£45m

[ciggiesnbeer]

Dont slate me please. I think Villa tickets are too cheap. Seriously. I would raise ticket prices by a fiver and invest that extra money in the team. We have been offering very good value for a long time I think a modest price rise is appropriate if we want to push up the table.

Raising tickets by a fiver would have almost no effect on the team or investment. Say if you go with 35k average attendance, then you're getting at most an extra 3.25 million. What is that to a club whose revenue will be about 100 million next year? (massive assumption based on the increased tv deal). As Uli Hoeness said about Bayern's prices, they could increase season tickets by about £100, but that would bring in only another 2 million, but that is nothing to a major football club, but £100 (or £5 every other week) is massive to a supporter

I dunno an extra 3 million odd sounds like it would help, but maybe it is not enough and we should increase even further. I think we run ourselves down by keeping our ticket prices so bargain bin relative to other clubs our size who want to progress. Even with the London difference the likes of Spurs charge double us. Even Liverpool, hardly a rich city have raised season ticket prices this season up to £710.

[eamonn]

Since we're talking about attendances:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22541130

Premier League attendances for 2012-13 have shown an increase of nearly 4% on the previous season.

The average attendance for a game in England's top flight was 35,975, up from 34,601 in 2011-12.

That rise has come during a difficult economic period, with the UK narrowly avoiding a triple-dip recession during the first quarter of 2013.

The official figures from the respective leagues show crowds have fluctuated across Europe, with Barcelona's average gate down by more than 9,000, an 11% drop.

Attendances at Inter Milan have fallen by more than 3,000, but new German champions Bayern Munich have seen an average increase of around 2,000.

In England, 16 of the 20 Premier League clubs increased their average attendance in 2012-13. The three largest rises were for the three clubs promoted from the Championship in 2012 - Reading, Southampton and West Ham - with Everton recording the next largest increase.

But a football supporters' group has warned that these increases could be lost if Premier League clubs do not reduce ticket prices.

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation, believes that away supporters are particularly in danger of being priced out of grounds.

"We will be watching very closely what happens next season, when there will be a major increase in media revenue under the new television contracts," Clarke told BBC Sport.

"The Premier League clubs will be receiving so much from these contracts that they could let almost everybody in for free next season and still have the same amount of money coming in as they do now.

"Certainly if the match-going fan does not get the benefit of the clubs' extra media revenue, the reaction could be significant."

Did you know?

Wigan featured as the away team in six of the lowest Premier League attendances this season. Reading were involved in four of the lowest
Both Barcelona and AC Milan have seen their crowds drop by an average of 10,000 this season compared to last term
Ajax, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Juventus and PSG have bucked the downward trend across Europe with slight increases in their average attendances
Celtic's average SPL attendance has dropped by nearly 4,000 compared to last season
Five of this season's top 12 attendances in the SPL featured Celtic as the visiting side
Brighton's average attendance has increased by more than 6,000 in their second season at the Amex Community Stadium
The Scottish Premier League's average attendance fell by 28%, from 13,855 to 10,020, although that figure was skewed by the liquidation of Rangers, who reformed in the Scottish Third Division.

Celtic were one of six SPL clubs whose gates fell in 2012-13, with average crowds dropping from 50,904 to 46,917.

Rangers saw only a slight dip in attendances, though, attracting average crowds of 45,750 - down from 46,324 - as they won the Division Three title.

[PaulWinch again]

That prize money will go up a lot next year.

[Chipsticks]

Since we're talking about attendances:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22541130

Premier League attendances for 2012-13 have shown an increase of nearly 4% on the previous season.

The average attendance for a game in England's top flight was 35,975, up from 34,601 in 2011-12.

That rise has come during a difficult economic period, with the UK narrowly avoiding a triple-dip recession during the first quarter of 2013.

The official figures from the respective leagues show crowds have fluctuated across Europe, with Barcelona's average gate down by more than 9,000, an 11% drop.

Attendances at Inter Milan have fallen by more than 3,000, but new German champions Bayern Munich have seen an average increase of around 2,000.

