High ticket prices for the Manchester City game. Who is to blame?

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

By Walter Broeckx

The supporters of Manchester City are unhappy. They are unhappy about the fact that they have to pay £62 for a ticket for the game next Sunday.

They received 3000 tickets but have returned 912 of them. Tickets that now are being sold to Arsenal supporters.

So this means that some 900 more Gooners have the chance to see Arsenal – Manchester City. I think this is rather good news for the Gooners.

But let us look at the Manchester City supporters and the fact that they refused to come up with the money.

Mr. Kevin Parker, the general secretary of the Manchester City Supporters Club said: “It just shows that football clubs are out of touch with reality. If City supporters are travelling on a supporters’ club coach it will cost £30 per person. That’s £92 before they have even done anything; add in a programme, food, drink and you are looking at £125-£130 per person.”

As I live where the currency is the Euro I calculated this in to euro’s and I came around the price of 150 euro. And that is what I usually pay and that is without the food and drink in fact. I know it is a lot of money but well I don’t mind spending it because it gives me the chance to see my favourite football team. And I pay this a few times in a season and believe me I’m not a rich and wealthy person so I have to make sacrifices to be able to pay this.

Of course I would like to pay less. But maybe the Manchester City supporters could have a look at their own club and blame them for me and them paying too much money to see a game of football at Arsenal.

So how come the ticket prices are going up and up and up? If we don’t take in account the inflation, or the cost of things in London but look instead just at  the football aspect of ticket prices, what do we find?

Since the rich owner of Chelsea came along and polluted football with his money the other clubs had to do something. Manchester City sold their soul to the sheikh and from then  one there are two teams that can do what they want as money is no issue to them. They have started to inflate transfer prices and have started paying ridiculous wages to attract players from other teams.

The result is that other teams in order to keep their best players have two options. Go along with the crazy wage inflation and pay more and more for their best player in the hope they can keep them. Or they can say no we don’t want to pay this and the players will leave to earn more money elsewhere.

But whatever the option is they are forced to pay more and more. And this is a result of the fact that money is no issue for clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City. Or in fact Man United, but there are different reasons for their ability to pay a lot of money.

So as a result the other clubs have to find a way to raise more money. Sponsoring can be important. But for many clubs the match day income is a very substantial part of staying afloat. In fact for a club like Arsenal the match day income is responsible for around 40% of their total income. In other words the most important way to make money. In the last season our match day income was the most important way to make money. Without that money Arsenal would be in trouble. Big trouble.

But for clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea the match day money in fact are peanuts. If their stadiums were empty it wouldn’t matter one bit for those clubs. If the rich Russian has to stump up £100M or £200M a year… it doesn’t matter for Chelsea. If the sheikh has to stump up £150M or £250M a year… it doesn’t matter for Manchester City.  The Russian will pay the bill at the end of the day. Or the sheikh will pay the bill at the end of the week. So match day income is nothing for them. As for other clubs it is their most important way to make an income.

So for Arsenal to stay competitive with those clubs responsible for the explosion of the wages and other costs in football we have no option other than to ask higher prices. In fact by making a third category of matches Arsenal have attempted to make tickets cheaper for some games. And I think the C-category games are rather reasonably priced tickets even for people who don’t have that much money.

But on the other hand the A-category matches have gone up in price. Because in a way it is those teams in the category A (Chelsea-Manchester City and Manchester United) who are mainly responsible for the prices going up. So it is only fair that their supporters must pay more when they come to the finest stadium in England.

Their supporters should not moan at Arsenal for the price of our tickets. No, the supporters of City should go to the sheikh and tell him: look what you are doing with this wage inflation! You are driving the ordinary fan out of football with you overpaying our own players!

The main culprit in the rising ticket prices are Abramovich and sheikh Mansour. So if you want to protest: go to them. And ask them to pay for your ticket. Don’t blame Arsenal for having to compete with the endless cash you get from your owner.

We at Arsenal have to work within our own means and within our own budget. And as we have to try to stay competitive  with Manchester City and Chelsea we have to do it with making as much money as we can. If we make a loss the club has to find a way to make up for this. As for City and Chelsea they make incredible losses each year and then the owner just gives more money to cover those losses.

Well for Arsenal it doesn’t work that way so we have to ask more money if you want to attend a game at the Emirates. And if you don’t like that? Fair enough but don’t blame Arsenal that we are driving the ordinary fan out of football. Blame your mega rich owners.

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89 Replies to “High ticket prices for the Manchester City game. Who is to blame?”

