A break from our usual irrelevance for a more serious message. As a proud Gooner and season ticket holder at Emirates as at Highbury, I was appalled the other day to discover, via an email from the club, that our two climactic Champions League home games – Villarreal and United, should we beat the yellow submariners, are NOT included in the price of my season ticket.
What?
These are season tickets already costing north of £1500, a price that this season has bought us some pretty shoddy home games, and some Arsenal performances you wouldn’t pay for again in a hurry. Yet you sit it out, through thick and thin, because you love the Arsenal, and as it’s turned out, we’re in a position where we’re still challenging for two major trophies.
Whatever the agreement or the contract of the ticket, I cannot believe, particularly in the middle of a recession which has seen all fans feel the pinch, Arsenal FC has the temerity to ask, in my case with four tickets, for close to £600 extra in order to see the most important matches of Arsenal’s season.
It makes no sense. All it creates is badwill, and a whopping surplus on next year’s already pricey ticket.
The season ticket should include ALL home games, I think, though I can see the arguments for excluding the Carling Cup matches (which it does already). Particularly after the year we’ve been having on the pitch, Arsenal should not be punishing season tickets holders for the club doing so well. It amounts to a deeply cynical and unashamedly calculating stealth tax based on the accurate assumption that fans will do anything to go to the last stages of the Champions League. It dodges raising season ticket prices so the club can appear to be fair, but shamelessly profiteers off the supporters’ love of the club at the end of the season. If the alternative has to be an increased season ticket, the club should at least have the honour to be open about it.
I accept that for Arsenal to be competitive the prices have to be reasonably high, and on the whole I don’t mind, but this is ridiculous.
I think it’s a complete robbery. I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
Rant over. Don’t forget to enter the Herbert Chapman t-shirt competition, and also to signup for your free £25 bet at the top.
Also email addresses below, please.
Tags: Arsenal, daylight robbery, season tickets
March 26th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Completely agree.
If you /must/ limit the number of home games included in a season ticket, allow the purchaser to decide which home games they don’t want to attend. I’d happily sacrifice Wigan/Hull/Portsmouth for Villareal, thus freeing tickets up for the former to non-season ticket holders.
Simple, eh?
March 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Hi Fourstar, good to hear from you. I think it’s a farce – I don’t even see why season ticket holders should have to ’sacrifice’ games – surely then it’s not a season ticket at all? They’ve already got the option to sell games back to the club on a game by game basis if holders can’t make it.
Plus clubs love season tickets – they count it as attendance (even when it’s been laughably clear it’s not the case this season) and also they get all the money in advance…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I agree with the sentiment of the article and being a season ticket holder myself for the best part of 15 years can understand the frustations.
However we do get 19 games a season plus 8 cup credits which works out at around 55 quid a match. As you mention they have already taken out the Carling cup tickets and it is only because of the amount of home games we have had in the FA cup this year that we are having to pay for these.
If you didn’t want to go to Burnley,Plymouth etc you should have sold your ticket as i did and used that money to pay for Villareal.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
@Toure5
Season should mean season. Nobody’s going to not got to certain games earlier in the season (Plymouth) on the off-chance we get to a Champions League semi…
March 26th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
No other club gives their fans 8 cup games with their season ticket, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham to name a few all pay extra for cup tickets.
If you can get 70 quid for your ticket for the Plymouth game then why not, when it was obvious that Wenger would put out a weakened side and haven’t we made the quarter finals of the champs league about 8 times in the last 10 years ?
March 26th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I find this article complete shit. Arsenal have always made fans pay for extra games after the cup credits have been used up. I think its funny that season ticket holders are bleeting, probably the same ones that don’t turn up to most of the smaller games. Think yourself lucky of getting a chance of a ticket for the semi-final. Maybe if you put as much effort into being vocal at the games as bleeting about the cost of a ticket we wouldn’t such a joke with other teams about our support.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Now that’s unfair. Grabber has got a magnificent set of lungs on him and he sings out loud and proud throughout games.
Partly this is to drown out the morbid analysis of the woman immediately behind – “Denilson? What kind of Brazilian are you then? You’re not even as good as Kaka!”
March 28th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
@The Tank: “Arsenal have always made fans pay for extra games after the cup credits have been used up.”
Doesn’t make it right, though, does it? There’s always going to be an element of chance to the cup games i.e. a) will we get through to the next round, and b) will we be drawn at home (except for two-legged affairs where that is guaranteed).
But in my opinion, the club should take some of that risk as well as the fans. It’s not like season tickets are cheap or anything; so build some of that risk (but not all of it) into the price, perhaps based on the previous season’s results or AW’s view on how far he thinks we will go in all competitions.
Fairer?
March 27th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Hey everyone, greetings from Denmark. This is a nice blog. Does anyone have any advice about staying out of the friend zone with women? I’m really tired of girls telling me they just want to be friends. Perhaps I’m being too nice?
April 6th, 2010 at 11:50 am
any thoughts for non season ticket holders who want tickets? I go for:
Arsenal Ticket Solutions