Open Letter on Season Tickets and Pricing | Club announce price freeze on "general admission season tickets & PL match tickets" for next season (p163)

[TheGhost]

So that pretty well proves my point that it's agencies taking these tickets using bots doesn't it?

Or the club give them directly to the agencies. I’ll be gently asking tomorrow where the tickets were bought from.

 

[There is a Light]

You're posting that because you clearly lack the ability to understand that away fans/tourists/non-city-fans in the home end are a direct consequence of ticket prices (and the clubs ticketing policy generally).

Soriano and his minions will be buzzing that you are working hard in this thread to distract people from the actual topic. You're doing a brilliant job of spinning the narrative for them.

people like col bleat on about democracy yet can't take on board what are the main concerns of supporters. people like him (probably with the backing of kevin parker - to take the heat off himself after his own latest own goal - are trying to weaponise the word tourist - ooh don't talk about it - when in fact football tourism is everywhere at our ground and others, no point pretending they are not there, and it's a concern for supporters to have people who don't support City in the seats around them, that's basically why they have stopped selling tickets back to the club when they don't go because they don't want the ground full of non Blues.

i filled in that survey and there were questions on season ticket prices, season ticket availability, match day prices, flexi gold (thanks again colin for another car crash idea), ticket and transfer options, 3rd party sites and much more. they've been part of a nationwide campaign called STOP EXPLOITING LOYALTY which guess what , is not obsessed with tourists - but has been pushing for ticket prices freezes.

I know you are obsessed with social media , on this site 24 hours a day it seems but maybe if you got off your arse and joined some of the protests before a game you'd be a little more up to date.

As there are so many people in that campaign though, probably wouldn't suit you as you couldn't be the main man, you'd have to share the limelight with other people !!

By the way, did you and others on Citymatters not accept the indian chap who won the vote in 2018 because you thought he might be a non-City fan in your area !!!

of course kevin parker gets in, who doesn't even have a mandate to be on or stay on and he has been the ever since
maybe that's why there is a lack of confidence in citymatters ???

 

[There is a Light]

I don't agree with your conclusion but I do agree ticket policy is the core issue.

But yet again you're conflating away fans in home areas with non-City fans who don't support the opposition team. Stop behaving like some religious zealot and accept that, as the current PL and World Champions, we're now a global attraction.

It's like saying non-Parisians shouldn't be allowed to go up the Eiffel tower.

their main focus is the atmosphere. that comes from having proper fans in the stadium.
no-one's buying your stance they have members all over the world, the have volunteers from all over the world, they get funding from all over the world. take the blinkers off

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Jeez this thread is like a Handforth parish council meeting

 

[There is a Light]

Agreed it's pathetic.

1894 group have never talked about half and half scarves in any tweet by the way before you start blaming them for that one as well !

 

[crystal_mais]

Thanks mate, I'm just frustrated. Without giving a detailed family history, I'm a 3rd generation City fan and am trying to raise the 4th generation. I don't care about titles or trophies or buying Florian Wirtz, what I care about is being able to take me and the kids to the match without then having to wonder if I can afford this quarter's gas bill. I'm not interested if we're playing Real Madrid or Rotherham.

I'm freelance and work in IT mainly so I don't think I'm particularly bad off but City is becoming ridiculously expensive when you've two kids to tag along who also want the shirts and a hot dog and all the rest. City made £75 million quid last year as pure profit. Dropping prices by 10% is not going to hurt them in the slightest. It would actually make a world of difference to me though. My family has 100 years of support of this football club and I'd quite like to continue that for the 5th, 6th and 7th generations but my nephews who are in their late teens/early 20s just cannot afford to go without someone buying their tickets for them. They barely earn enough to live.

So I see this and then I see Alex and the City Matters guys representing my anger and frustration to this board of Directors who couldn't give a flying fuck about my kids support because we're "legacy fans" and instead want to sell those tickets for 3 times the price to a "tourist" so they can get their massive bonus structured pay increases by increasing matchday revenue. I see someone FINALLY willing to actually fight the club and not be scared about it. Then the OSC, which given the era I grew up with didn't exactly make the greatest first impressions on me to begin with, refuse to back them because they got sent an email. Unanimously refuse. Not one guy said "err..actually, maybe we should back these other City fans because even if we don't necessarily agree with their methods, we understand that not backing them will undermine them". And then I see the email and it's the most corporate fob off letter I've ever read and that frustration just boils. I spend half my life chasing people for money who come up with every excuse in the book before they pay, I know a fuck off letter when I see one.