  2. Great joke article. To quote TOny Adams “90% of the success under Arsene was a result of the money invested by Danny Fizsman”. This money was not earnt on the pitch, the original Sugar Daddy gave it to Arsenal and they outspent the rest and bought success. Which club broke the £100,000 pw barrier for Sol Campbell or was that someone elses fault as well.

  4. Completely agree Walter. Additionally Arsenal have financed the building of a state of the art stadium from their own resources. If Man City had to fund their own stadium instead of having it gifted to them at the tax payers expense then their ticket prices would have been much higher over the last few years. By the way I have heard tickets for the Spurs-Arsenal match are over £70 for away fans, but I do not expect anyone to have a go at the media darlings.

  6. Sorry- xompletely disagree. Arsenal are to blame for this by moving into a stadium they cannot afford. The profits are going somewhere – not into the squad – so arsenal fans are also being short changed. East Manchester is one of the most deprived places in the country. The clib may be rich but the real supporters are smong the poorest. Get off your high horse and look closer to home. 62 pounds, ob top of travel and food/beer means the cost of this away trip is nearly as much as a last minute week away in the sun.

  7. Last season the return fixture at Man City was £56.00 apparently. so only £5 cheaper than us ! Even Swansea last night subsidised their own fans coach travel to Chelsea. The media just love putting us in negative light.

  8. Are you not forgetting the fact that while you were paying Sol Campbell £100,000 a week ,City were paying the likes of Andy Morrison £2,000 a week.Hence you actually won trophies in them days ad still charged a lot more for your games than we did.So your argument does’nt stack up.

  9. 900 fewer people at the game with that irritating nasal twang can only be a good thing.

  10. Congratulations on being able to afford £125 per game to watch your team (without food and drink).

    I can’t.

    I pay £405 for my season ticket at the Etihad an average of £21.32 a game. If it were much more I couldn’t afford it and would have to give up the seat I have occupied since we moved into the Etihad Stadium a decade ago and before that at Maine Road for 15 years.

    You really have been disappointingly smug in this article. You have one of the biggest stadiums in the country, you have huge sponsorship and you screw visiting supporters whilst you suggest that it is our fault!

  11. Probably the City supporters didnt want to see their team thrashed at the Emirates

  12. Better than duck twang! Arseholes justifying eating their own shite yet again then try to convince the world it tastes good! Fill your stadium with tourists, make up the number by any means.

  13. @Alphie_Izzett
    Of course you will try to defend your team, that is understandable, but can you offer anything constructive to refute Walters argument? Yes tickets are expensive but Walter has attempted to argue why, please offer a counter argument. Can you tell us how much the move to the Etihad cost you as a club?

  14. Tatey,

    I doubt it would have been 100.000 a week to be honest as Arsenal don’t publish wages in public.

    But the most important thing escapes you in this: We paid him with money the club made. There was no rich owner hanging around covering for these wages to get paid.

  15. Alphie Izzet,
    The Arsenal supporters that will sit above the city supporters will even pay more.

  16. And City fans yes a few years ago when City had to live within it means you were a category B fixture and tickets were much cheaper.

    But after having sold your club to the sheikh and got successful you now belong in category A.

    Of course you could drive the sheikh out and get back to B-level…

  17. I also heard in the news that liverpool and manure supporters are collaborating to reduce the away prices and cap at £30. surprising that besides these clubs, none have voiced their discontent. all these discontent from supporters of clubs that pay astronomical wages and transfer fees. why don’t these supporters protest their own player’s greed? why don’t they protest their own club’s greed and shady sponsor deals? its easy to make conclusion on a whim, without consideration to factors contributing to such prices. that said ticket prices do have to be reasonable but efforts to point fingers at a single club is cringeworthy. the efforts to control prices should be consensual and scientific.

  18. WELL SAID. PEOPLE DONT SEEM TO REALISE THE IMPACT CHELSEA AND MAN CITY HAVE ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE. HOWEVER THE ISSUE OF ARSENAL NOT SPENDING ON PLAYERS RESTS SOLELY ON WENGER’S DOOR. I DONT WANT TO BELIEVE THAT ARSENAL CANNOT BUY 3 OR SO PLAYERS OF TOP QUALITY TO ENABLE US TO SERIOUSLY CHALLENGE FOR HOURNOURS, RATHER THAN RELYING ON 12 – 15M PLAYERS WHO ARE NOT REALLY ARSENAL MATERIAL, BUT SHOULD GO TO CLUBS LIKE TOTTENHAM AND VILLA

  19. For people who comment for the first time: shouting abuse is no argument and you have to wait till one of us has time to approve the comments and we do have to work hard to earn our money to see the Arsenal play 😉

  20. Hi Walter

    Nice Article.. I always knew that Untold will write this article as soon as I saw the articles in media..

