That dreaded five letter word is back in the news at the moment due to the ongoing inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic in 2020. And if football can take one thing from that Covid era it’s that football without fans really is dreadful.
Games being played out in front of empty stands with flags draped over seats to try and add some colour to the drab backdrop of behind closed doors matches.
Broadcast companies and even some clubs were creating artificial crowd noises to try and make the experience for those of us watching or listening to the games at home more authentic. But the truth is as much as you tried to cover up for the fact that the stands were empty, the worse it was. The lack of fans in the stands left a huge hole in the game and while football returned and carried on to fulfil their obligation of keeping the leagues going it was not the same.
So you would think, or at least hope, that when restrictions were lifted and fans were allowed back through the turnstiles that clubs would welcome them back and cherish them. We had seen the reality of a season and a half without match going fans and it was not pretty.
Clubs need the match going fans as much as those fans need their fix of going to games.
So in this post-Covid world where we are trying to navigate through a cost of living crisis the fact that the price of going to football is high and continuing to rise is disturbing and extremely concerning.
On Saturday, Fulham fans held their own protest by holding up yellow cards with the words ‘Please don’t price us out’ in the 18th minute (although for some unknown reason they actually held them up in the 19th minute) to protest at the 18 per cent price rises at Craven Cottage from last season.
As a Fulham season ticket holder since the mid-1990s, I saw my season ticket behind the goal go from £550 last season to £650 this. And looking ahead the future looks concerning too as that £650 that I paid this season was a renewal discount and any new season tickets bought in the same area of the ground were £830 and the worry is that will then become the price to renew next season (as long as Fulham are in the Premier League). So the fear is that in the space of three seasons the price goes from £550 to £650 to £830 (a potential further rise of 27 per cent on this season) and then where does it stop? And those prices are towards the lower end at Fulham.
If you want a season ticket in the still to be finished Riverside Stand then they start at £1,250 and rise all the way up to £3,000. I have no doubt that when the stand is finally complete that it will be very nice, but at the moment the facilities are far from adequate and Fulham being a middling to lower Premier League team at the moment those astronomical prices cannot be justified and are turning the fanbase against the club.
Matchday prices are no better, tickets for Saturday’s defeat by Manchester United ranged from £67 all the way up to £160 for a single adult ticket. And people can point to that being a ticket to watch Manchester United on a Saturday, so to put it into perspective, tickets for a midweek game against Nottingham Forest in December range between £49 and £105.
The club will no doubt point to the fact that they are selling out games and these prices are not leaving empty seats. But it is depressing when you see footage of Bruno Fernandes’ stoppage time winner and fans in the ‘home’ part of the Putney End jump up and celebrate.
To the club a pound is a pound and it doesn’t matter where it comes from - Fulham fan, Manchester United fan or someone visiting London and wanting to go to a game, the colour of their money is all the same.
But it does matter.
Many fans now in their late 20s and 30s got into going to Fulham because of affordable ticket schemes put on by the club decades ago - such as ‘Kids for a Quid’ and became fans and now regulars at home and away games. And when a club like Fulham who have spent the last decade yo-yoing between the Premier League and the Championship - those are the fans who turn up regardless of division but the next generation of youngsters are being priced out and that is a huge concern.
Fulham are of course not alone in this and many other clubs have extortionate ticket prices too (I paid £32 to watch a League Two game earlier this season), but where does it end? Surely enough is enough and is it time for someone else to step in?
In 2016/17 Premier League clubs unanimously agreed to introduce a cap on away tickets at £30 - something that was welcomed by match-going fans.
With the domestic TV deal currently out to tender and with more games up for broadcast in the next four year cycle from 2026, Premier League clubs will hope to receive more than the eye-watering £5billion that they did for the last cycle.
This may be far too optimistic of me, but it would be nice if some of that money was ring fenced to cap the price of home tickets - or at least a significant percentage of tickets.
After all the broadcasters have experienced football without fans and they won’t want to return to that if prices continue to rise so it is in their interest too. Match-going fans are priceless to football, so clubs must stop pricing them out of the game.
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