The Cost of Football

[Barrel of Fun]

I see Naylor has tweeted about moaning and there will, presumably, a follow up article will be printed.

I have moaned about the Sunderland prices. Regardless of opposition or competition, I do believe that football is too expensive. Obviously it is going to depend on how much cash one has available after the essentials, although some will say that following their team is up there with mortgage repayments, I imagine.

Do you think football is too expensive on the whole?

 

[Marc1901]

Yes, although im willing to pay it. Watching the Albion play near on week in week out is a must and something I love.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Yes, although im willing to pay it. Watching the Albion play near on week in week out is a must and something I love.

This. It is overpriced GENERALLY but like the mug punter I am, I will pay it. Especially for HOME games.

Away? Not so sure.

 

[Falkor]

yes it is but we will be moaning if we cant sign the like of CMS the club has to get the funds back some how

 

[Commander]

Do you think football is too expensive on the whole?

Yes, Definitely. For the first time in my life I am lucky enough to be in a position to afford it, but a few years ago I would not have been considering paying £25 for a 2nd Round Carling Cup tie, plus £15 on the train, plus £20 for beers + food etc, especially with a home game a few days either side. You're looking at over £150 in a week! Too much.

But, that said, I would rather pay these prices and watch the Albion in a fantastic stadium with a real chance of Premier League football in the foreseeable future, than pay lower prices and watch us in a crap stadium in League 2.

But the money that football costs these days, along with all seater stadiums, has definitely effected the atmosphere as your average man in the street often cant afford to go, or cant afford to go to every game anyway. Without the season ticket monthly direct debit I think we would be looking at much lower crowds at the Amex.

My mate has just got his first ever season ticket at Arsenal, after being on the waiting list for year. £1450!! outrageous.

 

[Icy Gull]

I only have a few vices, the Albion is one of them so I pay what I have to. I understand people being angry or upset if they can't afford it but the high price of football if you want a decent team and facilities is just the way it is. Moaning is going to achieve, err nothing. We'll have to wait until we are back in League 2 rattling around with 6 k crowds and shit players to stand any chance of watching the Albion cheaply.

 

[Hotchilidog]

As a general point, yes football is too expensive, and the main reason is the ludicrously high wages for players. Why when the PL gets a Billion dollar tv deal fans are expected to fork out in excess of £50 a ticket is just mystifying to me. Still if people are prepared to pay they will continue to charge it. When I hear of players such Samir Nasri chasing £165,000 a WEEK! because £80-90,000 wasn't enough it quite frankly makes me sick.

I'm glad I'm not a QPR fan, they have been ripped off something rotten but it appears that 10 or 12,000 people have let themselves get milked by the gruesome twosome at Loftus Road, which I find incredible.

I do however think that with the DD scheme the Albion have made even the pricier seats affordable this season, and with the catering prices not being outrageous either should be heartily applauded. For me I'm still undecided about Sunderland but the club will found out if they made the right decision on it, when they see the size of the crowd. As for my ST, I am well happy, so no complaints there. The quality of the football mixed in with the quality of the experience makes the Albion pretty decent value which you may not find elsewhere.

 

[crodonilson]

Judging by the average audiences in English football over the past 25 years I don't see how you can justify it's too high.

 

[clippedgull]

Do you think football is too expensive on the whole?

Yes. I have cut virtually all my away games to fund my Amex ticket.

 

[Seagull1967]

Football has to be put into context - is it more expensive to Rugby League/Union? Cricket? or Snooker? etc

Going to a concert to watch your favorite band? or going to the theatre?

Is it dearer than drinking or smoking?

As some mentioned earlier, if it's a vice then people will pay regardless. BHA is a drug and most fans will find a way to find the money.

 

[Mendoza]

It is silly money paying to watch football, but I wouldnt have it any other way. It used to be a day of spending time with mates, but now we have the added bonus of decent football. Whilst this lasts, the club is going to jump on the bandwaggon and charge what they want, as we are stupid enough to pay it.


Look at August:
Season ticket DD : £30-£50 monthly payment
Portsmouth £30
Cardiff £25
Sunderland : £24 - £40

thats over £100 without travel, pies, beer etc in just one month


If this was in Adams second spell, we would stuggle to sell tickets to half fill The AMEX. We are in that place where we are on cloud 9 and everyone is loving life. Just look around town on that Saturday morning of the Doncaster game. There were people walking around in Brighton shirts. That hasn’t happened in my time watching the Albion. There is a buzz about The Albion and the club are milking it. I don’t blame them, even though its costing me a fortune.