    For all you ManC fans.. Please reply to Walter as he is giving you very simple explanations..

    Its common sense that the Russian & the Sheikhs of the world have distorted the whole football world.. Most of the clubs have gone begging to billionaires (like you, PSG and Malaga).. While we have stayed true to our values and instead charge more rather than take a bowl to the billionaires..

    Hope you understand that we charge more to keep our self respect intact while you beg your owners to pump more money..

  21. What a load of rubbish.
    We are led to believe that Arsenal sell out every game or could sell all tickets to their own supporters so in reality it would make no differnce who the opposition is . So quite simply there is no need for Cat A, B, C games they would alll be priced the same but there is and the reas is to fleece he fans
    Next keeping your best players. Come off it you have and continue to loose your best players because of your wage cap and lack of investment in players
    Next if you were losing money , well could understand such high prices but isnt something that Arsenal supporters keep banging on about is that you keep making a profit?
    It really is about time you faced up to what really is happening as oppossed to keep blaming Chelsea & Man City for all Arsenals problems
    As they say wake up and smell the coffee!

  22. Walter,
    While you correctly dissect the malaise which is infesting our national game since the arrival of Russian and Middle East coinage, I’m surprised you made no warning of the FFP Regs and the intended corrective effect these will have on the “sugar daddy” clubs.
    Maybe it’s because you are a cynic and have little faith that ANY sort of control will work.

  23. As a City fan I think we need to look at the bigger picture and accept that the £62 is going towards developing the players that we will buy in years to come… Arsenal are our feeder club after all 🙂

  24. Very true how the sugar daddy clubs have pushed prices up across the board, with transfer fees and wages rising to try to compete with them, ticket prices are bound to go up.

    Something needs to be done. If Plantini etc dont stop these sugar daddies buying football then I will organise a proper resistance movement incorporating real fans from all clubs and put a stop to this.

    Its all non sugar daddy clubs that are being hit by this financial doping, not just Arsenal

  25. Mike T,

    Do you really think Adebayor, Nasri, etc would have left for City if the sheik was not around??

    On the one hand the City fans pretend to speak in the name of the “poor people from Manchester” but on the other hand they are defending the richest persons under the sun and lick their ***** for the money they pay their players.

    Selling your soul I said…

  26. Darren, a good one.
    But we are almost out of money grabbers. We now are building the Arsenal-DNA generation… 😉

  29. I can’t believe all the justifications for a £62 seat, as you justify it your club rubs it’s hands and knows that another load of peeps are going to line their pockets. And all this justification for a club that has remained trophyless for so long. I could see but not justify it if Arsenal had actually won something. It’s a no brainer or thats what the supporters must be!!!

  30. This is REALLY simple. Arsenal want FFP because that makes football a straight revenue race. They know they can squeeze fans harder than others (£65 is a disgrace) and as a member of the G14 cartel will continually have higher revenues than the rest due to the self-fulfilling riches of the UCL. Instead of stopping investment in the game, we could re-distribute wealth, cap salaries, cap ticket prices etc. but none of this helps Arsenal position re. the rest. Trying to shift blame to Mansour is plain stupid.

  31. Walter

    Would Nasri or Adebayour etc have left? Who knows but surely you try to argue that the reason Arsenal charge so much is to ensure they dont!

    Also as I said in my erlier post if rsenal were making losses your coomments would have some meit but Arsenal arent making losses they are making vast amounts in terms of profit

  32. Spot on Walter, couldn’t agree more. Ironically, by adding their millions the Russian and the Sheik have devalued the game enormously.

  33. What a complete and utter load of nonsense. The stand is against Football clubs in general, not just Arsenal and inc City themselves. In recent weeks we have stumped up £50 at Norwhich, £62 at Arsenal and £55at QPR to give just a few examples. It is now beyond a joke and needs addressing. I suppose this is OK for those like yourself who admittedly only go to a few games per season, but to the supporter who follows his team everywhere this is now unfeasible.

    Another bone of contention with the Aresnal tickets is the banding i.e. City, Utd, Spurs and Chelsea pay £62, everyone else gets in for £35. An away fan is a fan, no matter who you support, being in the top echelons of the Premier League does not mean a fan has more money in his pocket to buy a ticket.

    Nothing to do with investors, wages etc, its purely to do with clubs getting greedy and exploiting the fans in order to line their pockets.

  34. Mike T,

    maybe because the Arsenal board is looking further than today? Maybe because they want to make sure that in the future there will be an Arsenal no matter what happens?
    To be sure there is a future you must work according to a plan and that is exactly what our board is doing.
    Working that way is a long term project and brings sacrifices along the road. But whatever happens to our owners, whatever happens with the people on the board, they can be replaced by others.

