Season Tickets 2014/15

[Blue_Ketchup]

Season tickets expensive at the Etihad???? You have got to be shitting me?!

So, I guess booze, fags and takeaway have been off the menu for the last few decades then, too, eh?

Soooooo tired of hearing this argument EVERY FUCKING YEAR!

There are 36,000 season tickets and the ground is being made bigger just so the people WAITING FOR ONE can get one, yet people are whinging as if they are somehow entitled to one because they have been a fan for a while and don't like the club moving up in the world or attracting to "middle class" fans?!

In case you didn't see it, the City Season Ticket is the BEST VALUE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, and the quality of the football you have been treated to the past few seasons has been some of the best, if not THE BEST, I have seen in the 40 odd years I have been going.

Step back and grab some perspective. The best seat in the stadium is about £700. Over 52 weeks, that is less than £15 a week. Cheapest season ticket is £300, or less than £6 a week!!

So, back to my first sentence!

But, if you don't drink, don't smoke and don't eat out, and that's still too much for you, I understand your dilemma and hope you are able to get to a game or two when able.

Absolute pure and unadulterated nonsense.

You have absolutely no right to condemn long standing blues for complaining about year on year prices increases.

You would though, wouldn't you? As you don't pay for tickets or season tickets.

One of the main reasons our individual ticket prices and season ticket prices are increasing year on year is due to an increase in demand from new fans like yourself. Without that increase in demand, from people like yourself, who couldn't haven't given a shit about us when we were managed by Pearce for example, the club wouldn't be able to increase the prices, even with all the success in the world - as people who couldn't afford the increases in cost were priced out of season tickets, and subsequently be forced to attend less regularly, or altogether, those seats wouldn't be filled. The demand wouldn't be there.

It's the new fans, as well as the success, which has allowed the club to increase ticket prices year on year.

For some strange reason we have no right to complain when we're expected to pay more and more each season due to an increase in demand from people who couldn't have given a shit about us a few years back?

Sound logic.

As for your 'points', they're all redundant, and the majority are incorrect.

Our season tickets are not the best value in the league. They're fairly average in terms of cost among the top clubs. In fact, for comparison, for the past two years a season ticket in the lower tier of the Streford End would cost you less than an equivalent Gold seasoncard in the South Stand lower. This is from a club we've traditionally seen as notorious for ripping off its fans.

My season ticket cost £715 this season. That averages £37.60 per game. I don't consider that value, irrespective of the quality of football we now enjoy.

Your maths is entirely incorrect, and I highly doubt you've been a fan of over 40 years if you think a season ticket includes every single game at home. It doesn't. It includes 19 league games, that's it. Hence I pay an average of £37.60 per league game.

Every other game at home is an extra cost to consider.

And since our individual ticket prices are increasing the most, this cost is considerable.

I don't think Value Gold season tickets should be used as much of a defence of the overall club policy of increasing the cost of match tickets. The Value Gold seasoncards represent nothing more than a token gesture IMO, their percentage of the 36,000 total is so small it's an insignificance, but it allows the club to claim at being among the cheapest season tickets in the league. It's tokenism at it's very purest.

Every year we're expected to pay more. Some might justify that and point to the football, and our phenomenal increase in fortunes on the pitch.

However, my response is simple. I didn't demand a successful City, a City paying the best salaries in the sporting world. I would still be attending games regularly if we were managed by Pearce. Managers come and go, players come and go, chairmen come and go, but our support remains constant. That's what has made this club different, that's what made this club so special and attractive to kids like me where the alternative was the soulless corporate glory of United.

That is all changing. As the ticket prices increase year on year, our match going support will change. It already has, and is continuing to do so. It's gentrification. And this sport is the only place where it's accepted and even readily justified.

Even if you're in a privileged enough position to afford every increase in cost, with no repercussions for the amount of games you attended; if the whole demographics of our match going crowd changed, and all the season ticket holders you meet and greet around you on a match day are priced out, and replaced by floating new fans, who have no real affinity with this club, what makes that attractive to a real blue?

We essentially become the like-for-like soulless corporate rip-off which we used to deride United for.

That is not something I ever expected City to become a part of, and it's something I wouldn't want to be a part of, irrespective of success or 'glory'.

I make no apologies for saying this, and I expect a lot of flak for saying it, but shortly after the takeover we were assured that we, the fans, we central to everything ADUG had planned for the club - we weren't going to be forgotten. Khaldoon emphasised this over and over again, the truth is, these words have proven to be hollow.

We have a right to be disheartened and disgruntled by this.

very good post... out of around 10 lads who used to go 90% of aways a few years ago theres maybe 3 or 4 of us who only do locals now. i'm going to have to drop cup schemes next year as simply can't afford another year like the one we have just had...

 

[Thenumber1blue]

Who is this Number1bkue you speak of Dim of the oak ?

 

[Kippaxstreetheadache]

from new fans like yourself.

and I highly doubt you've been a fan of over 40 years

.

Cutting through the diatribe, have you decided whether he is an old or new fan; seems pertinent to the rant.

He assumed that the cost of a season ticket included every single domestic and European home cup fixture, that is not the comment of a person who has even the slightest of experience attending football matches, letalone 40 years. Hence my comment.

 

[Kippaxstreetheadache]

You may as well pack it in if you are that bitter about it all

Longing for the halcyon days of Pearce, dog shit in the alley, burgers that were months out of date ffs
Forget The best team in a generation, winning trophies, putting scum to the sword, City square, free gigs, kids zone in the stadium, cool website, free videos, the new academy....

Thinking about it you are right, we have been royally shit on

Not bitter. But thanks for the contribution mate.

