to think that FIFA need to get their heads together and put a cap on football game tickets?

[ButtonMoon88]

Just a random thought I had earlier watching my beloved Newcastle on the tv. I live in London and would love to go to more games down here but Arsenal charge £65+ per ticket per game. They have the highest prices in the league.

Surely if every team in the premier league, and in the other divisions, charged the same price, say £30 (which would decrease for lower leagues) you wouldn't have to worry about there being empty seats, everyone could go without families having to save three months wages, and you could experience the excitement of actually being at the game.

I know in Germany the average season ticket price is less than £200. Manchester United, which isn't the most expensive team by a long shot, charge almost four times that!! Even Arsenal admitted they don't need to charge what they do, they get enough money from tv deals and shirt prices.

[BluePancakes]

I had to give up my season ticket at Old Trafford 10 years ago, and it was nearly £500 then (and not the most expensive seat). I do miss going to games occasionally, and feel sad my kids won't experience the atmosphere of big stadiums like I did*. I went to my first match when I was 5yo, and went to every game from age of 10 to early 20s.

• Saying that, our local team is much cheaper, but my kids don't like football much - the weirdos.

[BluePancakes]

^^Every home game that is, and a few aways in UK and Europe. Even went on a pre-season tour in the States once, in what seems a lifetime ago now.

[SniffsandSneezes]

My DP has an Arsenal Season ticket, it's over a grand a year and that's for a not particularly great seat! It's beyond absurd.

[Oysterbabe]

DH pays about £600 for his saints season ticket. It is a lot.

[wasonthelist]

If no-one paid it, they'd soon drop....maybe it's time for that famous football spirit and camaraderie to exercise it's influence on the clubs....oh wait.

[Dollymixtureyumyum]

Unfortunelty FIFA are next to useless. Hope now they have been finally been exposed someone decent will take over and run it properly.
Football used to be for working class, now to take your family on game it would cost you a small fortune.
My DH has had a season ticket for a championship club for over 10 years but this season has given it up because the cost just keeps going up.
About 3 or 4 seasons ago we spent over 150 quid for the two of us to have seats on an old firm game (celtic v rangers for those not into football) just before rangers went under and got relegated. It was worth every penny the atmosphere was electric and you could actually feel the stand bouncing beneath you. But that was a one off and something I had always wanted to do. For a run of the mill game that kind of money is just crazy.
Unfortunelty football is now a business and I am gradually going off it. I hate the money involved, I hate the way a lot of the players act on the pitch and it is just not as good as it used to be. Late 80s early to mid 90s football was fantastic but it just seems to have lost its magic somehow

[BackforGood]

It's a free market though, isn't it.
Whilst enough people are daft enough to pay those ticket prices, they will continue to charge them (same with the replica shirts, etc).
There are thousands of brilliant games going on up and down the country each week you can watch for free, or for £4 or £5 if you want to watch a team live, and then you can go and watch the professionals on the TV in the evening.

[caroldecker]

They are all sold out, so why reduce prices? There would then need to be another factor to decide who got tickets. If, for example a lottery was held, long-term fans would complain about short term fans getting tickets.

[BonnieF]

Demand for tickets at a handful of top PL clubs so far outstrips supply that they can effectively charge as much as they want, and people will still queue up to pay.

This is called 'market forces', and it is a fact of economic life.

Fortunately, however, there are hundreds of clubs up and down the country at which demand for tickets does not far exceed the supply. I'm a Derby fan. The last ticket I bought, for the Wolves game a few weeks ago, was £27.

Supporting top PL teams isn't compulsory.

[descalina]

So go see a cheaper club... It doesn't have to be one of the very top few! Or accept you are fortunate to be interested in a popular sport so at least you are guaranteed to see most of it on TV anyway... You can't have it both ways.

I think football season tickets are pretty good value tbh. Especially compared to the costs of seeing most other top level sports week in week out. £1000 a year is about 20 quid a week.. And if you can't afford that you can watch a level or two below for absolute peanuts

[mellicauli]

Arsenal v Newcastle is a Category B match so lowest price is £37.50. It's only the Category A games that are £65. See here

If you price the tickets lower than their true value (i.e. lower than people are prepared to pay), you just move the profit from going to the clubs to the ticket touts.

No one moans about pop concert, theatre or opera prices but they are the same. You'd struggle see a really top flight act live in London for less than £50.

[Toadinthehole]

Football stadiums in Germany are still allowed to have standing areas, which means far more people can fit in, therefore ticket prices are lower. Also (and I could be wrong) German law makes it easier for football clubs to be run not-for-profit - although as so few UK clubs make a profit perhaps there's nothing in this.

I also heard that the people who attend football matches now are the same people as about 30 years ago. If this is true, the clubs are going to be in the same position as the Church of England in a couple of decades...

There is something very odd about football in the UK. Millions follow it, yet increasingly it's done (ie, organised, played, invested in etc) by people from elsewhere.

[30somethingm]

Fifa has no power over this I think - it is down to the FA, who will do sweet FA probably.

[RusholmeRuffian]

If you want to do something about the ticket prices, join the Football Supporters Federation and get involved in one of their campaigns.