In England, 16 of the 20 Premier League clubs increased their average attendance in 2012-13. The three largest rises were for the three clubs promoted from the Championship in 2012 - Reading, Southampton and West Ham - with Everton recording the next largest increase.

But a football supporters' group has warned that these increases could be lost if Premier League clubs do not reduce ticket prices.

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation, believes that away supporters are particularly in danger of being priced out of grounds.

"We will be watching very closely what happens next season, when there will be a major increase in media revenue under the new television contracts," Clarke told BBC Sport.

"The Premier League clubs will be receiving so much from these contracts that they could let almost everybody in for free next season and still have the same amount of money coming in as they do now.

"Certainly if the match-going fan does not get the benefit of the clubs' extra media revenue, the reaction could be significant."

Did you know?

Wigan featured as the away team in six of the lowest Premier League attendances this season. Reading were involved in four of the lowest
Both Barcelona and AC Milan have seen their crowds drop by an average of 10,000 this season compared to last term
Ajax, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Juventus and PSG have bucked the downward trend across Europe with slight increases in their average attendances
Celtic's average SPL attendance has dropped by nearly 4,000 compared to last season
Five of this season's top 12 attendances in the SPL featured Celtic as the visiting side
Brighton's average attendance has increased by more than 6,000 in their second season at the Amex Community Stadium
The Scottish Premier League's average attendance fell by 28%, from 13,855 to 10,020, although that figure was skewed by the liquidation of Rangers, who reformed in the Scottish Third Division.

Celtic were one of six SPL clubs whose gates fell in 2012-13, with average crowds dropping from 50,904 to 46,917.

Rangers saw only a slight dip in attendances, though, attracting average crowds of 45,750 - down from 46,324 - as they won the Division Three title.

Interactive European attendance table which is quite interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22541130

[Lastfootstamper]

Hope we reinvest it all wisely. Especially with the wages coming in from the big earners that will get the boot this summer. Good times ahead?

They could knock £100 off every season ticket for starters and reward the fans as well as the players. Afterall, everyone said what an important role we played this season.

Having previously done a little back-of-a-fag-packet maths on this, I reckon that, based on an average gate of 35,000, it'd cost about £3.25million (let's call it an Ireland) to knock off a fiver for every attendee at every game. With these reduced prices, every extra 2,000 that then turn up puts £1million back in over a season.

Remain staggered that this still isn't happening.

Maybe because it doesn't work like that?

I've said it on several threads before but cheap tickets don't incentivise fans to go to watch football.  If it did, my local team, Sutton Coldfield Town would have over 100,000 turning up every week because you can watch a game of football there for less than a tenner.

There are a load of reasons people go to watch football matches but in order of impact the cost of the ticket is pretty low down the list.  That's why attendances are pretty much higher than they've ever been across the board despite ticket prices being higher than they've ever been.

I'm not saying that cheap tickets encourage attendance, but I dare say that there's quite a lot of lapsed Villa fans around Brum for whom ticket price plays a large part in their decision when it comes to deciding whether or not they CAN attend, and many, myself included, for whom justification of the cost of renewal is becoming difficult. Haven't we just come second-bottom in the division for filling our ground percentage-wise? Football clubs effectively act as monopolies, we can't go and support someone else because they're cheaper. It would be nice if, for once, those that put their bums on the seats and make the game in this country the globally-marketable spectacle that it is, saw some of the £££s it generates going towards making sure our grounds remain full now and for the future.

[Toronto Villa]

ticket prices wherever they are set will still always exclude a section of our fan base irrespective of how passionate they are. Tickets are like anything else you choose to do with your disposable income. Add in that we are trying to compete in a league that is hell bent on paying out astromonical transfers, wages and agent fees. I find our ticket prices quite decent in the grand scheme of things and I don't think reducing them by a fiver will do anything significant. The last few weeks have shown that the product on the pitch is more important, and playing good football, and hopefully successful football will bring people back.

