On the 18th the mighty Gateshead competed at Wembley in the Conference play-off final. Despite my gleeful giddiness at the prospect of league football coming to the International Stadium, I was not there to join the battalions of the Heed army at FA HQ.
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| Courtesy of http://www.landscapesofengland.co.uk/ |
With tickets costing around £40 per adult, compounded by hefty travel expenses, I was frozen out of the club’s historic moment because my meagre student budget could not carry the strain. At the time I needed new shoes and, with the weather increasingly worsening, the fear of Trench foot made up my mind for me. Bear in mind, after all, that this was still a non-league fixture, not some weighty championship decider.
In the end Cambridge won the match 2-1 so I was relieved I had not felt the need to fork out the cash by unrestrained loyalty. But with over 19,000 punters attending the occasion, my own optional exclusion was the minority experience. Evidently, many other fans took the financial plunge without complaint. Surely such high prices cannot be justified, particularly when they harm the efforts of small clubs and their devoted fans to attract a large following on their grand day out? Perhaps if admission had been cheaper a larger crowd would have ultimately made the trip. Even if people remain willing to agree to such high fees, the system remains neither fair nor ethical.
This season saw supporters of Dundee United and St. Johnstone gather widespread support through their open criticism of inflated ticket prices for the Scottish Cup final. A fund for subsidising impoverished fans was established and subsequently received donations from individuals across the country’s various club allegiances. Nevertheless, the prices which caused such uproar are seemingly modest compared to their counterpart costs south of the border. An adult seat at Hampden is currently valued at a maximum of £35 for the biggest game of the domestic season; less than that quoted by the English authorities for a promotion decider to the fourth tier.
So how much would it have set you back for a ticket to the big one: the FA Cup final? Well, Hull City and Arsenal devotees were expected to fork out £45 for only the cheapest seats in their allocations. Adult seats in the other price bands were officially between £65 and £85 each. The Gunners would have certainly appeared to get their money’s worth but the Tigers’ narrow defeat must have made the hole in some wallets feel a lot deeper on the coach back to Humberside.
Let’s say a family of four (two parents, two kids) decided to watch their team in the once-prestigious tournament. Even without compounding the sum with any travel costs, this average family group would end up with a bill of at least a whopping £160. That is a serious amount for a single afternoon’s worth of entertainment.
Considering this year’s ticket allocation is only 25,000 for each finalist in a 90,000 capacity stadium, it is worth questioning whether ordinary supporters are paying the financial penalties of a bloated corporate presence. Although I personally do not begrudge the places allocated to the FA’s various good causes, the 17,000 seats reserved for Club Wembley members should receive some raised eyebrows.
Everyone seems to have noticed the exclusive seat holder’s absences before and after the intervals of big games, particularly England matches. However, the revenues generated from the members’ grand reservations greatly overshadow those contributions between individual fans.
For instance, the Club Wembley website claims “prices start from £167 per person per event”. That is a little less than four times the cost of the most economical ticket option in the ground. Multiply 167 by 17,000 and you get £2,839,000 in total income from membership packages. With this large figure in mind, it is no wonder the FA are willing to alienate most common supporters if prawn sandwiches are such an effective money-spinner.
In contrast, when Club Wembley has no interest in its possible allocation, prices return to respectable levels. In the past I have been fortunate enough to visit Wembley on two separate occasions, both being the climax of an FA Vase campaign involving Whitley Bay FC. For those admittedly obscure events the general expense was rather acceptable. No doubt this enabled the Bay to collect a marching column of at least 7000 eager pilgrims down the A1 for each tournament triumph.
And yet the costs for Cambridge United vs. Gateshead are set at seriously daunting heights. What chance have modest league clubs like Fleetwood or Southend got of accumulating a buoyant atmosphere, when it’s most needed, if any potential fans feel extorted before they even reach the venue gates? There is simply no justification for such high prices levied at matches in the lower reaches of the football pyramid. I mean, let’s face it; no corporate big-shot is going to be swallowing a big allocation for the League Two play-off.
Even some Premier League sides are feeling the effects of this Wembley greed. The explanation given in some forums for Sunderland’s poor turn out against Southampton in the 5th round was their imminent trip to London for the conclusion of the Football League’s less illustrious trophy the following fortnight. Apparently, many fans could not afford to watch both matches so closely together. Only 16,777 individuals showed up to the game and made the two-thirds empty Stadium of Light an embarrassing site.
Whether this is a valid excuse for such a derisory showing in an important fixture is open for debate. Nevertheless, the situation where supporters are forced to prioritise between loyalty and the health of their bank balance shows that Wembley’s pricing policy is working to the detriment of regional soccer.
Since when was supporting your team dependant on financial largesse? Of course, anyone with sense will have noticed the gradual inflation of ticket valuations across every level of British sports. The only genuinely cheap events are those held at amateur and semi-professional standard. Wembley is merely the biggest exponent of this exploitative culture in stadium charges.
English fan groups could greatly benefit from a similar protest movement to that held in Scotland. At the very least, another charitable fund would allow those with low incomes to have the privilege of seeing their team on the big stage, in Hull and St Johnstone’s case the biggest of their entire history.
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