the greater issues they cause by paying inflated fees and wages.

Rubbish. It's not my fault that City were bought by a wealthy Owner. The Club still largely has the same fanbase and the prices have become unaffordable for away trips. Financial Fair Play is why Clubs have to start charging like this.

[btajim - mcfc]

It’s all about supply and demand though isn’t it?

Eventually when the fans stop going, the club’s will reduce the prices. Until then, it’ll be business as usual.

I know you've explained yourself a bit more in another post but Arsenal fans have bought all the tickets we returned. Whilst this continues then Clubs won't even consider reducing the prices. I'd argue they'd prefer more Arsenal in there anyway.

[Billy_Boy]

In other news, the Club want you to raise £50,000 for the Bobby Moore Fund:

http://www.whufc.com/articles/20130108/ ... 84_3034975" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Am I the only person who finds this all a bit tawdry and self-serving?

It's not about the 50K, is it? That would be a drop in the ocean to any Premier League club; more so one that forked out cash like that for cack like Benni McCarthy and Radoslav Kovac every week. I don't hear any club, for example, saying that they will match the fees paid to agents to a charity of their choice.

WH could, of course, give the Fund the money and (I think) claim it as a tax-deductable expense. I simply don't buy into the 'raising awareness' argument (Cancer Research is very much in the public eye, IMO).

Rant over - Apologies for going a bit OT.

[Hammers Dad]

Swansea will be about our 7th KA£1 or Free Youth Academy game of the season, the kids will have suffering from an overdose !!!

Which suggests my boys ST isn't worth the plastic it was printed on.
That's £100 down the swannee

[Hockley Hammer]

l have made the choce for several years now to spend what is left at the end of the month and possibly a bit more on supporting West Ham. The only time I ever considered jacking it in was when we got relegated by Grant as I could see it happening from the day he walked in the club and I blamed the board totally for that decision and really felt they take my support for granted. However they redeemed themselves with the appoinment of Sam and things have gone well since.

For the last ten years I have gone to about 3/4 of away games especially Saturday games.

No pay rises for a few years and paying for my daughter's wedding last year meant something had to give and so far it has been the away games. I have to say I do miss the experience, but reflecting on the cost and time involved it has not been as painful as I thought it would be.

No longer putting the away game cost on my credit card hasn't made me that much better off just reduced my debt to the credit card company. I am going to find it very hard justifying spending the money on away games in future and will just hope to pick the odd game I enjoy and if the tickets are not there then so be it.

A shame but at least I still have the home games.

[Pop Robson]

Hunting through some old programmes I found some match tickets from our Cup run of 2001. When we took 9,000+ to OT, my ticket cost £26 and yet when we played the Filth in Qtr Final at UP, I paid £45 for West Lower.

STH's got a discount of I think 20% for the LC game

Strange they gave everyone the £20 tickets for the Man Utd this time

While the LC games v Wigan & Crewe were done different, STH got the best discount

[Arch Dandy]

Rubbish. It's not my fault that City were bought by a wealthy Owner. The Club still largely has the same fanbase and the prices have become unaffordable for away trips. Financial Fair Play is why Clubs have to start charging like this.

No Man City fans are marching to combat rising wages / transfer fees that their club has been a major part in fueling though are they? You then get clubs all through the leagues having to start raising their wages to try in some small part to match Man Citys, these costs are then passed onto the fans.

It's not only Man City but if you want to watch the players that are all on £100k a week someone has to pay.

[btajim - mcfc]

No Man City fans are marching to combat rising wages / transfer fees that their club has been a major part in fueling though are they? You then get clubs all through the leagues having to start raising their wages to try in some small part to match Man Citys, these costs are then passed onto the fans.

It's not only Man City but if you want to watch the players that are all on £100k a week someone has to pay.

You'll find many of us disagree with the Financial Fair Play that ensures we have to start making the money we spend. They're looking at extending the Stadium to 3 tiers behind both goals and also producing a Football Academy to be the envy of the world. This should hopefully make the Club more self-sustainable in the future.

If Sheikh Mansour could continue to subsidise City as a loss leader for his other interests then I'm sure ticket prices would be more affordable overall.

[Arch Dandy]

. This should hopefully make the Club more self-sustainable in the future.

If Sheikh Mansour could continue to subsidise City as a loss leader for his other interests then I'm sure ticket prices would be more affordable overall.

That's all good for your club but the actions of the likes of Mansour and Abramovich before him have had massive effects on the finances of other clubs and the direction football has moved in. For these clubs and their fans to moan about prices when their clubs have done so much to drive them up just strikes me as somewhat ironic.

[cornelius]

Kids for a quid , some adults for £20, others for £49 .......all for the same seat .

That's fairly standard practice though isn't it? Trains, cinemas, entry to attractions, etc.

And I don't think the club is stupid - my wife and I took all 3 of our kids to the Norwich game on new years day, which was kids for a quid, and we spent nearly enough money in the club shop afterwards and on food at half time to make it up to the cost of a full adult ticket for each of them. And certainly recruiting the next generation of supporters is of some value to the long term health of the club.

[PalmettoHammer]

I spend a couple grand on 2 season tickets, parking and tailgating cost for an entire 7 game season for amateur college football here. I repeat... 7 games.

I can't remember ever looking at the price of an away game ticket. Where trips to cities are 6 plus hours away by car.

Culturally, English footy fans and US college football fans are exactly the same when it comes to passion fot their teams. However, I don't know one person over here who considers it a birth rite to get cheap, or even afforadble tickets to games...may I remind you that these are not professionals we are watching.

Not sure why there are so many complaints. Either suck it up and pay the piper or sit at home and don't complain.

[Hammers Dad]

I spend a couple grand on 2 season tickets, parking and tailgating cost for an entire 7 game season for amateur college football here. I repeat... 7 games.

I can't remember ever looking at the price of an away game ticket. Where trips to cities are 6 plus hours away by car.

Culturally, English footy fans and US college football fans are exactly the same when it comes to passion fot their teams. However, I don't know one person over here who considers it a birth rite to get cheap, or even afforadble tickets to games...may I remind you that these are not professionals we are watching.

Not sure why there are so many complaints. Either suck it up and pay the piper or sit at home and don't complain.

Says more about you than us to be honest.
If we were told to pay a couple of grand for a 7 games season 99% would tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine.

[Pop Robson]

I can't remember ever looking at the price of an away game ticket. Where trips to cities are 6 plus hours away by car.

Culturally, English footy fans and US college football fans are exactly the same when it comes to passion fot their teams. However, I don't know one person over here who considers it a birth rite to get cheap, or even afforadble tickets to games...may I remind you that these are not professionals we are watching.

Not sure why there are so many complaints. Either suck it up and pay the piper or sit at home and don't complain.

Your all on £60k over there, just as Eggy said

You going to Manchester ?

[PalmettoHammer]

Your all on £60k over there, just as Eggy said

You going to Manchester ?

60?k Tosh!

I'm flying over on my private jet fully serviced with Thai stewardesses. Then I'm taking a golden helicopter to Old Trafford. Landing at mid field and then carried on Fergie's shoulders to my luxury box where I will feast on caviar and lobster.

60 k...I laugh with disdain at such an assertion.

[westhamdave1]

Seems like the perfect thread to repeat my post of 18th October 2012 ...........

Right,here goes,one of my favourite footballing topics ........

When I was in my late teens / early 20's I followed West Ham home & away religiously.I was working & still living with my parents so,consequently,all of my disposable income was spent on West Ham & gigs / records (yep,those 7" & 12" vinyl things !!).I was proud of the fact that I went 5 & 1/2 seasons without missing a single game.

Move forward 30 years and the situation regarding attending football matches has changed dramatically.I have a mortgage and all the other living costs & 2 teenage sons that live with me.I simply CANNOT AFFORD to go to football on a regular basis.I have to pick & choose the few games per season that I can justify to myself the ridiculous outlay each time I go.My sons both have season tickets at West Ham (the eldest works & pays his own way as I did all those years ago & the youngest has his courtesy of his parents) but I've told both of them that I'd be astonished if they,or any other "working class" boys,will go 5 & 1/2 seasons without missing a game nowadays.

For the last 4 or 5 years I've had this dream scenario in my head which I believe would be the only way the greedy football clubs would actually sit up and take notice of the thousands of MUGS (sorry,FANS) that keep turning up week in week out to watch their team play..........

Ideally,at the end of this season (Sunday 19th May 2013) & ,crucially,BEFORE the 2013/2014 fixtures are announced there should be 1 (JUST 1) weekend of the 2013/2014 season chosen as THE MISSING WEEKEND (say,Friday 18th Oct - Monday 21st October inclusive).This weekend would be the weekend where we ALL boycott football.Just dont go.Can you imagine the faces of every single football chairman / director just wondering why their clubs haven't sold any tickets for that weekends fixture / their club shops are empty / all of the programmes they've had printed for the game are sitting in a heap,unsold !!!

Many of my mates (Hammers & various other clubs up & down the country) seem to think its a very logical idea & would be prepared to miss just 1 game to make such a big stance against the sheer greed in football - It has to end somewhere,the only reason we have £50 million + transfers and players on £150k / WEEK ffs is because us MUGS keep on funding it (along with a bit of help from Sky Sports etc).

I'm well aware that there will be a proportion of fans that,as soon as the fixtures are released,will say "Oh,West Ham have got the Spuds that weekend,there's no way I'm missing that one".Similarly,Man Utd could be playing Man.City / Newcastle could be playing Sunderland etc etc BUT ........... for just 1 game of the season,just imagine the fallout THE MISSING WEEKEND would create.

[Glory Hunter]

I'm pretty sure Wigan do that every home game

Joking aside, it's a great idea, but I think you'd struggle to get it to work, as most biggish clubs would still sell on loads of tickets to tourists, and they'd still get the Sky money.

I know that fan boycotts have worked well in Germany and Italy, but we just dont have that unified 'fan club' culture over here.

[Denbighammer]

What it comes down to is the the supporters are just window dressing, there to add a bit of atmosphere for the people watching in Thailand or Abu Dhabi. TV rules the roost. If you asked any Premier League chief exec which they would rather lose, every supporter from every game this season or their TV cash, I reckon I know which they'd choose.

The fact is they keep charging high prices because they can get away with it. If crowds dropped, so would prices. Lower league clubs are different, they are more heavily dependant upon fans coming through the gate which is why a season ticket for Wigan in the Premier League is cheaper than many season tickets in League One.