    As for your sheikh…. if he ever has enough… what is the plan for City then? What if he dies? What if he doesn’t pay anymore? (Look at Malaga as an example) Then what?

    I’m not afraid of the future for Arsenal. But I think sensible fans of City who look further than todays success will at times wake up in the middle of the night screaming : NOOOOOOO when they have dreamed the sheikh is gone. 😉

  35. And why do clubs have to line their pockets more than let us say 10 years ago Roey Lad?

    Maybe because of the reason I said in my article?

  36. Dave,
    kettle and black I think…

    You say Arsenal want a status quo but I think you want the same.
    But your status quo will lead to higher ticket prices.

  37. lots of finger pointing at arsenal going on in the media circus. all this because those clubs are categorised A and thus have to pay more than B or C. one liverpool fan even confessed his team is midtable but he has to pay cotegory A prices. none of the articles, however,are discussing the impact of wages some clubs pay.

  38. Good article…your website continues to be an important balance factor in the discussions around Arsenal. Especially when it is precise and concise like this, it gets a powerful argument

  39. Man City supporters in rage over the cost of modern day football.

    Although the irony is too great to ignore, it is about time the fans had their say. The price of PL football is too expensive and its only going one way and so I think City fans deserve some praise for the stance here.

    Whilst also acknowledging that Chelsea and Man City must accept that their clubs have not helped towards the spiralling cost of watching football in England.

    Arsenal remain healthy, thanks to the clubs prudent financial approach, but what of the other clubs in this League who now struggle to survive financially, let alone compete with the rich clubs.

    Hopefully this debate does not become a slagging match between Arsenal and the rich clubs, this really is about the bigger picture.

  40. Everyone is missing the point while getting close to it…

    The United and Arsenal of 10 years ago helped put the wages up over 100k. Chelsea and more recently City can now out buy and out pay any other club in the UK. However, other clubs raising their ticket prices WILL NOT mean they catch up!!!

    Do you really think if the Uniteds and Arsenals of this world somehow increase thier income and manage to match wages and fees offered by the sugar daddy clubs that all will be even? No. The sugar daddy clubs will just pay more money.

    And who is the loser? Us, the fans. Prices are too high. Fix the prices as the fans, from whatever club, should not be te losers. Two insanely rich men are killing football for millions of fans because they have found a toy they can play with.

    The other issue is as a football club setting prices you don’t have any competition. Any fan is not going to say “Oh the prices down the road at the neighbouring club are 10% cheaper, I’m going to support them from now on”. And Arsenal fans get it worst, the prices the highest in the league, a manager in league with a stingy money grabbing board and the fans used as a cash cow….and they keep coming back for more.

  41. The only way to lower ticket prices will be when clubs can lower the wage bills.
    I would like to hear the City fans coming here to give their view on that.

  42. And for the guy who said that this was typical for someone who only sees a few games a season: I live in another country so forgive me for not being rich enough to go to each game. 😉

    I would love to pay less for the games but then the spiralling cost of wages and transfer sums has to stop. And tell me one more time who is responsible for the latest spiralling again?

    So I can understand your point about it costing too much, but please complain at the right person. Not at my club

    And as someone mentioned Arsenal fans have to pay £70 to go to the spuds in a few weeks time.

  44. Hi Walter,

    As a City fan I agree with you in how the wealth of us and Chelsea are distorting the league to a degree. However in fairness who are the ones receiving those distorted figures? You are. Nasri wasn’t worth the $25m with a year left on his contract. $25m Adebayor, $16m Toure, $7m Clichy. Pretty sure Clichy aside you came out on top with those deals. I enjoyed your article but surely you have to agree you’ve benefited from our wealth (whilst remaining competitive)? Enough so to perhaps lower the ticket prices marginally so we can all watch your ex-players play your current players.

  45. Ofcourse you are right. There should be a wage cap in the league.

    Who is the highest paid manager in the league?Yes you are right Arsene Wenger
    Which club have the most expensive season tickets in the world?Arsenal FC
    And you moan about City’s prices.
    Ridiculous these articles are allowed to be published online.Absolute waste of space your article.

  46. The plan from the sheikh is to invest £1 billion into the club’s infrastructure,facilities including a state of the art sporting complex and the regeneration of the impoverished east manchester area in partnership with council. The plan is that City produce young players from these new academy facilities in the future negating the need to spend the inflated transfer fees and wages. If he leaves or dies I guess we may be in a better position than he found the club and if not perhaps we go back to the third tier of English football – to the fans it wouldn’t matter as you support your team whichever division. Unfortunately the fans don’t decide who runs their club but I doubt Arsenal fans would have voted against Sheikh Mansour controlling their club. All i ever hear from Arsenal fans is Wenger should spend more and why isnt the main money man allowed to run the club so you can compete with bigger spenders. Get off your high horse as we all wnat football to be more affordable for every fan.

