Much like the two guitar related stories the BBC survey of football clubs and the ticket prices fiasco etc here happened to coincide with the arrival of my Tate members magazine for August and September.
The survey's publication comes just a few days after Shy highlighted the financial cost of watching Sunderland play away at QPR. Leaving aside the extras, which you don't have to have after all, the price of tickets up and down the country has passed the point of no return, watching West Ham at home next season will cost a minimum of £32, if you are an away supporter you will have to part with £40 for the pleasure.
Now I know after a lifetime of suffering that the £32 will not guarantee me two hours of unbridled joy and three points but how does it compare with other days out that I might be considering? Well I could have travelled to Nottingham and paid £47.50 to watch England beat the number one team in the world, the round trip to Robin Hood country would have cost me around £30 in petrol, but I would have got the best part of eight hours entertainment.
The National Theatre currently have a 'Tiny Price' scheme where 125,000 tickets are available every night for just £12. You can watch Zoe Wannamaker in the Cherry Orchard for twelve quid - combine that with a South West Trains special deal of £19 for a First Class off peak seat and that's Chekhov in the capital for less than an hour and a half with Scott Parker and chums. Even better than that the Globe Theatre is doing a special deal at the moment which means you can watch a play by some bloke called William Shakespeare for £5.
If I fancied some art I could go to anyone of a number of galleries across the country for free, plus travelling of course and even if I wasn't a member, which means I get in for 'free', I would willingly pay £15.50 to see the Miro exhibition at Tate Modern. It has to be said that like West Ham's defence Miro often confuses and confounds but he rarely disappoints.
The real danger with football putting its prices up year on year is that along with the dominance of Sky and ESPN in the transmission of live matches there could be a point at which some people no longer have access to live football in any form which will be a shame. Football clubs, particularly those in the Premiership, have used television money to finance ever higher wages when they could have, and perhaps should have, been financing special ticket deals. Clubs will point to record attendances and long waiting lists for season tickets but that doesn't mean that everybody who would like to go to football can afford to. Tonight on the radio a Spuds supporter was saying that his season ticket is over six hundred pounds and that if he wants to take his eight year old son he will have to pay £28 for his son's seat - that's not right surely.
A little bit of online research produced the following ticket prices in other European countries:
Borussia Dortmund £35 for this weeks match against HSV
Rangers £25 for SPL home games
Ajax - £15 - £30
Barcelona - £99 for the second leg of the Super Cup against Real Madrid, but you are watching twenty two of the best players on the planet!
Thanks Span for the link, I had heard this being discussed on Talksport but didn't realise it was the BBC who had commissioned the survey.
5 comments:
I often compare match tickets prices to the cost of going to see a top band. I went to see Iron Maiden a week or two back and it was £43.
Now, this would probably be one of the more expensive seats at a match but with bands you nearly always know more or less what you're going to get. Going to watch Sunderland and, I would imagine, West Ham can be unpredictable and you could easily come away disappointed. Well, I often feeling let down after going to the Stadium of Light
Rugby this year is a bit better but the range is large: London Irish vs. Harlequins and Saracens v London Wasps. For both games: Adults £45, £30 and £15. Juniors £10. Or there's Barbarians v Australia: Adults £65, £50 and £35 & Juniors £15
Or fly to NZ for the world cup :-)
P.S. Thanks for the name check!
P.P.S. Shy, surely you mean 43 pounds and 10p! (it's on that BBC page as a comparison!)
Most weekends I'd rather see Iron Maiden than the Irons!
Blimey Span, £45 for Saracens v Wasps! Ba-bas aren't what they used to be are they.
"Blimey Span, £45 for Saracens v Wasps!"
a rip off considering I've played against both! (way before professionalism! ;-)
...and to answer your second point, I reckon I could still get in the Baa bas! hahaha
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