Seven Championship clubs are regularly charging away fans more than £30 for the cheapest adult ticket, despite the Premier League agreeing to cap prices at that level nearly four years ago.
According to research by The Athletic, Leeds United’s Elland Road is the most expensive venue for visiting fans with tickets costing £39, with
Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers also charging away supporters more than any club in English football’s top-flight do.
The Premier League’s cap was agreed in March 2016 and came into force at the start of the following season on a three-year trial, which has since been extended for three more. The move was universally welcomed by supporters and has resulted in an increase in away and overall attendances.
But even the Premier League’s price ceiling is £10 more than the Football Supporters’ Federation, now known as the Football Supporters’ Association, wanted when it started its “Twenty’s Plenty” campaign in 2013. Our research has found that fewer than half of the EFL’s 71 clubs would meet that target at present.
“While there are some very good deals to be had at EFL clubs, there’s no doubt some supporters are having to pay too much and this is especially true of away fans who don’t benefit from season ticket savings or ‘local promotions’,” an FSA spokesperson told The Athletic.
“The long-running campaign to cap away ticket prices was successful in the top flight but the EFL chose not to follow that lead. This means there’s a huge amount of inconsistency around pricing, with some fans paying more to follow their club away than they would in the Premier League.
“We’d like to see an away price cap across the EFL.”
The Premier League’s decision to bring in a cap followed a series of boycotts and protests by travelling supporters, most memorably in 2013 when Manchester City returned almost a third of their allocation of 3,000 tickets at Arsenal because the cheapest adult seat cost £62.
But it still took another three years — and a new set of broadcast deals worth a total of £8 billion — to persuade the top clubs to lower their prices. In fact, concerns about a lack of noise and passion in grounds was one of the deciding factors, as “atmosphere” is one of the Premier League’s key selling points to broadcasters.
None of the Championship clubs who charge away fans more than £30 wanted to comment on their prices but broadcast revenues in the EFL are a fraction of the Premier League’s, which means there is a greater reliance on match day income. This is often presented as the main reason why EFL clubs have not agreed on a cap.
“Ticket revenues continue to be an important part of our clubs’ revenue streams and it remains the view of the league that ticket-pricing strategies are a matter for each individual club to determine,” an EFL spokesman confirmed. “With overall EFL attendances reaching their highest levels in 60 years last season, it is clear there is still an overwhelming appetite to watch live football across the three EFL divisions.”
That overall figure was an impressive 18.4 million fans, with the Championship accounting for more than 11 million of those fans, making it the third most-watched football league in Europe behind the Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga.
It is also true that 1.5 million of those were away supporters, the third straight year that figure has been reached, which the league believes is evidence its “Away Fan Experience Project” is working. Launched in 2016, the campaign uses secret shopper-style visits to assess how each club treats visiting fans.
But it is equally true that many supporters are fed up about the high prices some EFL clubs still charge followers of the away team.
“Like many fan organisations, we find it incredibly disappointing that a number of games see supporters charged ticket prices that are eye-wateringly expensive,” said Elliott Stanley, chair of the Nottingham Forest Supporters’ Trust.
“In recent years, we’ve had Forest fans paying £38, £39, even over £40 for away games. For Championship football — at a time when a ‘premium offering’ in the Premier League is capped at a much lower level — it does feel like fans are being taken advantage of.
“These prices are unacceptable, nobody sees them as value for money and fans pay them through gritted teeth or, in some cases, not at all.”
Billy Grant is a Brentford fan who has campaigned for cheaper tickets and helps run the Beesotted blog and podcast. He agrees with Stanley.
“It looked like it was getting under control after a few seasons where some teams were charging over £40 a ticket but we had Bristol City charge us £32 on New Year’s Day, QPR was dear, Derby have been creeping up and Fulham have stung us the last couple of seasons, charging £30-plus for the pleasure — even their own fans have been demonstrating about prices,” said Grant.
“The frustrating thing is this should be a fight to help all fans get cheaper tickets but fans often get defensive when you criticise prices at their clubs saying, ‘If you don’t want to pay, don’t come’, which isn’t constructive.
“Fans should be working together to get decent prices for all. We, at Beesotted, were quick to call out our own club when we thought they were charging away fans too much. If all fans put pressure on their clubs it would be really positive.”
Blackpool, in League One, offer some of the best prices for away fans in English football and Tom Wilkinson, deputy chair at the club’s supporters’ trust, believes it is a policy that makes commercial sense, as well as being the right thing to do.
“Clubs want to achieve the highest amount of revenue they can from ticket sales, but empty seats don’t create a good impression or atmosphere,” he explained. “Once you have fans at the stadium, the add-on revenue from food, drink, programme and lottery ticket sales, is something an empty seat won’t provide.”
This is also the message from Championship side Reading, who were the first club to sign up to the FSF’s “Twenty’s Plenty” pledge in 2016 and have priced their cheapest adult match day tickets, for home and away fans, at £20 ever since.
A club spokesperson said: “When we launched this price cap commitment for visiting supporters, we encouraged other clubs to follow our lead and some did, allowing Royals fans to also benefit from reasonable ticket pricing when they journey up and down the country.
“We continue to stand by this price cap principle in the Championship and promote it across the EFL. Our ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ pricing strategy demonstrates that Reading are listening to its supporters and football fans across the country.
“It is a structure which visiting supporters admire and one we hope more clubs consider and adopt.”
The truth, however, is that very few clubs followed this example — West Bromwich Albion also have a £20 price cap for several sections of The Hawthorns, with Birmingham City, Brentford, Cardiff City, Hull City and Wigan also selling tickets for £20 or less for some games — despite Reading maintaining they have been able to reduce prices on a “cost-neutral basis”, thanks to increased food and beverage sales.
“If Reading can do it, why can’t others? It’s an issue we’ve raised with the EFL before and will do so again,” the FSA spokesperson said, pointing out that price caps have been introduced in the Netherlands’ Eredivisie (€15, or £12.75) and in France for top-tier Ligue 1 (€10 , or £8.50) and also Ligue 2 (€5 or £4.25).
“The Championship is the third-best attended league in Europe but it is in danger of being left behind.”
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote