The Cost of Football

[teaboy]

Yes, football is too expensive. In the days of terracing there was an option for watching cheaply - standing up. If you had the money and wanted the luxury of sitting down in relative comfort then you paid a bit extra. Now there isn't the choice - you either sit down at the increased price or don't go.

Players are only paid a ridiculous wage because someone will pay it. If all clubs decided to cap wages at £100,000 a year (still more than enough to be very comfortable, even with a fairly short career) and actually stuck to it then overheads would be massively reduced and prices could come down significantly.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

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.

Yes mate we are playing catch up, and we always will be, Lets suppose we get promoted this season, how much will the prices go up by? £10 maybe? So to go and see a Premier league game at a very nice stadium will cost us £35ish. The club will need to charge more to get players of a quality that can compete at that level, because how many feel we have even half a team thats up to that standard? I know i dont.

So we survive in the Premier league, but are gates now falling because its too expensive? especially to watch a team thats not winning all the time and just about surviving. So we either accept that we become Premier league strugglers or we push on and try and establish ourselves as a mid-table Premier league team like Aston Villa, Sunderland or Everton but this costs more money to catch up.

The rewards for attaining Premier League status and staying there are HUGE, but so are the costs. Clubs get serious amounts of money pumped into them from TV, sponsorship, etc etc, but the players are taking such vast amounts out that the clubs still dont get enough revenue, so that has to funnell down to you and i.

Until the clubs say no and impose a salary cap throughout football this will carry on im afraid.

 

[Commander]

Yes, football is too expensive. In the days of terracing there was an option for watching cheaply - standing up. If you had the money and wanted the luxury of sitting down in relative comfort then you paid a bit extra. Now there isn't the choice - you either sit down at the increased price or don't go.

Players are only paid a ridiculous wage because someone will pay it. If all clubs decided to cap wages at £100,000 a year (still more than enough to be very comfortable, even with a fairly short career) and actually stuck to it then overheads would be massively reduced and prices could come down significantly.

If £100,000 a year is the absolute maximum you could earn as a footballer, meaning the chances are that you wouldn't earn it until you were in your peak, say 27 ish, then you would only earn 100K for a maximum of about 8 years. That is not enough money to be comfortable on at all, plenty of people with big families aren't comfortable on 100K when earning it for 30 years.

I think a top level footballer should be on a lot more than 100K a year, it takes a hell of a lot of work to get to that level, even if you have a fantastic talent. 200K a week is obscene, I would say 5K a week is probably about right.

 

[Badger]

Some people pay £80ish a month for the full Sky Sports package just so they can watch their beloved Chelsea/Man Utd/Liverpool/Arsenal (delete as appropriate) on TV so I'm quite happy to pay about the same to watch my team play live.

 

[Commander]

Some people pay £80ish a month for the full Sky Sports package just so they can watch their beloved Chelsea/Man Utd/Liverpool/Arsenal (delete as appropriate) on TV so I'm quite happy to pay about the same to watch my team play live.

That's a very good point actually. My Sky subscription costs over twice that of my season ticket. Must remember that one for the missus come renewal time next year.

 

[drew]

Some of the comments on here about players wages being to high are comical. Why should players accept a cap on wages when they don't have to? How many people on here would turn down a pay rise if your company offered it. What if another company said to you they would double your wages if you go and work for them? And if we are going to cap footballers wages, are we going to do the same for everyone else. Someone said £100k was reasonable. There are plenty of GPs that earn over that as well as specialised surgeons (including private practise), lets cap the PM's salary and that of the cabinet. What about bankers and all the CEOs who earn more than that from their companies. And what if they did cap footballers pay to £100k per year. On that basis, they should also cap your pay and no doubt that would mean a pay cut. Would you accept that if you didn't have to? Also, how did you arrive at £100k per year, or £5k per week as another put it. Where is your scientific calculation or comparisons with other trades industries or is it just a gut feeling based on envy?

The reason they are paid so much is due to the amount of money paid to clubs and the vast bulk of that comes from Sky. How many of you complaining about players wages subscribe to Sky sports so you can sit on your fat arse on a Sunday afternoon to watch a game between two premiership teams you don't really support? How much is sky now? About £45 quid a month? (That is enough to cover the direct debit for a season ticket). If people didn't subscribe to sky then they wouldn't pay the premiership so much money and the clubs would not be able to pay the wages they do. The effect of that would be that the better players would ply their trade elsewhere where they can get more money, be that Spain or Italy etc.

At the end of the day, things cost what they cost and you have a choice whether to buy or not to buy. I would like a sleek sports car but can't afford it but I'm not recommending Ferrari drop their prices.

 

[Triggaaar]

Do you think football is too expensive on the whole?

Not really. I'd like it to be cheaper, I can't afford to go to many games, but it seems proportionate to theatre tickets etc. Just looked at the Brighton Centre, and Lee Evans is on at £30 a ticket (+ £3.50 fees). I can't really think of a good reason why football should be cheaper.

 

[southstandandy]

Of course football is too expensive but it's all about supply and demand. If enough people refuse to pay the high prices at all levels of football today and stopped going the clubs would have to do something about it. There's no way I could have afforded these prices in my teens but thankfully having worked my way up the ladder over 25 years a match represents only an hours salary today. It's the younger fans who I feel sorry for as there are several where I work who want to go but just can't afford it, and ultimately they will be the future support of our club. There's no doubt the whole experience at the Amex is worth more and I enjoy going early and having a drink and watching the lunctime matches on the screens and getting some decent food for a change but I just hope the club doesn't lose touch with those less able to pay. Maybe we should feel lucky though, QPR's cheapest adult ticket in the Prem is £45 a pop!

 

[ehsecons]

it really is all about wages cus that pushes the price of ticklets up

 

[ehsecons]

*tickets