Sunderland prices are too high, especially with the £2 booking fee on top, but I was stupid enough to pay it in the hope we might see something special, well that or Titus Bramble in the flesh.

 

[ROSM]

Is football too expensive? - generally yes although I think my season ticket (over 12 months and a reasonable rate) isn't.

Given this, are the ticket prices for sunderland wrong? - not really, they are stated prices (not increased as happened in the good old bad old days at the Goldstone)

Will I pay it? - hell yes I will (subject to clearing some prior engagements). I gave up drugs and brasses for the Albion and its my only remaining vice

 

[Ecosse Exile]

For every person that says, yes but i still go (and i include myself in this), you are the reason that football is too expensive.
It is by no means exclusive to Brighton or even to England, it is a problem in every major league worldwide.
If clubs want success they need the best players available, if they dont pay those players top money they will go elsewhere.
The players can go elsewhere because other clubs are willing to meet their outragous demands.
People blame Sky tv, they point the finger at foreign owners and their millions, yet they are still willing to hand over a sizeable slice of their hard earned to go and watch their team, or to have Sky broadcasted into their home so they can watch the latest match between two teams that they normally wouldn't give a shit about.

Surely with the money being pumped into the game, they should be able to reduce ticket prices... Well no, actually they cant because to compete at the top level you have to pay the players as i mentioned before, some of these are on 250k per week, i say again PER WEEK!!! That is disgusting and they get paid that because they get away with it. Even if you come down to our level and look at the vast sums of money being paid to players by the likes of West Ham, Leicester and yes even Brighton, it is still rediculous. I mean CMS was rumoured to be on 20k per week, that may or may not be true but i seriously doubt its less than 10k per week.

Now for me 10k per week is a hell of a lot of money, wow thats 520k per year, Half a million quid, bloody hell the things i could do with half a million quid!
I am not blaming CMS, if someone is stupid enough to pay him that, of course he is going to take it, I am not blaming Tony Bloom, he wants to compete and as i said above to compete costs money, lots of it. I blame US the fans, until we say enough is enough, i am not prepared to give up maybe a 3rd of my wages to feed my habit every week, then it is going to go on and on.

The only other way is for Fifa to introduce wage capping, but that wont happen because the worldwide brand of football is doing fantastic at the moment so they wont change it.

So if you think football is too expensive, then dont go. But if you do, dont moan about it, because its your fault!

 

[macky]

simply yes is Brighton different to any other club no Its all down to players greed and that wont change all the time there are mugs like us giving in to it What does concern me is the thought of losing youngsters to other sports like basketball etc then there will be only the prawn sarnie eaters left

 

[clippedgull]

For every person that says, yes but i still go (and i include myself in this), you are the reason that football is too expensive.
It is by no means exclusive to Brighton or even to England, it is a problem in every major league worldwide.
If clubs want success they need the best players available, if they dont pay those players top money they will go elsewhere.
The players can go elsewhere because other clubs are willing to meet their outragous demands.
People blame Sky tv, they point the finger at foreign owners and their millions, yet they are still willing to hand over a sizeable slice of their hard earned to go and watch their team, or to have Sky broadcasted into their home so they can watch the latest match between two teams that they normally wouldn't give a shit about.

Surely with the money being pumped into the game, they should be able to reduce ticket prices... Well no, actually they cant because to compete at the top level you have to pay the players as i mentioned before, some of these are on 250k per week, i say again PER WEEK!!! That is disgusting and they get paid that because they get away with it. Even if you come down to our level and look at the vast sums of money being paid to players by the likes of West Ham, Leicester and yes even Brighton, it is still rediculous. I mean CMS was rumoured to be on 20k per week, that may or may not be true but i seriously doubt its less than 10k per week.

Now for me 10k per week is a hell of a lot of money, wow thats 520k per year, Half a million quid, bloody hell the things i could do with half a million quid!
I am not blaming CMS, if someone is stupid enough to pay him that, of course he is going to take it, I am not blaming Tony Bloom, he wants to compete and as i said above to compete costs money, lots of it. I blame US the fans, until we say enough is enough, i am not prepared to give up maybe a 3rd of my wages to feed my habit every week, then it is going to go on and on.

