The argument for, would be, that for far too many years we have been excessively cheap as a football club, which is very true. Another argument would be for us to compete in the Prem. more revenue needs to be coming through the turnstiles every match. Both of these arguments would hold up very well in any debate, as the club not only wish to be successful, but also need to be sustainable as a business model.
However there are arguments against this price hike. In reality we are a club with the same draw as Crystal Palace and a similar seat to mine would cost £480 at Selhurst Park, which is about £100 cheaper, and forget about the comparative locations of the two clubs. The main argument for me is, that even if £599 is a reasonable price for Prem. football at the Cottage, then a massive price hike in one go is unjustified. Many fans will look at the price hike and think "no thanks, that is too much of a jump". In the past few years there has been a nice increase in the amount of young adults coming to follow the club, home and away, and that should be welcomed as old gits like me won't be around forever. I don't believe that all these new younger fans are in jobs that pay fortunes, so will the new price deter them, also? Furthermore, we struggled to sell out near the end of our unbeaten run, so I am not sure whether we will sell out many times, apart from against the big clubs. I cannot accept any argument that the big fans will help fill the stadium, because I would rather have FFC fans in the ground than away fans. There will be fans with reasonable salaries, who will probably say it is justified, or take the attitude of "I'm alright, I can easily afford it", but do they want to sit in a ground with no atmosphere eating salmon sandwiches with fans who aren't real fans? Or....maybe they do. On social media, earlier, a fan wrote that he had not taken up his early bird offer because he was skint at the time, and I fully understand if he is now thinking against renewing given the big jump in cost.
I, personally, renewed with the early bird offer, so this price hike does not affect me, and in truth I would have probably still renewed, even on my poor wages. But, I also understand that there will be fans who are thinking twice about it now, especially as you can stream every Prem. game in your own home for free.
In conclusion, I can see why the club have implemented this big increase, but I also think it will have adverse affects on the club in the long term. The club should have handled this better and not almost doubled the prices in one go. What should have been done is, steady price increases over the course of two or three seasons, where the effect would have been negligible and less noticeable.
Anyway, that is my two bob's worth and every single fan is entitled to draw their own conclusions (unless of course there are some typos on the club website......fat chance).
FTID
COYWs
IN SLAVISA WE TRUST
© Nic Smith
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