PSG ticket prices - Protest options v West Brom.

[whp.blue]

That's going to decide how this is viewed i think. If we sell out for the PSG game then the club will feel fully justified in their pricing and continue to do the same. If there are thousands of empty seats then maybe it will give them a huge kick up the arse. We have always been able to brush of empty seats but if we have big empty spaces for a QF in the Champions League that clearly highlights a huge disconnect between the club and the fans.

I am sure this is the sort of thinking the rags at the swamp went through with their owners and they ended up still attending games and wearing a norwich scarf.

At the end of the day not buying season tickets and not attending games is the only thing clubs really take notice of, Manchester City Football Club seem to be on a pre-determined path that will inevitably alienate large swaths of the common people of manchester who have been their historic fan base,
This is just the latest step on that road, Sadly Mancunian accents are becoming rarer at the Etihad.

 

[cyberblue]

I think someone who consistently & continually slags off other Blues and makes himself to be some sort of super-fan is more worthy of your contempt to be honest.

Ten years ago, me and some others stood up and fought for our club (yes - our club) as it was going down the drain and run by an incompetent egomaniac who even bullied his chairman. And there were plenty of fans like him and you who threw all sorts of personal abuse and accusations at us and told us not to rock the boat. When Swales had run us into the ground, there were people that stuck their heads above the parapet and forced him out. And I bet there were people who trashed their efforts. Even the OSC wouldn't lift a finger. Over at the swamp, you'd hardly imagine there would be anyone who would want the Glazers as owners but the abuse that Duncan Drasdo, the MUST CEO, gets is staggering.

One day, it'll be you who's priced out. No doubt you'll sit there in Devon saying "Well it can't be helped. That's the price of progress".

Although the owners have transformed our football club it does not meen they will get everything right .when some one like the club captain Vincent Kompany spoke out against pricing fans out of the game it seems to me that the complaints are getting through to some at the club doing nothing is not an option any more ,my view is probably not valid as I don't go much any more but I certainly would not pay £50-£60 against PSG .I think the best way of protesting is not to buy a ticket in the first place

 

[Silva2021]

Agreed but that's German football. They also allow standing which helps to reduce ticket prices so it's not quite apples to apples.

We have the best owners in world football imo, they have delivered success that was simply a pipe dream 10 years ago. They have transformed a decaying region of Manchester and continue to do so, they put revenue into local businesses through sourcing products locally and yet just because they have the temerity to charge more for a game in the quarter finals of the champions league for the first time in our history there's talk of demonstrations, mass walkouts, frankly it shows a complete lack of gratitude.

Write letters to the club, get Kevin Parker to ask for some time with Soriano and other fan groups, don't buy a ticket for the game, but to initiate demo's and the like, and shine a negative light on the club you love is wrong imo. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

If you think our ticket prices are too high then fair enough, (I personally think they're pretty much in line with other forms of entertainment - but I think most things like that are too expensive these days) but ticket pricing has to change across all the premiership not just MCFC. We can't exist in a separate paradigm. Rough calculations mean it would cost the club 300m over 10 years to drop prices by 20 quid a ticket so it's not trivial.

Great post and I hope it is taken in the right way! We get to CL Quater final thanks to hundreds of million pounds of investment and we protest when we are asked to pay what is market value!!

Obviously this is not the full story as we have loyal City fans who want to go to the game and cannot afford this. Which is an issue especially when you consider they will be replaced by empty seat in some cases. A PR disaster for our club for our biggest game and an insult to loyal support. So it is frustrating for everyone involved. So maybe market value is not the supply/ demand value for City.

I think the difference a full atmospheric stadium 12th man etc. could contribute to our success plus finances anyway.

There is rational arguments to be put to the club for lower prices in a respectful manner that appreciates the owners massive investment. The way we are going about it is to shame/embarrass our owner and bully our club into lower prices and quite frankly both deserve better! This should be more of a last option

 

[willipp]

I am sure this is the sort of thinking the rags at the swamp went through with their owners and they ended up still attending games and wearing a norwich scarf.

At the end of the day not buying season tickets and not attending games is the only thing clubs really take notice of

And i think that's where the club see it. We are in a CL quarter final and the club i imagine assume that most people will think 'fuck it', i really don't want to miss this one. Same as season tickets for next year. I pay 600 for mine and that's a huge commitment for me, if that goes up at all i will seriously have to consider not renewing. However with Pep coming, no one wants to miss out on the next few years as they could be special years in the clubs history. It will take some seriously strong minded groups to knock next season on the head.

 

[flb]

That's going to decide how this is viewed i think. If we sell out for the PSG game then the club will feel fully justified in their pricing and continue to do the same. If there are thousands of empty seats then maybe it will give them a huge kick up the arse. We have always been able to brush of empty seats but if we have big empty spaces for a QF in the Champions League that clearly highlights a huge disconnect between the club and the fans.

It won't sell out mate,I'm sure we have only fully sold 3-4 since we started playing CL football and we didn't sell out when it was 47000 capacity.

It's simply too expensive especially if you are taking family along with you- fine if you are going on your own, how can you say to your kids I'm going as I can't afford to take you aswell? It's that reason that rules me out .
Tickets as a whole are too expensive and nobody can deny that.I thought City would make groundbreaking headlines when the new stand opened, instead we got fans clambering for level three because level 2 prices in cases went through the roof.

It's getting young adults and teenagers attending that is THE big worry for me, tomorrow's fans, they should be queueing round the block to get in.

They are getting it wrong, why the fuck shouldn't we show our displeasure.

The north stand extension will be a white elephant unless they listen to the fans.

