Despite the fact that it’s a multi-billion pound industry, football is alienating young fans due the continuing rise in ticket prices, which have gone up by a staggering 1000% over the past 20 years. If you wanted to watch Manchester United play at home in 1989, the cheapest ticket would have cost you £3.50. Allowing for inflation, that should cost £6.20 today, but in fact will set you back £28.
It is even worse for Liverpool supporters, they used to pay £4 for a ticket at Anfield, and their cheapest is now £45, a massive hike of 1,025%. Arsenal’s prices have risen by 920%, and their tickets have risen from £5 to a wallet bashing £51, making a home match possible only for those with cash to splash around, and excluding the ordinary footie fan.
The chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, Malcolm Clarke, has said that while some teams in the Premiership still offer their fans a good deal, the top clubs, particularly those in London, charge outrageous prices. These are way beyond the means of younger fans who now feel alienated and have to go to the pub to watch their team play, which robs them of the match day atmosphere that exists in a football ground.
Traditionally, football was one of the most accessible of all sports, but the price of tickets in today’s economic climate where jobs are under threat and there is less disposable income, fans have found themselves being priced out of the game. Some clubs, according to the Guardian Online, are proposing to raise ticket prices even higher. A rise of 6.5% is on the cards at Arsenal, but Blackburn have tickets for £10 and Stoke are freezing prices.
When stadiums were made all seated after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, prices rose as there were less supporters able to fit in the grounds, but nowadays, the price you pay at the gate is to pay the astronomical wages of the top flight players.