Simon Jordan has defended Bristol City's stance opting against Reading's £20 away ticket incentive but believes the Championship should follow in the Premier League's footsteps by introducing a cap.
The Royals have written to every club in the second tier, offering away supporters a capped £20 ticket if the price is reciprocated at the opposition ground. In the top flight, Premier League clubs have recently agreed to stick with the £30 cap on away tickets until 2025 with the scheme introduced in the 2016-17 season.
As it stands, five clubs have joined the initiative: Cardiff, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Swansea and Watford. However, City won't be joining the ranks because financially it wouldn't make sense.
An approximate 30 per cent reduction in the prices would have to be levied onto home supporters in order to keep the revenues at an acceptable level. It's an argument that former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan agrees with given the current financial climate of the Championship.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: "In the Championship, the average fill is 63 per cent. The irony of Reading, who have ruined themselves financially, who have the highest ratio of wages to turnover and then try to moralise how people should and shouldn't be pricing their tickets is almost beyond repel.
"This is one of the leagues that has been affected most by Covid and losses, it's the league that is bleeding out of its eyes the most because of the proximity to the Premier League.
"The average attendance is about 18/19,000 and the average capacity is about 30,000. In the Premier League, the attendance is 97 per cent. Of course, they can do £30 tickets and they get hundreds and millions of pounds of TV revenue.
"There has to be a halfway house between football fans participating in the funding of their football club and that money being used to develop the team and football fans being able to afford it.
"I'm a great advocate for fans and believe that their opinions are valuable but by the same token, I'd say 'you want me to spend more money on players, you to scream at me about which managers I should hire and fire and how much money it would cost me to do that. Are we in this together? If we are, up go your season ticket prices and I'll take every single penny and I'll spend it on players.'
"Reading wants that because they've got a 55% attendance and nobody wants to go and watch them from an away point of view, if it helps them get their attendances up then good for them but other clubs are looking at it differently."
City charged Reading £28 for an adult ticket last season and sold out the 1,047 allocation in the John Atyeo stand. An £8 reduction would mean the Robins would stand to lose around £9,000 in revenue.
However, there is an argument that with the rising cost of living crisis including travel to away stadiums, clubs could take the decision to lower the prices in a gesture of goodwill. Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan is less sympathetic, arguing: "If you're in a cost of living crisis don't go. Get your priorities right.
"I'm saying that on the basis of the framework that this is the most expensive league in football and the Premier League and their wonderful, magnanimous view are doing it at £30, they have 97 per cent filled stadiums, they have a £3bn a year TV deal with the Football League have a packet of gobstoppers and a sherbert dip as funding, and here we are asking them to concede that we can't charge a fair price for a fair ticket.
"I don't see any reason why if the Premier League is doing £30, then the Championship shouldn't do £30. Football costs money at every level, if you're watching Reading it's because you value Reading."
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