Tbh I've never gone in for City politics and trusts and things like this. I'll leave that to more qualified and smarter people. I'm not interested in fan groups and splits and meetings and minutes. I'd rather give money to Gary James tbh than 1894 (no offence lads). What I NEED from this football club though is to not price my kids out of the match. That's it. I as you and many others have given a lot to City as a club and a community over the years. We didn't fuck them off when the world's most successful team was on our front door and we were watching Kevin Horlock, we backed them. We didn't fuck them off when Peter Swales destroyed the club by creating FC City of Manchester, we fought for it and we backed it. We didn't fuck them off when they moved from Maine Road to at that time a souless bowl of an athletics stadium, we backed them. We've never asked for a thing from this football club.

Here's what I need now. I need City to give me and many others a fucking break. I need them to see this economy, to see the rising prices and energy costs and inflation and think that it's okay for them to only make £50m profit this year instead of £75m and give people a fucking break. And I need someone or something or somebody to communicate that to them in the strongest possible terms and I don't care the name or affiliation of the group that is doing that.

But they won't because the secret is out. They don't give a FUCK about you. Nor me. Nor any of us on this forum. Even the people who meet with them and they gladhand and make promises towards and throw the odd free ticket or nice little prize at, THEY DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU. They do what they need to do to buy people off so they won't cause a fuss, because ultimately they'll pretend to listen then do what they were going to go anyway.

Let me make this clear, I'd prefer to burn down that entire boardroom and the Sheikh Mansour ownership and Pep Guardiola and Kevin De Bruyne and everybody else for cheaper ticket prices. I was going before they were here, this club belongs to me more than it does to them. And if that means we go back to bouncing around the bottom half of the PL then that's fine with me too, my support of this club doesn't require success to be validated. If I can't afford to watch them with my kids any more then there's absolutely no point to any of it.

Great post pal but the world is fucked. Yes City should go after less profit and we are right to lobby them. But what about the Supermarkets, Utility providers, clothes companies etc . The list is endless. We are not just out of pocket because of City, we are being priced out of everything so these guys can make huge profits. The wider impact on necessity costs impacts our ability to go out and enjoy things like Football, Cinema, theatre etc but we're being priced out. I assume City's profits fluctuate based on trophies won and transfer spend and wage increases. I expect us to make less the next financial year.
Just to add got my new council tax bill it has gone up over £500 from last year, ridiculous.

I've said before - I don't give a toss about half and half scarves or tourists as long as it's not away fans for that game. I've been a City fan for 47 of my 52 years. I'm local apart from 6 years spent away in the 90's while at Uni. I've had a season ticket for 27 years. I'm also Asian and with peoples obsession that tourists are a problem I've had some funny looks from some fans over the last 12 months or so. It's no different to some political parties blaming certain races for the problems of the UK. Pricing is the key problem but i think it also goes hand in hand with the increase in expenditure. As someone said previously the players asking for an extra £50k a week when they're already earning £275k a week. The business of football is fucked to be fair and it's us fans that are/will suffer.

Do I think City will come to the table, No - Soriano is not that type of bloke from everything I have read about him. He's a profit man.

 

[Stephen230]

Jeez this thread is like a Handforth parish council meeting

Whose iPad was it again? That was the highlight of lockdown.

 

[There is a Light]

My own view is that there was nothing wrong with the term “tourists” before the last year. We all knew who were being described. People wearing other clubs colours in our end, tourist guide led groups. Fans of other clubs just buying overpriced tickets to see Messi play at the Etihad. These guys would have been contributing to some extent to higher ticket prices as our Board has wanted. The liberty taking has got worse with the Anfield 8 and Ipswich 8.

The change in the last 12 months seems to be driven by nastiness. Particularly, the images of Asian City fans being mocked as “tourists” via images shared across social media and claims “tourists are our biggest problem” when we can’t hold a 3 nil lead against Feyenord , or raise a song for 45 minutes against Brugge. This has included lifelong Blues being attacked at Arsenal under the pretence they are “tourists”.

Now being labelled as tourists are student City fans and British Asian Blues, because of the colour of their skin. A lot of these fans buy the cheapest tickets for the unpopular Champions League group games. )The midweek matches many of the “regulars” choose not to attend for whatever reason, including too many games and poor transport links and ticket prices vs Inter). Their affect on ticket prices is minimal.

