Rising prices: Cost of watching Arsenal is going
up
Arsenal may have been founded
as a team for factory staff and featured as an iconic working-class
club in the film of Nick Hornby's best-seller Fever Pitch, but they
are about to take another giant step away from their traditional,
core support.
The cost of an 'ordinary' seat for a Premier League game at the
Emirates Stadium in the New Year is poised to break the £100
barrier - which would make them the most expensive non-hospitality
seats in the history of English football. It will also push ticket
prices into a frightening new era.
Even after years of becoming accustomed to the top flight's
'prawn sandwich brigade', the struggle of ordinary fans to pay for
admission can only get harder once the landmark price has been
reached as a result of the planned rise of VAT to 20 per cent on
January 4.
Arsenal could choose to absorb the tax rise and not pass it on
to fans, but there has been no indication yet that supporters will
be spared the hike.
The club's website booking page warns: 'Please note that, with
the VAT increase due in January 2011, our matchday ticket prices
will be subject to change.'
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation,
said: 'A £100 ticket in the present climate is ridiculous. It is
proof that football is not living in the same world as the rest of
us.
'The game has more money going into it than ever before and it
is not helping fans. Football is no longer a game that is readily
accessible to all sections of the community.'
The Premier League has become a rich man's playground in recent
years, with foreign owners ploughing money in at the top and fans
footing a share of the bill at the bottom.
The English game has changed a great deal since standing was
banned at top-flight stadia in 1994.
But the image of swathes of working-class fans on Highbury's
North Bank in the 1997 film Fever Pitch seems a world away from
Arsenal's potential new level of pricing, which would come into
effect from the home game against
Manchester City on January 5.
Grounds for concern: Emirates will have the
priciest 'ordinary' ticket in English football
A £100 ticket would make watching Arsenal 11 times more
expensive than following Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. The
German team charge just £9 for their cheapest seat.
'Prices have risen way beyond the rate of inflation, and the
bigger clubs have gone the furthest over the last decade,' added
Clarke.
The most expensive normal seats at the Emirates Stadium - in the
centre of the upper tier for 'category A' games against popular
opponents - are £94 per person, plus a booking fee of up to £2.30
and £2.20 postage.
That makes £98.50 for a typical purchase. But, with VAT rising
from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, that ticket would break the £100
barrier for the first time.
No club can afford to charge such prices throughout their
grounds and stay busy, and Arsenal have a wide range of prices,
from £48 to £94 for 'Category A' games against top opposition such
as
Chelsea,
Manchester United and
Tottenham.
It costs from £33 to £66 for Premier League games against lesser
sides but the bill for a family of four could still top their
weekly food shopping bill.
Arsenal, who are repaying the debt from building the £390million
stadium, are already the most expensive club to watch on their own
ground in Britain by some margin, and a recession is not perhaps
the ideal time to be breaking the £100 barrier.
Season ticket-holder and author Tom Watt said: 'It does seem an
extraordinary amount of money.
'If somebody can afford to pay that fair play to them but, while
people complain about a lot of things at Arsenal, value for money
is not one of them.'
Arsenal's cheapest adult season ticket for 2010-11 cost £893,
while their most expensive 'ordinary' season ticket, which has no
hospitality, was £1,825. Liverpool were the next most expensive for
2010-11 at £680, followed by Tottenham (£650),
West Ham (£585) and Chelsea (£550).
Blackburn had the cheapest adult season ticket at £224 -
just over twice the cost of a single highend ticket at the
Emirates.
The club with the next most expensive single ticket price in
England is Tottenham, where the most expensive 'normal' seat is £76
per game, which will increase to £78 when VAT rises in January,
according to Spurs' official website.
The most expensive ordinary seat at Chelsea costs £73, and at
Manchester United just £49.