Only question I'd put to you is;

Would it all be worth it if our season tickets became the most expensive in the league and our match going support changed to the extent that it was vis-a-vis for Stamford Bridge, and all the longstanding season ticket holders around you on a match day were replaced with people who had no affinity to City prior to the takeover?

You know what mate, I've wanted to own a Ferrari for nigh on thirty years, unfortunately I've never had enough money to own one.
I don't go on the Ferrari forums moaning they should lower the price, I don't bemoan my luck, I don't think there should be a special price for me, you know what, I just deal with it.

I don't want to see City increase their prices, but ffs to say they care less about the fans is a clear untruth

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

 

[squirtyflower]

Not bitter. But thanks for the contribution mate.

Only question I'd put to you is;

Would it all be worth it if our season tickets became the most expensive in the league and our match going support changed to the extent that it was vis-a-vis for Stamford Bridge, and all the longstanding season ticket holders around you on a match day were replaced with people who had no affinity to City prior to the takeover?

You know what mate, I've wanted to own a Ferrari for nigh on thirty years, unfortunately I've never had enough money to own one.
I don't go on the Ferrari forums moaning they should lower the price, I don't bemoan my luck, I don't think there should be a special price for me, you know what, I just deal with it.

I don't want to see City increase their prices, but ffs to say they care less about the fans is a clear untruth

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

 

[Davs 19]

You know what mate, I've wanted to own a Ferrari for nigh on thirty years, unfortunately I've never had enough money to own one.
I don't go on the Ferrari forums moaning they should lower the price, I don't bemoan my luck, I don't think there should be a special price for me, you know what, I just deal with it.

I don't want to see City increase their prices, but ffs to say they care less about the fans is a clear untruth

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Spout a load of righteous indignation on a footy forum and then renew ?

I've toyed with the idea of not doing for the last 2 seasons but deep down, I know if I have the cash, I will.

#addicted.

 

[Kippaxstreetheadache]

You know what mate, I've wanted to own a Ferrari for nigh on thirty years, unfortunately I've never had enough money to own one.
I don't go on the Ferrari forums moaning they should lower the price, I don't bemoan my luck, I don't think there should be a special price for me, you know what, I just deal with it.

I don't want to see City increase their prices, but ffs to say they care less about the fans is a clear untruth

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Stop attending. Stop moaning about it, and just reluctantly accepting it as part of the modern game.

Fuck that. Don't renew.

Widespread communication between fanbases, in order to make sure every top flight club adhered to the stay away mantra. It would have to be a joint venture.

Premier League fixtures played in front of empty stadiums.

That would cause a huge stir. Below the Premier League, there are much more financial issues, so it's more debatable - some might argue it could harm their club. But in the Premier League, it's just plain greed.

The increased revenue from the new TV rights deal means that each Premier League club will earn, on average, and extra £25 million from TV revenue this season. That absolutely dwarfs the revenue from gate receipts, and means that this area of a club's income is now an even smaller proportion of their overall income than it already was.

But they still continue to fuck us for every penny we have, and they know they can because we just accept it. If we want it to change we have to show that we are no longer willing to accept it.

That's all it will take.

 

[squirtyflower]

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Spout a load of righteous indignation on a footy forum and then renew ?

I've toyed with the idea of not doing for the last 2 seasons but deep down, I know if I have the cash, I will.

#addicted.

I think this is most people's stance
I love going to watch City, not the team necessarily, just the day out and the enjoyment surrounding following football
But it has perceptibly changed, which is what some of the angst ridden bile is aimed at
Furthermore there are some things I would give up before giving up City, but that's my choice, and some people are already at the point where they would have to give up City instead, each to their own
But there may come a day when the straw breaks the camel's back and I'll have to walk away, as have thousands before and thousands will later, it's no big deal and it happens all the time

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Not bitter. But thanks for the contribution mate.

Only question I'd put to you is;

Would it all be worth it if our season tickets became the most expensive in the league and our match going support changed to the extent that it was vis-a-vis for Stamford Bridge, and all the longstanding season ticket holders around you on a match day were replaced with people who had no affinity to City prior to the takeover?

You know what mate, I've wanted to own a Ferrari for nigh on thirty years, unfortunately I've never had enough money to own one.
I don't go on the Ferrari forums moaning they should lower the price, I don't bemoan my luck, I don't think there should be a special price for me, you know what, I just deal with it.

I don't want to see City increase their prices, but ffs to say they care less about the fans is a clear untruth

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

The Ferrari analogy might have something in relation to the quality of football but we have a Trabant when it Comes to atmosphere. Maybe we end up as a Volkwagen!!

 

[moomba]

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Stop attending. Stop moaning about it, and just reluctantly accepting it as part of the modern game.

Fuck that. Don't renew.

Widespread communication between fanbases, in order to make sure every top flight club adhered to the stay away mantra. It would have to be a joint venture.

Premier League fixtures played in front of empty stadiums.

That would cause a huge stir. Below the Premier League, there are much more financial issues, so it's more debatable - some might argue it could harm their club. But in the Premier League, it's just plain greed.

The increased revenue from the new TV rights deal means that each Premier League club will earn, on average, and extra £25 million from TV revenue this season. That absolutely dwarfs the revenue from gate receipts, and means that this area of a club's income is now an even smaller proportion of their overall income than it already was.

But they still continue to fuck us for every penny we have, and they know they can because we just accept it. If we want it to change we have to show that we are no longer willing to accept it.

That's all it will take.

I'd love it. Even stay in the concourses for the first 10 minutes of a game. Show the clubs what direction they are headed towards, Show them that they can't continue to take the piss.

Will never happen. But would be great.