Let's get one thing straight here. We've always had the serial moaners amongst our fanbase - people who complain about anything and everything, and nothing seems to please them. However, when you start to piss off those that aren't serial moaners you know the club have dropped a bollock. And that's exactly what the club have done with this increase.
It's all well and good people saying it's only a £10/£15 increase but those people are completely and utterly missing the point. Not only do we have the lucrative new TV deal which is worth something in the region of £40 million extra per year to the club and should negate the need for any price increases for the next few years, if everyone was to keep their mouths shut about this increase and not express their concerns about it, does anyone seriously believe it will only be a 2%-2.5% increase next year? If you do, then you need to get real because you'd be looking at 5% or more. And that's the problem - too many fans at this club and in this country (and I include myself in that) have bent over for too many years and allowed ourselves to be constantly shafted with regards to ticket prices, while everyone else in the game at the top level - players, managers, directors, agents, etc - have continued to earn more and more money. I'm not against paying great players and great managers good money, but I am against fans being asked to shell out more money when there's absolutely no need to due to record-breaking TV revenues/prize money/ever-increasing commercial income being more than enough to cover the running costs at the club. And if fans don't speak up and try to resist these increases, like I say it will only get worse.
Last season we had a price freeze but if anyone believes that was a goodwill gesture from the club then they're seriously deluding themselves. That only came about because we railed against the prices for the PSG home game which in turn led to cheaper prices for the Real Madrid game and a freeze on season ticket prices. If those fans that campaigned hadn't bothered then the Real Madrid tickets would've been more expensive, not cheaper, than the PSG game and we would've been stung with another seasoncard price increase. Same goes for away ticket prices at Premier League games. Without the tireless campaigning of the Football Supporters Federation and fan groups across the country which reached it's zenith with a nationwide weekend of action back in October 2015, we'd still be paying up to 60-odd quid for away games and not the capped price of £30. Plenty of cynics reckoned we wouldn't get anywhere with that campaign but we did which proves fan activism works.