If we get back to what everyone understood as tourists, there wouldn’t be any need to change labels.

what colour was the american in the City end at the liverpool game or what colour was sabpie that youtuber who was part of 5 osc's and made everyone feel uncomfortable. they were white. who said tourists have to be foreign or non-white.that's what you are putting out here - there's tourists from bowdon hale and the like with small businesses going in the tunnel club and other areas, they are local, they are still tourists with no affiliation or attachment to the club.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Or the club give them directly to the agencies. I’ll be gently asking tomorrow where the ticket were bought from.

The official agency partners are only supposed to sell packages that include hospitality. We were told they weren't allowed to just sell general admission tickets. So if they've paid over the odds just for the ticket, then it's not an official partner agency.

 

[pride in battle]

1894 group have never talked about half and half scarves in any tweet by the way before you start blaming them for that one as well !

Im not blaming anyone in particular, i'm highlighting people's obsession with it.

 

[M18CTID]

Im not blaming anyone in particular, i'm highlighting people's obsession with it.

Stop talking about it then ;)

 

[mayo31]

The biggest issue I have with half and half scarves isn't adult tourists or any of the kids wearing them. It's when grown up locals wear them. I remember seeing someone who looked all the world to be a local fan wearing a half City/half United one when coming back into town following an Old Trafford derby some years back. Also, 2 local lads wearing half and half City/Leeds scarves on the concourse when we played Leeds in the FA Cup back in 2013. I knew they were locals because I heard them chatting and their accent was more Middleton than Mississippi FFS. I mean, what the fuck is that all about? I'm actually far more prepared to give a non-local leeway on half and half scarves than a local, especially when one of those halfs is United, Liverpool, or Dirty Fucking Leeds!

Not a cat in hells chance they were from Middleton, we would not allow it :)

 

[Always Ali]

Jeez this thread is like a Handforth parish council meeting

Yes, but do YOU, have the authority?

 

[bluestevei]

So every OSC will have voted not to support?

dont think the doncaster branch was asked but as i was chairman i find out

 

[Tim of the Oak]

what colour was the american in the City end at the liverpool game or what colour was sabpie that youtuber who was part of 5 osc's and made everyone feel uncomfortable. they were white. who said tourists have to be foreign or non-white.that's what you are putting out here - there's tourists from bowdon hale and the like with small businesses going in the tunnel club and other areas, they are local, they are still tourists with no affiliation or attachment to the club.

Of course there are tourists from all over.

The reason I included the example from Arsenal was to show how ludicrous it is .

What I object to is videos being posted across social media of Asian Blues to mock them. There’s no need for that.

 

[M18CTID]

Of course there are tourists from all over.

The reason I included the example from Arsenal was to show how ludicrous it is .

What I object to is videos being posted across social media of Asian Blues to mock them. There’s no need for that.

What video was this Tim?

 

[Tim of the Oak]

What video was this Tim?

it's one I'm not attributing to any fan group mate. It was a video of Asian City fans in the ground before the Real Madrid game, I think. There might have been a dozen of them with most looking at their phones.

I've got no issue with other pics / videos of the same fan(s) wearing a range of different premier league clubs clobber and most people are going to laugh about that.

As I've said before I flagged up my concerns about the former type of content and excessive use of "tourists" (as a general issue and not attributed to them) to a range of fans reps and my feedback was taken on board. I am grateful to them for that.

If there is one positive to come out of this (and I didn't like the American Prem fan getting battered). I've got the some Leeds fan (friends of friends) who have said they wouldn't go in the City end again, after seeing the video from the bin dippers game. Obviously, it shouldn't have come to that.

 

[CoventryBlue]

But surely those Leeds fans wouldn't jump up and film the away fans celebrations? They've nothing to worry about if they follow etiquette

 

[CoventryBlue]

I think there definitely is an element of our support that sees anyone who isn't historically a city fan as a problem. 99.9% won't be down to racist or xenophobic sentiment but more likely due to the fact they know plenty of mates that are priced out

Tourists who wear the club colours of who we're playing, fall over themselves to film Salah celebrating we should just call them what they are - away fans. And them being in our seats IS a problem

And I'd hope that people aren't doing this intentionally, but conflating the above with City fans from outside the UK or non-blues who don't take the piss and do some research on etiquette is dangerous and from my reading, only a few on here doing that, it isn't 1894

 

[Tim of the Oak]

But surely those Leeds fans wouldn't jump up and film the away fans celebrations? They've nothing to worry about if they follow etiquette

There were Leeds fans in the family stand taking liberties just after Covid and splashing their videos across social media. I told them they wouldn’t get away with it in some other parts of the ground.