Should City Offer Subsidised Away Travel?

[jrb]

Oh FFS, why are some posters seeing their......(fill in as appropriate) on here?

It's just a topic of conversation on the back of Stoke and Chelsea offering their fans subsidised away travel.

I fully appreciate what Sheikh Mansour has done for this club since he bought it.(repeat 100X jrb!) I've traipsed around the new training complex enough times to realize that, and the rest.

However, whether people like to admit it or not, away fans are a dieing breed. You've all seen it with your own eyes at the *Emptyhad away end*. That includes our away support as well.

Look at our away following at Arsenal last season. Yes I appreciate there was a boycott, and that in itself tells you everything you need to know about the problem. *Enough is enough!* City now only take either half or reduced allocations at Spurs and Chelsea.(I stand corrected on that) We now never fill the majority of the Fulham away end anymore. We used to in the past. West Ham? Swansea? Etc.

Whether people like to admit it or not following your team away is now the preserve of a few, especially when those games are in London or the South of England/Wales.

For a start match tickets are between £50 and £60 for most London away games. Then you can add another £30-£60 for coach or train travel. Then add money for food and drink.(please don't say don't eat or drink for the whole day), and you're looking at £110+ for one away match. If there's two away matches in London in one month, that's £200+. Hand on heart, how many of you can afford that? And if you could, could you justify that to yourself and your Family?

The maths are simple. People can't afford certain away matches anymore. And yes, they'll watch it on Sky instead. And isn't that a shame. That sums up what football has become is in this day and age.

Being honest here. I no longer go to matches in London or down South. I'm not prepared to pay £50-£60 for a match ticket, and on top of that pay £30-£60 for coach or train travel. Yes I still go to away matches in the North and Midlands. Stoke is a prime example. £30+ for a match ticket, and £10 return on the train. Add a few beers and I can do the whole day for £50. Bingo!

Going back to Stoke and Chelsea. First it was Stoke and now it's Chelsea. Who will be next to break ranks? What happens when the current minority are the majority? Will City join the current minority or wait until they are the minority, and then join the majority? (ah?)

Peter Scudamore has stated the PL cannot force PL clubs to reduce away tickets prices. They have discussed it with the clubs. Guessing, you and I know who won't drop their prices. I'm certain other clubs would be prepared to drop their prices if every club did.

So what's the alternative? What can be done to get away ends full again? Or are we going to end up with a situation where away ends are only half full and the remaining seats end up being sold to home fans?(it's already happening jrb) Or God forbid, away ends end up with no away fans at all. If ticket and travel prices keep on going up, which they will do, away fans may well be a thing of the past.

Tin hat on! Bunker down! Incoming fire! Boom!!

 

[squirtyflower]

I agree with you that there is a problem jrb and what should happen, although the least likely, is that clubs should agree to capping away ticket prices at £30

It's a bit of a piss take when you are charged £50+ and then given the shittest view in the stadium

 

[jrb]

I agree with you that there is a problem jrb and what should happen, although the least likely, is that clubs should agree to capping away ticket prices at £30

It's a bit of a piss take when you are charged £50+ and then given the shittest view in the stadium

That would be the ideal scenario Squirty, but PL clubs won't do it.

Unfortunately we as fans will never get to know which clubs are prepared to reduce away ticket prices, and which clubs aren't prepared to reduce away ticket prices.

And even if you asked Scudamore face to face, he would never say.

 

[law74]

Ticket prices need to be reduced for home and away fans, and City did give free travel to newcastle a LOT of years ago for the sunday evening game in the FA cup up there, but there is also a lot about free travel with a valid match ticket for the surrounding area (maybe a 30 mile radius), like we seen in Germany.
Less cars on the road, less pollution, less police hours spent in traffic congestion etc, the only problem with our home games would be that the GMPTE cannot cope with 25,000 wanting to go to a game of cricket, so how would they cope if 30,000 of a 48,000 crowd wanted to use public transport?

 

[Anonymous]

TBF Chelsea always take a good away following.

They certainly fill OT every time, etc.

Chelsea have been doing this for the past few years.... ?

Regardless if City sell their away allocations, which certainly hasn't always been the case, it would be another great gesture by the club., even if it was only for games in London and South Wales.

Chelsea have struggled to sell tickets for most games they play up north. Especially against United last year when there were a good thousand or so empty seats in the Chelsea away end. A bit shocking considering they were reigning European champions at the time.

Chelsea have always been notoriously fickle.
They averaged about 12,000 under Mad Ken Bates in the bad old days before Roman pitched up with his roubles.
Then they suddenly found 20,000 lifelong fans almost overnight.
Bunch of utter arsewipes, like most cockneys.

Hahaha .......

you're not wrong there ....

i was stood on the open end there , one bleak Saturday afternoon back in the early eighties ...... i think there was only me , four programme sellers , a hot dog flogger , and a couple of hundred other City fans there ...... plus a few hundred Headhunters chasing us up and down the terracing !


In fact , at one point , before the headhunters put in their belated appearance , we had that much space around us we could have performed a bit of line-dancing !