  47. @Morgan
    You make a good point but the fact remains that as a financially self sustaining club we need those inflated transfer fees in order to pay the inflated wages. The transfer fees we pay for replacement players are also inflated. As a club we do at least attempt to keep a lid on things re the Theo saga.

  48. Walter

    Why do you say my sheik? I can assure you that I am no where near an Man City supporter.
    Working toward a plan? Goodness me. Does that plan mean not winning trophies if not what just is that plan?
    The trouble is that you are so desperate to blame everyone else for Arsenals tell of woe you continue to point the finger elsewhere.
    I love your bit about Man City becoming a Cat B club again so if, as you seem to suggest its all Man City and Chelseas fault why do Tottenham and Liverpool fans get the same treatment?Ater all neither has really won much over the last few years or indeed got someone pumping billions in .
    You really do need to face up to the fact that Arsenal have made a concious decision to squeeze as much out of supporters as they can and despite having the resources to compete continue to build up their bank balance. The real question is at what point the whole thing will go ping!
    No doubt when it does it will be someones elses fault.
    What do they say about always the victim and never the cause

  49. Once again you pen an article slagging off City and Chelsea Walter, without recourse to the real history of wage inflation in football.

    I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but football did have a rigid wage cap in place in it’s early days, which ironically City fell foul of, leading to the dismantling of a great side – all the works of a “sugar daddy” investor trying to gain competitive advantage.
    Seventeen City players were suspended in 1906, including the Legend Captain Billy Meredith, who then moved across the City to United.
    So if you think it’s all down to Sheikh Mansour, think again, it’s always been present in professional football, and always will be.

    The clue is in the name – professional football – it’s a sport but it’s run as a capitalist business, and the Arsenal have been more than happy to manipulate their finances to gain a competitive advantage all through their long history – I don’t need to give any examples to you do I?

    The football salary cap was abolished in 1961 in England, after a long campaign led by Jimmy Hill and the Professional Footballer’s Association, so if you want to blame anyone for the current wage inflation situation, then it should be the Chinful Wonder.

    But also bear in mind the circumstances leading to the threat of strikes by players that got the cap abolished in the first place – greedy owners were fleecing their employees, which is also something that hasn’t changed in football and business, and never will.

    The salary cap in 1901 was £4 per week for players, maximum wage of course, in 1958 it was £20 per week.

    It’s too simplistic to blame two admittedly very rich and very ambitious individuals for high ticket prices in the Premiership, considering all the many and varied factors that have led to this scenario, yet you persist in doing so, without ever conceding that there may be more than the same old, simplistic rhetoric you repeat ad nauseum.

    Football is a business, in a capitalist model, and has been unregulated in the financial sense since the abolition of the wage cap, and the successful teams are by no coincidence those whose owners have regularly made significant capital injections to gain an advantage, whether by cash, loans or another kind of loan, a mortgage.

    Manchester United have invested at the right time, and marketed themselves most effectively, closely followed by the Arsenal, who even saddled themselves with near on half a billion pounds worth of mortgage loan debt for the Emirates stadium, in order to place themselves in a position to generate even more match day revenues.
    This was a massive risk, especially as the property market has plummeted, significantly affecting the value of the property developments on the old Highbury site.

    Is it any wonder the Arsenal have the highest matchday ticket prices in the country when the board sanctioned such a heavy debt (mortgage -they need to be paid off, the same as a loan)?

    Other clubs in similar positions to the Arsenal, such as Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton, have decided not to risk their financial well being, and have not built new stadia, thus not exposing themselves to unsustainable debt/ mortgage.

    We all know Arsenal fans are paying the mortgage, not the Billionaire owners on the board.

    If you buy an expensive house, your mortgage payments go up, and you hope your income will cover it – basic finances.

    If a neighbour down the road puts up an extension and is the envy of the town, does that mean you have to follow suit and leave yourselves with less money in your pocket every month? That is the choice the Arsenal have made, to try and keep up with more affluent neighbours, they could have chosen not to, and found a comfy level in the hierarchy, like Liverpool have.

    Arsenal have no entitlement to remain in the top clubs in England any more than City have, or United, or Liverpool – you have to fight for it, in any way you can, which of course is what has happened since the inception of football – sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re at the bottom, you don’t have to like it, but that’s the way it goes.