The only other way is for Fifa to introduce wage capping, but that wont happen because the worldwide brand of football is doing fantastic at the moment so they wont change it.

So if you think football is too expensive, then dont go. But if you do, dont moan about it, because its your fault!

Post of the week!

 

[c0lz]

For every person that says, yes but i still go (and i include myself in this), you are the reason that football is too expensive.
It is by no means exclusive to Brighton or even to England, it is a problem in every major league worldwide.
If clubs want success they need the best players available, if they dont pay those players top money they will go elsewhere.
The players can go elsewhere because other clubs are willing to meet their outragous demands.
People blame Sky tv, they point the finger at foreign owners and their millions, yet they are still willing to hand over a sizeable slice of their hard earned to go and watch their team, or to have Sky broadcasted into their home so they can watch the latest match between two teams that they normally wouldn't give a shit about.

Surely with the money being pumped into the game, they should be able to reduce ticket prices... Well no, actually they cant because to compete at the top level you have to pay the players as i mentioned before, some of these are on 250k per week, i say again PER WEEK!!! That is disgusting and they get paid that because they get away with it. Even if you come down to our level and look at the vast sums of money being paid to players by the likes of West Ham, Leicester and yes even Brighton, it is still rediculous. I mean CMS was rumoured to be on 20k per week, that may or may not be true but i seriously doubt its less than 10k per week.

Now for me 10k per week is a hell of a lot of money, wow thats 520k per year, Half a million quid, bloody hell the things i could do with half a million quid!
I am not blaming CMS, if someone is stupid enough to pay him that, of course he is going to take it, I am not blaming Tony Bloom, he wants to compete and as i said above to compete costs money, lots of it. I blame US the fans, until we say enough is enough, i am not prepared to give up maybe a 3rd of my wages to feed my habit every week, then it is going to go on and on.

The only other way is for Fifa to introduce wage capping, but that wont happen because the worldwide brand of football is doing fantastic at the moment so they wont change it.

So if you think football is too expensive, then dont go. But if you do, dont moan about it, because its your fault!

good post and some good points but where i would disagree is quote: dont moan about it, because its your fault!.
had that applied to Liverpool, Arsenal , Chelsea, Manchester's etc would have agreed , but hardly our fault if we playing catch up all the time.

 

[Fur Cough]

Only if you can't afford something is it too expensive.
If you can afford something you can then make a decision if you think it's good value.

Personally football is too expensive for me.

 

[macky]

i think football has become very fashionable and its being ripped away from the working class

 

[severnside gull]

Attrending a home game costs me around £150 because of where I live but away games tend to be cheaper because it's usually not as far to travel - I don't have the opportunity to indulge many of my vices so I am prepared to pay what it costs.

Of course football is vastly over-priced, largely because of ridiculously inflated wages for players and staff and I seriously hope that the bubble might burst one day although it will take the demise of satellite tv to make it happen. If it does it will be like the sky falling in for the big time charlies and none will escape unharmed, including us. Unfortunately the days when football was a simple game, affordable for all. are long gone and will probably never return - you only have to look at the ticket prices for even lower non-leagues to realise that the malaise of inflated costs has spread to every level.

As for moaning, I do think that the reaction to prices for the Sunderland game have been totally over the top and unfair to the club. Had they been asking for more than the standard league entry charge then fair enough but that isn't the case. The number of people using it to resurrect complaints about the handling charge which is now almost universal in all areas of entertainment has just exaggerated the sense that these complaints are not founded. That said, fans have always complained about prices and always will. Plus ca change and all that.

Great for Naylor that it has handed him a story and another chance to engage in his favourite hobby of moaning at keyboard warriors - bit of a case of pot, kettle and black though don't you think?

 

[Wilko]

Everything is overpriced though isn't it? A friend of mine got me a ticket to see The inbetweeners film this week, online with booking fee: £9.25 - to watch a non 3d film in a shithouse cinema? Crazy money really.

In answer to the question, yes, football is overpriced. It seems that people now pick and chosse games rather than watching them all which is a shame. What I find frustrating is they make games a little too expensive though, for example making a game £20 rather than £27 makes such a difference psychologically when you are weighing up whether to go. I think the prices should be as follows:

Premier: £30
Championship: £20
League one and two: £15
Conf: £10

Not a huge difference in prices would sxee attendances ROCKET I reckons.