[AV82EC]

ticket prices wherever they are set will still always exclude a section of our fan base irrespective of how passionate they are. Tickets are like anything else you choose to do with your disposable income. Add in that we are trying to compete in a league that is hell bent on paying out astromonical transfers, wages and agent fees. I find our ticket prices quite decent in the grand scheme of things and I don't think reducing them by a fiver will do anything significant. The last few weeks have shown that the product on the pitch is more important, and playing good football, and hopefully successful football will bring people back.

I kind of agree with you TV and as Dave W keeps pointing out it seems to have a negligible effect on our attendances anyway but I can't help feeling that we should try and live up to that Uli Hoeness quote and be the first club to actually say no we'll only charge our fans say £15 a game and sell season tickets at £200 a pop because they deserve to share in this new found wealth the game has as well.  We create the colour and atmosphere that makes the product desirable so where's our slice of the pie?

Put it this way if we finish 15th next year we'll be about £25 million better off in TV/prize money on the £45 million we've got for this year so what would it cost to reduce everyone's season tickets to £200 maybe £3 to £4million, and what would that do to the fan/club/player bond we've been trumpeting about over the last few months.  £200 season tickets or Stephen Irelands new pimped up Range Rover Sport, I know where most of us would prefer the money to be spent!!  We're the Villa we're supposed to do the right thing and lead the way on this type of stuff, I think the club have missed a massive opportunity.

Now where's my renewal form...... ;-)

[Ad@m]

All this talk of dropping ticket prices works fine if we're the only team in the league but we're not and we're in competition with 19 other teams. Unless everyone drops their prices by the same amount (which they won't) we'll just fall further behind until we get relegated, at which point out attendances will fall a hell of a lot more than they will if we don't put out prices down.

[Vegas]

Hope we reinvest it all wisely. Especially with the wages coming in from the big earners that will get the boot this summer. Good times ahead?

They could knock £100 off every season ticket for starters and reward the fans as well as the players. Afterall, everyone said what an important role we played this season.

Having previously done a little back-of-a-fag-packet maths on this, I reckon that, based on an average gate of 35,000, it'd cost about £3.25million (let's call it an Ireland) to knock off a fiver for every attendee at every game. With these reduced prices, every extra 2,000 that then turn up puts £1million back in over a season.

Remain staggered that this still isn't happening.

Maybe because it doesn't work like that?

I've said it on several threads before but cheap tickets don't incentivise fans to go to watch football.  If it did, my local team, Sutton Coldfield Town would have over 100,000 turning up every week because you can watch a game of football there for less than a tenner.

There are a load of reasons people go to watch football matches but in order of impact the cost of the ticket is pretty low down the list.  That's why attendances are pretty much higher than they've ever been across the board despite ticket prices being higher than they've ever been.

Disingenous Ad@m. 

I'm sure you are familiar with rudimentary price elasticity economics given several previous posts you've made.  One assertion that is an undeniable, stone-cold error when discussing price elasticity (which obviously we are) is to compare "Product A" (Villa tickets) at one price with a totally different "Product B" (Sutton Coldfield tickets) at another price, and use this comparison to conclude that a certain action on product A (Villa tickets) will or won't work.

This is like saying "BA wouldn't get any more business pricing flights to Vegas (no relation) at £2.10, because the number 69 bus charges that and they're hardly full"

I think it's a very valid point of view to say that, at the margin, there are fans who just can't afford to go, but a £5 discount (potentially on 4 or 5 tickets if they have kids etc) would make the difference between 35k and say 38k average attendances.

[Vegas]

All this talk of dropping ticket prices works fine if we're the only team in the league but we're not and we're in competition with 19 other teams. Unless everyone drops their prices by the same amount (which they won't) we'll just fall further behind until we get relegated, at which point out attendances will fall a hell of a lot more than they will if we don't put out prices down.

And b), Borussia Dortmund.

[robbo1874]

Dont slate me please. I think Villa tickets are too cheap. Seriously. I would raise ticket prices by a fiver and invest that extra money in the team. We have been offering very good value for a long time I think a modest price rise is appropriate if we want to push up the table.