    Finally, the fact it costs you about the same to go to a home game at the Emirates a few times a season from a foreign country, is not a fair comparison, to a City fan going to an away game, on top of the costs of following their team at home every other week, with cup games and European trips. The city fan who follows their team home and away all season will probably rack up a bill of upwards of four thousand pounds, your attendance say at four home games at the Emirates, around five hundred pounds by your own figures – but please correct me if I’m wrong.

    I don’t expect you to start protesting at your own club now you’re in possession of the real facts, but rather stop slinging muck at your rivals who are operating within the laws of the game and the land, and drop this cod morality which only exposes it’s own hypocrisy every time someone dredges up examples from recent history to counter it.

  51. @Mike T
    You have used a lot of words but said very little of any value apart from throwing a few childish provocative remarks; thus proving the validity of the old saying ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’.

  52. Morgan,

    Just imagine if we could have kept all those players….
    Just imagine if Adebayor wouldn’t have been blinded by the money City waved in front of his eyes?
    Just imagine Nasri wouldn’t have been tempted by all the money City waved in front of his eyes?

    If we could have kept them (and a few others 😉 ) …

  53. MikeT,

    tottenham get the same treatment because they are a derby game and we don’t want to upset the Liverpool fans by embarrassing them with putting them in category B. That would be very hard on them. But maybe a few more years like last one could get them that far.

    And besides the totts even charge Gooners higher prices in a few weeks time…

  54. Mike T,

    I hope you are aware that working on a plan is not the same as that the plan will succeed all the time.
    When we decided to build the stadium we only had one real competitor (MU) and this was taken in account when we started the plan to build.
    During the planning came Chelsea. That of course changed the outcome of the plan for a big part.

    the plan was to keep competitive during the building and the first years as much as possible (which we did without winning but came close on a few occasions)

    When City came along the plans had to be adopted again.

    If the rich persons who keep Chelsea and City alive wouldn’t have come along we now would be back to business as it was before we build the Emirates. But with the difference we would have had more money power.

    Money power that has been lost due to City and Chelsea.

    One could say the initial plan was great, looked great but at the end of the day the gamble (it could have cost us our future) didn’t paid off as hoped because two persons started throwing money around in order to subsidise two clubs.

  55. MCFC1,

    So if we wait long enough the sheikh will stop paying the bills and City will depend on their youth academy is the plan?
    And then thanks to City the wage bills will go down again and ticket prices can be lowered.

    My God, I never looked at it like that. 😉

  56. Sheza
    Lasagna Per Kosa Gibbsy
    Arteta Vermaelen
    Wilshire Rosy Carzola
    Walnut/Pod/Giroud

    What’s not to like?

  57. You asked for the plan but have no analysis other than to mock City for paying high wages then mock them for a plan to reduce them ? probably best not comment if you have no reasoned argument

  58. MCFC1,

    you are right that was a bit cheap from me. (sounds a bit dodgy in relation to the title of the article 😉 )

    I will try to read the plan but if you could point me at where he speaks of when they will lower the wage bill and what will happen in case anything goes wrong with him would be very grateful so I can have somewhere to start.

  59. Never mind I just read the plan you linked to.

    But can’t find much about the things I asked and how City will help working towards lowering wage bills and ticket prices.

    Which makes me wonder: from how much do you think it gets over the top?
    What do you think is acceptable for any away fan to pay at the most?
    30? 40? 50? 60? 70?
    and why from that price it is over the top

  60. Robbo,

    Re your first comment, this is exactly what the article says.

    It’s not the fans who are to blame but the club so yes the fans might not be able to afford it but it is their club that has driven the need for tickets prices to be at current levels. More price rises to come soon I also think.

  63. Whats all the fuss about. Walters right…….to every letter.

    ManCity fans, instead of having a go at Walter, Why dont you look at your grand plan and stuff. Your owner has says he will (or has plans of) invest 1 billion or so on infrastructure/training ground…. He dint say he will DONATE.
    HAVE you ever thought of ” IF the owner says I’ve had it….Time to go.”
    YES I heard it, he will sell the club to someone else. Its not that easy. The market value of the club is lot less than the book value which the owner will demand he should get.

    I dont think, a rich man owning the club is a problem….BUT the rich man running the club by spending his money on the club is the problem.

  64. @ Footie fan
    Please do tell us about the season ticket prices, I’d love to hear yourt argument detailed out.

  65. walter please stop it

    you are making arsenal supporters look stupid

    because of your ‘wants’ to protect your lord wenger.

