I'm fully against any increase in ticket costs. I believe we're already at the limit of what is acceptable, reasonable and affordable to the average person.
I've got a reasonably well paid job and I can afford my ticket no problem, but I care about those that can't. I've always been brought up with the thinking that we have to look out for our own and I'll stand by any City fan who vents their frustrations at increased ticket prices.
Some fans seem to only care about themselves and have laughed off increases as 'Well, it's only £15 a year!', but it's not about that. It's about the direction the ship is heading. We're on a staircase at the moment and at the top of that staircase are super expensive season tickets, each step we take is another step closer to the top and before you know it, time flies, and you're at the top of the stairs paying through the roof. That's why people are upset, not because of the 'low' amount of the increase, but because of the journey and direction the ticket prices are heading towards.
As a supporter it makes you feel like you're not important, that you're just a customer. When you see these mega TV deals there is absolutely no reason to increase ticket prices further. When you go to the match having paid so much money to be there, you EXPECT to be entertained, you EXPECT to win and the EXPECT to play well on each occasion, and that's hammered home by knowing that the players are on hundreds of thousands of pounds a week. That's what is killing the atmosphere in England. The expectation based on ticket prices and player wages, along with long time, local and die hard fans being slowly driven away by the cost.
The best atmosphere we've ever had at the Etihad was against Hamburg in the Europa League and it's no coincidence that the tickets for that game were a fiver each. It brought in loads of locals, people who can't usually afford it and it made people feel like they weren't just customers. Fans didn't sit on their hands demanding to be entertained because they'd paid through the roof, they came as fans having paid a nominal entrance fee and wanted to cheer the team on loudly because of that.