Regular attendees of away Premier League fixtures celebrated the news this week that the 20 Premier League clubs had unanimously made the decision to cap ticket prices for away fans at £30 for at least three years.
Prominent fan groups including the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF), Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly group have long called for such a freeze and have recently been joined by other collectives in a “Twenty’s Plenty” campaign.
Regardless of the price freeze eventually falling to £30, any such Premier League wide move is a welcome reprieve from the seemingly inexorable rise of the cost of football.
To put things into perspective, a typical fan travelling across the UK is expected to fork out a national rail ticket which can vary from anywhere between £20 to £100 return depending on a range of factors including the distance or ownership of the particular train line, a ticket or tickets to a match which will be limited to £30 as well as food and drink in stadia which can vary between £10 – £15 for a burger and £5 – £8.50 for a pint of beer (which must be consumed before taking a seat).
There have been numerous high profile fan protests in recent times, including Liverpool’s action staging a walk out in the 77th minute to draw attention to plans for premium £77 tickets, designs which were subsequently withdrawn, and Bayern Munich fans entering Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium 5 minutes after kick off, a move which Arsenal fans stood and applauded, amongst others.
The developments signal a change in thinking and perhaps an element of nervousness in boardrooms as clubs reap the benefits of successive record television rights deals which were £5.5b worldwide for 2013-2016 and an expected £8b for the new deal in the three years to 2019.
Whilst Premier League clubs benefit from a deal which is double the nearest rival Bundesliga, competition for matchday revenue is fierce. When Arsenal moved to the Emirates it became the richest club in the Premier League and the world measured on the basis of matchday takings.
Up and down the Premier League the battle is on; Liverpool is expanding Anfield, Tottenham is to commence building a new stadium shortly, West Ham is moving to the Olympic stadium and Chelsea are in the planning and approvals phase of a potential redevelopment of Stamford Bridge.
However, as matchday revenue becomes a smaller piece of the overall pie, voices of the fans are beginning to be heard and this can only be a good thing.
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