 

[Deleted member 52846]

Oh FFS, why are some posters seeing their......(fill in as appropriate) on here?

It's just a topic of conversation on the back of Stoke and Chelsea offering their fans subsidised away travel.

I fully appreciate what Sheikh Mansour has done for this club since he bought it.(repeat 100X jrb!) I've traipsed around the new training complex enough times to realize that, and the rest.

However, whether people like to admit it or not, away fans are a dieing breed. You've all seen it with your own eyes at the *Emptyhad away end*. That includes our away support as well.

Look at our away following at Arsenal last season. Yes I appreciate there was a boycott, and that in itself tells you everything you need to know about the problem. *Enough is enough!* City now only take either half or reduced allocations at Spurs and Chelsea.(I stand corrected on that) We now never fill the majority of the Fulham away end anymore. We used to in the past. West Ham? Swansea? Etc.

Whether people like to admit it or not following your team away is now the preserve of a few, especially when those games are in London or the South of England/Wales.

For a start match tickets are between £50 and £60 for most London away games. Then you can add another £30-£60 for coach or train travel. Then add money for food and drink.(please don't say don't eat or drink for the whole day), and you're looking at £110+ for one away match. If there's two away matches in London in one month, that's £200+. Hand on heart, how many of you can afford that? And if you could, could you justify that to yourself and your Family?

The maths are simple. People can't afford certain away matches anymore. And yes, they'll watch it on Sky instead. And isn't that a shame. That sums up what football has become is in this day and age.

Being honest here. I no longer go to matches in London or down South. I'm not prepared to pay £50-£60 for a match ticket, and on top of that pay £30-£60 for coach or train travel. Yes I still go to away matches in the North and Midlands. Stoke is a prime example. £30+ for a match ticket, and £10 return on the train. Add a few beers and I can do the whole day for £50. Bingo!

Going back to Stoke and Chelsea. First it was Stoke and now it's Chelsea. Who will be next to break ranks? What happens when the current minority are the majority? Will City join the current minority or wait until they are the minority, and then join the majority? (ah?)

Peter Scudamore has stated the PL cannot force PL clubs to reduce away tickets prices. They have discussed it with the clubs. Guessing, you and I know who won't drop their prices. I'm certain other clubs would be prepared to drop their prices if every club did.

So what's the alternative? What can be done to get away ends full again? Or are we going to end up with a situation where away ends are only half full and the remaining seats end up being sold to home fans?(it's already happening jrb) Or God forbid, away ends end up with no away fans at all. If ticket and travel prices keep on going up, which they will do, away fans may well be a thing of the past.

Tin hat on! Bunker down! Incoming fire! Boom!!

Good post.

Clubs have just received an unprecedented amount of money from Sky for doing fuck all. Some fans graft their bollocks off everyday just to afford to go and watch their club and even then they can't afford all games. I think clubs up and down the country should start rewarding their fans' loyalty. Off the top of my head Preston, West Brom, Stoke, even skint rugby league clubs have done this sort of thing Chelsea are doing, in the past.

 

[Deleted member 52846]

TBF Chelsea always take a good away following.

They certainly fill OT every time, etc.

Chelsea have been doing this for the past few years.... ?

Regardless if City sell their away allocations, which certainly hasn't always been the case, it would be another great gesture by the club., even if it was only for games in London and South Wales.

Chelsea have struggled to sell tickets for most games they play up north. Especially against United last year when there were a good thousand or so empty seats in the Chelsea away end. A bit shocking considering they were reigning European champions at the time.

Chelsea have always been notoriously fickle.
They averaged about 12,000 under Mad Ken Bates in the bad old days before Roman pitched up with his roubles.
Then they suddenly found 20,000 lifelong fans almost overnight.
Bunch of utter arsewipes, like most cockneys.

To be fair to Chelsea, going back to the 60s we did almost exactly that. We averaged 14000 in 1964 and by the time we were champions in 1968 we averaged 37000. Sometimes things like this happen.

Chelsea brought 10000 to Maine Road on a week night back when they were averaging those low home attendances in the late 80s.

Also they, along with us, are the only English clubs to ever get a home league attendance of over 80000.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Is having away fans at a game really that important? It's not a big thing in Spain.

 

[Stretfordian_Blue]

It shouldn't be offered, there should be a cap on prices for the actual game and then clubs should be obliged to put on coaches for away games, at 1/2 the standard price.

 

[mayo31]

I appreciate people like a scoop on the train or coach when they travel away. However, would you go without for 2 hours on the train, or 4 hours on the coach, if you where given the opportunity to travel for £10 via the club?

no, and not just because of the lack of beer. I don't particularly like what football has become, whiter than white, non atmospheric diluted crowds, plastic bag carrying twerps, people who watch the game with their camera phone permanently in their hand so I'd rather stick with the same people that are like me which is lads brought up in the nasty old 70's and 80's world of football. I really don't want to be sat on a coach with a load of twerps that complain when you sing a song that has a swear word in it and I don't think they want to be on the same coach as me and mine either.

Never have twerps on our coach Charlie.