 

[Centurions]

Last time I looked Bayern & Dortmund weren't mid-table and they're not doing too bad with season tickets half the price of ours?
Price of tickets isn't a yard stick to how successful you can be, there's always more than one way to skin a cat

Agreed but that's German football. They also allow standing which helps to reduce ticket prices so it's not quite apples to apples.

And that is German season tickets, not CL tickets. Unless they have some scheme that I'm not aware of (I don't speak German) they're charging a damn sight more than we are for the quarters.

https://www.fcbayern.de/media/native/tickets/Preisliste UCL_Viertelfinale_180316.pdf

Behind the goal at each end 1st tier it's just £28 but then jumps to £47 3rd tier each end. 2nd tier behind the goals it's a whopping £71 and is no less than £103 1st tier along the touchlines.

And yes, I think that overall perhaps we could make the ST's a bit cheaper but overall they're actually not bad prices nowadays. (not 10 years ago when we were crap)

 

[Blue Mooner]

Great post and I hope it is taken in the right way! We get to CL Quater final thanks to hundreds of million pounds of investment and we protest when we are asked to pay what is market value!!

Obviously this is not the full story as we have loyal City fans who want to go to the game and cannot afford this. Which is an issue especially when you consider they will be replaced by empty seat in some cases. A PR disaster for our club for our biggest game and an insult to loyal support. So it is frustrating for everyone involved. So maybe market value is not the supply/ demand value for City.

I think the difference a full atmospheric stadium 12th man etc. could contribute to our success plus finances anyway.

There is rational arguments to be put to the club for lower prices in a respectful manner that appreciates the owners massive investment. The way we are going about it is to shame/embarrass our owner and bully our club into lower prices and quite frankly both deserve better! This should be more of a last option

I think there is a rational debate to be had with the club about pricing policy for the PSG game and I think there is merit in the argument of the club taking a 'hit' on the ticket price to guarantee a full house and to attract the sort of fan that will help to generate a fantastic atmosphere to play in - which could result in further revenue by going through to the next round. But equally I think the club are charging the going rate for a game of this magnitude and to overly criticise and demonstrate is completely disproportionate.

People also state that with TV money, ticket money doesn't matter, but under premier league rules all clubs are restricted by how much they can use TV money to fund wages and transfers whereas revenue generated from sponsorship, tickets, merchandise clubs are free to do what they want with that money. So yet again it is the football authorities that are making fans pay through the nose as that is the only way clubs can generate the revenue that allows them to compete for the top players moreso than rivals.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Last night, when I was awake again with my very annoying chronic insomnia, I was reading an interesting article written by an Arsenal fan who was arguing the case against the tide of Arsenal fans bemoaning the prices they charge for matchday tickets. The fans against the prices were comparing with Wigan who had the cheapest seats for matchday.

He argued that as Arsenal sell out every home game, then the prices were actually too low. If Demand exceeds supply then the price should rise. In his argument it was actually Wigan who were charging too much because they had empty seats every home game. They had effectively set prices too high and could not sell them at that price to get a full stadium. The rags exploited this to the max with their high matchday prices, compulsory cup schemes etc as under Ferguson the fans didn't want to miss out. They sold out virtually every game despite the costs being high. As their success has waned, they have seen demand wane and have slightly relaxed some of their policies but not by much. That's because they and to an extent Liverpool have the fan base to help meet demand. Arsenal and chelsea have the benefit of being in the capital where there will always be thousands of tourists at any one time.

His argument in basic economic terms is correct. The price of a good is usually directly linked to the demand for it.

However in football, it doesn't seem to work that way because there are other factors that come into play. Clubs have realised that where there is limited demand (us in the CL, Wigan in the league, most lower league clubs) then it doesn't matter what the club do, they won't increase demand. Even at buy one get one free, there were still empty seats for us in this competition.

They therefore look at the maximising revenue point. They play on fan loyalty to achieve this. That's why ticket prices are still very high at the likes of Leeds.

I think it is completely wrong to do this but the head of matchday revenue will be earning very large bonuses for year on year increases and unfortunately their bonus and job retention is more important than what people they don't know think about it. It will only be when the revenue increases start to slip or actually revenue declines that they will do something about it. They are probably aware that some people won't buy tickets but that apathy and the love of the club will override this for the majority. They will also more than likely think that as it is Easter holidays more kids will attend, more tourists will come and that the QF status will add a few bums on seats. They will be prepared for some people not joining the cup scheme next season in protest but will be relying on the Pep factor to address this. These are the other factors.

They don't care about people being priced out as long as there is somebody to take their place. They have annoyed people before with price increases, not least many of those in padded seats level 2'who had been sat there since the stadium was opened and have been forced to move as they could no longer afford those prices. I was one of them and I'm sure they don't lose any sleep over me now being in SS3 as long as they are making more from the person in the padded seat. They have probably had the discussion that people moaned about it and they had a few complaints etc but 95% renewed in that part of the ground or elsewhere. They will use this experience for current pricing policy.

The only way to affect this is to not buy tickets if you don't agree with the pricing and to not renew the CL scheme next season and then hope that there is not the demand there to replace you. We will only see price reductions when this decision making starts to affect revenue growth.

 

[its a Barm]

As stated previously, Fuck off with your protests, scouser wannabes.

 

[bobmcfc]

And now you turn your abuse on me. What makes you think I don't approve of the protest, as a Mod you should not be giving out abuse and the only thing that will stop this old git doing a 520 mile round trip is old age, the reason I can afford the trip is I don't buy papers or have Sky or Bt sport.
Suggest you learn some manners.

You don't have BT or Sky ? You do know that one of the biggest revenues into our club comes from TV deals and by not subscribing to these channels you are taking money away from our glorious club !

Call yourself a blue...