  66. So the fact that Arsenal charge the most to watch is something down to the fact that Arsenal need to charge more to compete with Man City & Chlesea and their rich owners. So based on that you would expect that prior to RA ariving at Chelsea arrived at Chelsea in 2003 or Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Man City (2007) Arsenal would have been among the mid cost range
    So what was the cost of watching Arsenal prior to these two taking over their respective clubs.
    In 2001/2 Arsenals average season ticket is reported to have cost £747 next was Chelsea at £614 at the Spurs at £546 . Man Utd came in at £466.
    So whose fault was it in 2001?

  67. Mike T,

    you seem to ignore the fact that in Arsenal season tickets you get 26 home games a season.

    – the 19 PL games
    – The group games of the CL 3 games
    – the CL knock out games or the FA cup game another 4 possible games

    Only when we go further than those 26 games a season ticket holder has to pay extra

    If you take that on board then you get a price per match per season ticket for the clubs you said:

    Arsenal 28.73
    Chelsea 32.31
    Spurs 28.73
    MU 24.52

    Now what was your point again?

  68. Great article Walter. I was just few weeks ago looking at Arsenal ticket prices as I’m still dreaming about going to see them, and with all the talk about was seriously expecting to see prices starting from £60 (cheapest seat in cat C match). So I was surprized that they were not that expencieve and I might afford to go can get that £300-400 to travel to London and stay in hotel. Since flying to London (airport security/ passport control etc) reminds me of visiting in East Germany/DDR in 1980’s I can’t do it twice in 1 day.

  70. Mike T

    You can’t ignore the fact wages have hugely increased since the arrival of your Russian owner. Man City have since raised the wages bar to insane levels and ultimately this has to have an effect on the price of football.

    How do you expect the non sugar daddy clubs to pay for this increase?

  71. How funny! How have Surrey United escaped the finger pointing then? I guess they have had nothing to do with driving up salaries & transfer fees??? If it wasnt for Chelsea and City Surrey United would be winning the Prem every year! You Gooners need to ditch the green eyed monster and get rid of The overpaid moaning French git and spend a bit of cash and you will be right back in the mix…. In the meantime we will focus on putting Surrey United back in second place!

  72. Yeah that would be a great idea Darren.
    If Arsenal join the insane rat race and spend the money then…. oops we will have to ask even more money for the tickets…

  73. But I do agree £60 is too much to see MCFC park the bus. Quality of football that team playes is not really worth even £3.

  75. Finn Gooner – Is the air a bit thin over in Finland or have you been watching Cov City by mistake? Yaya, Silva, Ago, Tev, Naz are all such defensive players?

    Walter what ever your name is – I think you will find I said spend a bit of cash not drop your pants… You have enough existing quality but could do with 2 or 3 and bobs your aunts live in lover… I for one have paid my £62 and looking forward to a good game on Sunday. Assume you are flying over to watch it? sureley you pick your 4 home games a year carefully?? Ars 0 – City 2 🙂

  76. @Darren
    You certainly parked the bus, if not two buses last season, it was the most boring display of any visiting team I think. That’s probably why your supporters have given the game the thumbs down, nothing to do with high ticket prices!

  77. Tasos

    Wages have increased to insane levels however I think to say that is down to RA is only partialy correct as the real growth in wages is more to do with Sky and CL monies
    You can see footballers wages increase very much in line with the increases in the Sky and CL monies.

  78. Mike T

    True. Sky money would have impacted on wages but not to such an extent. Which is why I think there are bigger issues here than merely bickering amongst fans.

    If the bottom fell out of English football tomorrow (unlikely but still) what does the Premier league have to show for all its recent wealth?

    Take away the foreign players/managers/owners and our legacy will be what exactly? …… Rory Delaps long throw?

    Action needed to be taken before things escalated out control. Whilst FFP may not be the saviour of the game, at least its a step in the right direction.

  79. Walter,

    you asked who is to blame for spiralling ticket prices, which you rightly link to wage inflation, and I categorically gave you the answer in my earlier post – Jimmy Hill and the Professional Footballers Association.

    Why have you not made any comment on this, yet you nit-pick away on the same old, tired, pointless myths and cliches, and seem unable or worse, unwilling, to concede that you are wrong in your assertions.

    Are you just trouble-making in the run up to a game you won’t even be at?

    Do you realise what the consequences are of stirring up hatred between two sets of fans, which can and often does manifest itself in someone getting physically hurt, all because you need to keep on playing the “blame game”, when there is no basis in fact for your wild allegations.

    I look forward to you explaining to me why what I presented is untrue, and what you now believe to be the case, and in the naive belief you are a sincere football fan, i shall commence holding my breath until either you reply, or I pass out, whichever comes soonest.