For example a Spurs season ticket (similar size club in terms of support) costs £745 next season. Thats a huge difference with us. With that money Spurs are able to compete for higher class players. I think we have missed an opportunity to grow the club by keeping prices so bargain basement.

Hope we reinvest it all wisely. Especially with the wages coming in from the big earners that will get the boot this summer. Good times ahead?

They could knock £100 off every season ticket for starters and reward the fans as well as the players. Afterall, everyone said what an important role we played this season.

Having previously done a little back-of-a-fag-packet maths on this, I reckon that, based on an average gate of 35,000, it'd cost about £3.25million (let's call it an Ireland) to knock off a fiver for every attendee at every game. With these reduced prices, every extra 2,000 that then turn up puts £1million back in over a season.

Remain staggered that this still isn't happening.

Maybe because it doesn't work like that?

I've said it on several threads before but cheap tickets don't incentivise fans to go to watch football.  If it did, my local team, Sutton Coldfield Town would have over 100,000 turning up every week because you can watch a game of football there for less than a tenner.

There are a load of reasons people go to watch football matches but in order of impact the cost of the ticket is pretty low down the list.  That's why attendances are pretty much higher than they've ever been across the board despite ticket prices being higher than they've ever been.

maybe not absolute price, but affordability relative to income of the bulk of your support would be very significant. If people feel they can't afford to go and need the money to pay bills etc, it makes no difference whether the price of a ticket is 2 quid or 22 quid.

i think if a fiver per match ticket was knocked off or 150 quid off a season ticket it would probably seem a lot more affordable to a significant section of villa's support for whom current affordability of tickets is an issue. Don't forget also, a lot of it is down to perception. A fiver a ticket might in reality not make that much of an actual financial difference to some people, but if they think it does, then they're far more likely to buy a ticket.

Spurs supporters I'm guessing probably earn relatively more than comparable villa supporters. Liverpool get a lot of tourists who will pay. Your local non league team probably doesn't have a fan base of 100000 so that point doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[Ad@m]

Drop ticket prices by a fiver and you might get a short term boost but long term attendances won't be affected. The club's finances will however.

Anyone who thinks this will either happen or would increase attendances enough to compensate the club financially if it did happen is living in cloud cuckoo land.

If you don't think it would pay for itself and you still want the club to do it then you're basically saying you want the team to be less competitive.

I understand the logic behind complaining about prices - it stops clubs getting carried away with increasing prices - but if you genuinely think a price decrease is either likely or plausible then you're quite simply crazy.

[TheSandman]

All this talk of dropping ticket prices works fine if we're the only team in the league but we're not and we're in competition with 19 other teams. Unless everyone drops their prices by the same amount (which they won't) we'll just fall further behind until we get relegated, at which point out attendances will fall a hell of a lot more than they will if we don't put out prices down.

Do you really think it would have that much of an effect? If we cut season tickets by £100 and sell 30,000 season tickets it will cost us £3million. Hardly the difference between success and failure. There are numerous clubs in the league who have incomes that are far more than £3million less than ours. That said, I think everyone realises that this is something that will never happen and we are wasting our time arguing about it. At the end of the day, by the mental standards of the Premier League, our prices are more than reasonable. That's not to say they are reasonable full stop, just more reasonable than most teams in the league.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm sure you are familiar with rudimentary price elasticity economics given several previous posts you've made.  One assertion that is an undeniable, stone-cold error when discussing price elasticity (which obviously we are) is to compare "Product A" (Villa tickets) at one price with a totally different "Product B" (Sutton Coldfield tickets) at another price, and use this comparison to conclude that a certain action on product A (Villa tickets) will or won't work.

This is like saying "BA wouldn't get any more business pricing flights to Vegas (no relation) at £2.10, because the number 69 bus charges that and they're hardly full"

I agree, it is a totally misleading comparison.

The products on offer are almost totally different.

[Chipsticks]

This season last placed QPR gets almost as much money from the Premier League's TV deal as the CL finalists Dortmund and Bayern combined get from the Bundesliga's TV deal