Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association
Dear MCDSA members,
Firstly many thanks for the huge number of emails you have sent us regarding the issue of parking. Please forgive me for not yet replying individually to you all but rest assured, every comment and every suggestion has been read and we have taken all your opinions in to account when meeting with the club. I will try to reply to you all individually soon but I wanted to get this statement out first:
Statement re parking charges:
On Monday 5th August, members of the MCDSA committee met with Manchester City’s Access Lead and Head of Fan Support, along with members of the Access team. We discussed, at great length, our objections to the introduction of charges for disabled fans to park in blue-badge spaces on the official club car parks. We made a reasonable request that the club hold off the charges for this season, in order to put in place changes to the cancellation system and assess whether their perceived problems of non-attendance can be solved without introducing charges for all. This request was rejected.
Despite considerable efforts on our part and the undoubted strength of the arguments which we put to the club, in a spirit of collaboration, Manchester City have now decided to stick with their decision to unilaterally and immediately impose parking charges on disabled fans, for the first time in our 21 years at the stadium. It is now just 3 days before the start of the new season and the official announcement of the charges has still not been made. Disabled supporters have already purchased season tickets and match tickets, for the season, with no indication that they will be hit with extra charges to park, for the first time ever, at the Etihad Stadium.
The club officials claim that the charges are necessary because there is not enough supply of spaces to meet the demand and that extra spaces can only be provided if all disabled fans pay to fund the improvements themselves! They even tried to justify the charges by pointing to the fact that just over half of the Premier League clubs already charge disabled fans for parking.
Manchester City have been considered one of the leading clubs in the world for the provision of disabled facilities and for their support for disabled fans and disabled people in the wider community. Yet it seems that club officials want to align the club now with those Premier League clubs who do charge for disabled parking and penalise disabled fans, rather than continuing the proud tradition of supporting those who often make massive physical and financial sacrifices to support the team they love. It is very sad that the club has chosen to move in this direction and set such a poor precedent, despite all the support and investment that the club has been prepared to give previously, to support the disabled community. We do understand that they want to find a way to add more and better-located blue-badge spaces but this is the first time that the club has ever chosen to charge disabled fans themselves, to cover the cost of improving their facilities. Manchester City has always been at the forefront of providing extra facilities for disabled fans and has been rightly proud of the fact that those facilities have been fully funded by the club, whether that be wheelchair bays, free PA seats, audio description for the visually impaired, sensory rooms, accessible toilets and many more. Never at any time has there been any question of the disabled fans themselves having to fund improvements to facilities. Yet suddenly they are telling us that the provision of 65 new blue-badge spaces requires 369 disabled fans to pay an extra £114 per season to attend league matches and potentially a further £90 for European and cup games. They are still referring to this as a 50% reduced price, which indicates that the full price will still be implemented later, probably next season, doubling the financial pressure on disabled fans. They insist that this is about a business balancing its budgets, yet the new charges will increase the income of the club by more than £1800 per match, which equates to a total potential income of more than £60,000, for the season, a drop in the ocean for a club of City’s size and wealth, less than a week’s salary for many of the players, but a huge sum for a group of people, many of whom are surviving on benefits and who make considerable sacrifices, physically and financially to get to games. This appears to us to be nothing more than greed, exploiting loyalty and imposing a Disability Tax on loyal, long-term supporters. It is cruel and will result in some fans abandoning season tickets or no longer coming to all matches as they have done for years.
As one DSA member told us, “City is my lifeline to community engagement. It’s something that has been important to me for the last 25 years of my disabled life, that lifeline. Given I’ve followed city since 1967 and post-accident in 1995. I love the club, I have to survive on the benefits and pension I live off and support my disabled wife also. To not even have a consultation about this is just hypocritical when City are constantly banging the drum about equality! “
These unnecessary charges are completely unacceptable and not appropriate. We have surveyed our members and 96% consider that the new charges are unacceptable and they are angry about it.
For those who ask why disabled fans should be entitled to free parking spaces, ahead of other loyal fans, it is worth pointing out that these spaces are for those who would be unable to attend matches by using public transport and unable to get from their cars to the stadium, if they had to park further away. Those without disabilities have a choice of how to get to a game and where to park their cars, if they choose to drive. Most of these disabled fans don’t have that choice and would not be able to come at all, if they couldn’t park within easy reach of the stadium entrance. These are people who have been attending matches and buying tickets since the stadium opened, on the understanding that they would be able to book a parking space, with no charge. Now, three days before the season begins, the club are imposing an immediate charge on them.
We believe all city fans will be angry and we have called on individual supporters and fan led organisations such as City Matters; The 1894 Group; The Official Supporters Club; and MCFC Food Banks to join with us in a campaign to overturn this terrible decision.
Many fans have called this a betrayal of loyal supporters and a sign of corporate greed, to penalise disabled fans, who often make huge additional sacrifices to attend matches. We agree and do not intend to acquiesce meekly.
If you would like to send us your opinions again on this, please email us onmanchestercitydsa@gmail.com
Howard Cohen
Chair
Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association |
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