  81. I don’t think this ticket price issue is gonna go further. since only 3-4 clubs are raising this issue and its been unanimously directed at only one club.unless other smaller clubs get on board, this ticketing issue is going nowhere.
    one probable solution is safe standing areas. if germany can do it safely, why can’t epl? it would add to the atmosphere and lower the ticket prices since supply would increase.

  82. Seems Chelsea are selling tickets from £41 up to £70 for their upcoming game against Southampton; not exactly a blockbuster but I don’t think that’s cheap either.

  83. The plan which I presume you have read is designed for a sustainable future for the club. I am not privvy to the Sheikh’s will but his investments are made through a group and I am sure provision is there if he dies just like Virgin would continue if Branson did? Obviously corporate level strategic investment has to have guarantees and the building of this complex is beginning. The academy is integral and other sources (which I have no time to research for you) have confirmed the objectives to provide the majority of the first team squad from the academy. Personally I do not really care what happens financially as all clubs survive in some form as I enjoyed trips to Chesterfield and the like and would have no problem returning to that division again (at least the away tickets were cheaper).
    I admired Arsenal and their football but basically Wenger never strengthens when he needs to to maintain your success. The Emirates I found seems to be occupied by tourists rather than the fans I remember when standing in the clock end.I understand Arsenal fans bitterness towards City as we bought your players btw my assessment is Adebayor – no need to mention, Nasri – ineffective but not played centrally, Clichy – much improved and is now class.
    The last few years I have chose to miss the TV away matches and just go to the others so I pay the price for those and as a member of the 92 club no longer feel the need to revisit grounds.
    Bottom line is we all want our kids to experience live football

  84. Lets face it……the two watershed moments were NOT MC or Chelsea’s rich owners arrival, even if that exacerbated an already difficult situation, BUT more likely, the 1995 Bosman ruling which allowed players to move at will from one Club to another at the end of their contract. Since then,we have seen Arsenal and other teams lose players to higher paying Clubs like United, PSG, Real, Barca, City, Chelsea, Anzhi Makhachkala and until recently AC Milan and the arrival of SKY TV,coincidental to the huge increase in TV revenues to Clubs.
    Players weren’t foolish enough to let that kind of guaranteed millionaire status slip by them, so they jumped on the bandwagon and are now reaping the rewards from supporters who are so addicted to the Beautiful Game that they’ll pay almost anything to watch it live….or alternately on TV.
    If the truth be told, EVERY monied Club, including AFC, would happily buy better players from lesser teams to strengthen their chances of winning silverware or just being in the race to do so. IMO Arsenal are in between being a feeder Club and a Buying Club. Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Southhampton are definitely feeder clubs, as are most of the lower teams in other divisions. That’s a fact of life in Football and it won’t change anytime soon since starting up youth academies, building up reserve players or developing cheaply acquired talent is a very risky venture, especially if the Club hoping to do so don’t have a manager with SAF, Guardiola or Wenger’s skills.
    Paying higher ticket prices is simply a sign of the times, since Football is no longer a family outing like going to a fish and chips shop but is more like going to the cinema to see ¨stars¨ perform. Paying big bucks is NO guarantee that you’ll like the movie, and is equally true for Football as well.

  85. SAVE YOUR MONEY !

    Lady: Do you smoke?

    Man: Yes

    Lady: How many packs a day?

    Man: 3 packs

    Lady: How much per pack

    Man: $10.00

    Lady: And how long have you been smoking?

    Man: 15 years

    Lady: So 1 pack cost $10.00 and you have 3 packs a day which puts your spending each month at $900. In one year, it would be $10,800 correct?

    Man: Correct

    Lady: If in 1 year you spend $10,800 not accounting for inflation, the past 15 years puts your spending at $162,000 correct?

    Man: Correct

    Lady: Do you know that if you hadn’t smoked, that money could have been put in a step-up interest savings account and after accounting for compound interest for the past 15 years, you could have now bought a Ferrari?

    Man: Do you smoke?

    Lady: No

    Man: Where’s your FUCKING Ferrari then ?

  86. seems like AISA is getting a lot of flak for stating some obvious facts in their statement. it seems AISA is the only supporters association not jumping on the ‘lets sympathise with the Citizens’ bandwagon.

  87. Americangooner, if all supporter’s associations are at least sympathising with the City fans who chose not to attend this game, and I’m not saying it’s an organised protest, merely an economic decision, then why do you think AISA are not?

    Short sighted tribal loyalty?

    I notice on Le Grove, those many Arsenal fans seem in the most part to relate to the City fans, but don’t take my word for it, have a look for yourself.

  89. there’s only so little away fans can do. there was a genuine concern from AW about ticket prices on home fans but indifference to away fans. so any kind of affect on ticket prices must come from home supporters.

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