How Lucky We Are, Especially Fans That Can Attend Matches

[SebastianBlue]

Am I gonna be lucky tomorrow? 'Three goals in the first twenty minutes" lucky?

Very succinct summary of what I am talking about!

(But, even so, hopefully we are all that lucky tomorrow.)

 

[mexico1970]

I agree that the league can do a lot more to make it affordable. And even City could.

But our club is a business in the end, one that has been substantially subsidised for more than a decade to allow us to reach the heights we are now at, and it needs to be able to be sustainable, which includes match revenue (even though it is a relatively small portion of turnover, it has contributed to us turning a profit).

I think a lot of fans want all of the success of the last decade or so, which unfortunately in modern football costs a lot of money (especially the last year or two, which isn’t likely to change any time soon), but want us to operate like we’re still 90s City.

And we tend to forget there is a strong argument to be made that we may have gotten the best value-for-money of any club in England ever over the past decade.

Your arguments are hard to argue with mate on a business level, it's just disappointing that the cost of tickets mean that the minimum wage fans are struggling to afford the price of entry.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Your arguments are hard to argue with mate on a business level, it's just disappointing that the cost of tickets mean that the minimum wage fans are struggling to afford the price of entry.

Absolutely valid concern. And something I actually think the club is grappling with. I know people bemoan the seeming courting of day trippers, but that is partially down to the club knowing the lower income supporters are struggling to attend now, and they’re trying to make up the shortfall (both to fill seats and to bring in revenue). And that’s not all because of ticket prices, either. Some would struggle if they were free because of the cost of everything else and the hit to their income in general. People are being squeezed from every direction now. And, putting on my economist hat, I think that is only going to get worse over these next few years (we aren’t going to be getting the economic “soft landing”).

I actually think this is a big inflection point for the market (and finances) of football in general. And I don’t envy fans or club management having to contend with it.

Some hard choices are going to have to be made by both sides and some clubs are not going to survive.

I think we will, though, as we have smart ownership and management that are genuinely trying to find a balance. But it’s a messy, often frustrating process, that takes time.

I just think, when we really think about it, and compare our situation to other clubs in the league (and world), we can count ourselves quite lucky.

 

[OntarioBlue]

If people think City season/match ticket value is bad, wait until they hear about Personal Seat Licenses (for games being played in stadiums almost entirely constructed with local and state tax money).

NFL fans pay three times for their tickets.

Imagine being an Everton (or Liverpool) fan doing that.

I know the NFL is really expensive but at least they have the excuse of not playing many games. In the NHL and NBA they play 82 games so each team has 41 home games excluding play offs. If you were crazy enough to want to go a Toronto Maple Leafs Game, a couple of ordinary tickets, a couple of beers and a burger wouldn’t leave a lot of change out of $400. NBA tickets are also really expensive and a night out at the Toronto Raptors could easily set you back $500 for two people.