Villa return some of their 1700 allocation - on OS now

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

For me it is fuck all to do with pricing. It is the fact that football fans and people in general have less disposable income to spend on hobbies etc these days as a result of recession,no pay rises and as a result they have to decide what to spend there money on. Football and away days I am afraid are way down the list of certain families who are struggling to make ends meet. I am lucky that I do not have to worry about the cost of football however out of principal I would never ever pay over £60 for a football ticket. That would be my limit.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Somewhat surprisingly for a Saturday 3PM kick-off, Villa have returned block 113 of their allocation.

So they are bringing 1100 max for a Sat KO at the Champions?

Message going out there to football clubs. You are killing off the travelling supporter which makes the atmosphere in football. I am sure football clubs can see this happening, but they probably think less away fans then less hassle

I put it down to tv,marv.
In my local pub we have 4 TV screens which show at least 2 or 3 different Saturday afternoon games via cable tv from various European countries.If City,United LFC or Everton are on the pub is packed to the rafters.

i put it down to villa being frightened to get stuck with the cost of unsold tickets

 

[Marvin]

If you look at German football you see big away crowds.

It's ticket prices, and football has to decide whether they are bothered or not. It must have their attention by now. So we conclude that football's bosses aren;t bothered.

And I must conclude that they are idiots because it's one of the main attractions to the game

Yes there are clubs who have fickle supports. And Villa do have a reputation for that. But it's not like this is a one off. Sunderland used to bring loads. They didn't this season and when they came they were unbeaten

Germany is a very different country with a very different league. Britain is now a very different country with a very different league to the way it used to be.

Germany has heavy government intervention, which, for instance includes public transport in the price of a match ticket. Would never happen over here in a million years. We're too market-based to take that approach. You can imagine Virgin and the like throwing shit fits from losing the money of football fans. We can't go back to the days of football specials because it's now all privatised and no-one keeps dilapidated rolling stock anymore.

As to our league, the English Premier League is the most popular in the world, and mark my words, it will become the dominant league. It is the only league worth bothering about in all the emerging markets. The money contributed by the fans will become less and less and so the idea of a supporters boycott will become less and less powerful. Soon clubs won't need working class fans at all, only corporates. The only way tickets will get cheaper is via the benign actions of owners, but even that is circumvented by the intense market pressures of competition of players wages. Think about it. Could footballers earn 10k a week tops, and the fans have virtually free tickets, and could it all work. Absolutely. Can that happen? No. There's your answer. Get rid of free-market capitalism.

Free-market capitalism does not exist. That's why there's huge Sovereign debt issues everywhere from Japan, to US, Spain and the UK

I would remind you that the so called home of the free market is the USA and look at their approach to sports - highly regulated.

It wouldn't surprise me if football went down this route. Ideologically the Tories and Labour are all for the Big Brother state at the moment. ban this ban that. Just cements their power

 

[The Pink Panther]

I don't understand the issue about a club returning a block of tickets.
These are good seats that then become available and sell out to other blues or day trippers that spend in the shop, which is a win win for the club

 

[Skashion]

Free-market capitalism does not exist. That's why there's huge Sovereign debt issues everywhere from Japan, to US, Spain and the UK

I would remind you that the so called home of the free market is the USA and look at their approach to sports - highly regulated.

It wouldn't surprise me if football went down this route. Ideologically the Tories and Labour are all for the Big Brother state at the moment. ban this ban that. Just cements their power

I hear ticket prices are really cheap in the US...

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I don't understand the issue about a club returning a block of tickets.

The segregation arrangements won't allow us to sell part of the away fans blocks to home fans. We can sell the upper tier or lower tier as a whole ut not split fans within either tier.

 

[M18CTID]

It's all very raggish this calling Villa a small club.

No-one has called them a small club - that would be an incredibly deluded comment to make. One poster has stated "big club, my arse" and that was it. And let's be fair, they're not really a big club as things stand in English football but they're one of those sleeping giants with huge potential.

Not really the point though is it? Putting it in those terms is not really making a well rounded point; it's taking the piss. The reality is that without our recent success, our support would be similar to Villa's. There would be good days and bad days in terms of numbers away from home, and at home to be fair. It's basically a very arrogant attitude for which we criticise other clubs like United.
We were very similar to Villa before our lottery win and now some of us seem to think we're superior.

Before our lottery win we were probably worse off than Villa because of their (admittedly smaller) lottery win.

As it happens, I'm not knocking Villa's support as such (though others have done in the meantime) and I fully accept that they are one of the most famous clubs in English football. I was merely expressing a little surprise that their ticket sales for a Saturday 3pm kick-off in Manchester have been slower than expected. I'd have thought last week's gallant effort against United, coupled with a chance to follow up their recent cup win at ours would've been enough of a tempter to galvanise enough interest to sell out their allocation. Not only that, Villa fans are generally a decent bunch and like us tend not to take themselves too seriously plus they like to make a good day of it when they come up here.

 

[lovecityhateunited]

would you watch the shit they play

YES I FUCKIN WOULD, AND HAVE FANATICALLY FOLLWED WORSE THAN THAT

 

[Marvin]

I don't understand the issue about a club returning a block of tickets.
These are good seats that then become available and sell out to other blues or day trippers that spend in the shop, which is a win win for the club

It is a win for the club. But isn't that short term?

One of the characteristics of English football has been the atmosphere in the ground, and away fans create that. It is also a sign that the game is not as healthy

Away fans are the most passionate and committed fans. if they are travelling in reduced numbers doesn't it suggest there's something wrong?

Affordability, Lack of belief. A bit of both. When it's more or less every club that's taking less fans away it suggests that something is going on, and is that change good or bad, or something we can do anything about

 

[fathellensbellend]

I don't understand the issue about a club returning a block of tickets.
These are good seats that then become available and sell out to other blues or day trippers that spend in the shop, which is a win win for the club

It is a win for the club. But isn't that short term?

One of the characteristics of English football has been the atmosphere in the ground, and away fans create that. It is also a sign that the game is not as healthy

Away fans are the most passionate and committed fans. if they are travelling in reduced numbers doesn't it suggest there's something wrong?

Affordability, Lack of belief. A bit of both. When it's more or less every club that's taking less fans away it suggests that something is going on, and is that change good or bad, or something we can do anything about

exactly right marvin, i personally would love to see our stadium extended, and away fans welcomed, with a bigger allocation and affordable prices.

the german model is the future, the notion the premier league is the be all and end all is delusion on a grand scale.

the bundersliga may not be as popular globally, but for the german fans their product pisses all over the english counterpart.

1)bigger stadia
2)cheaper tickets
3)bigger away allocation
4)safe standing
5)public transport
6)atmosphere

still some on here will be happy when wigan fans are paying 100 quid for a ticket, then slagging them off, asking why they have only took 1 seat