Away travel subsidy

[PeterWithesShin]

Is the £75 much more than the booking fees would be? And as you mention, rarely have to phone to book so saves a fair bit of time over a season.

[villajk]

Is the £75 much more than the booking fees would be? And as you mention, rarely have to phone to book so saves a fair bit of time over a season.

Probably not, just seemed a tad unfair but we've long since stopped fretting about it.  And yes, it's great not having to look when they're on sale and having to phone in at the appropriate time.

[SoccerHQ]

Was up in Liverpool today, brought a copy of the echo and noticed Liverpool are already doing this for one game, for Swansea away they're subsidising 2 quid of the match ticket.....so it only costs 43 quid now! And it's on a Monday night aswell.

[Andy1874]

At least its a start, may not be much but might be a lot to some.

And to those moaning about certain clubs away ticket prices, ours have hardly been fair over the last couple of 'relegation' battled seasons.

[Ads]

We usually sell Hull out anyway, but I guess it is good for places like Newcastle where we only ever really take about 1200.

I reckon they will do this for Sunderland, Newcastle, Palace, Swansea, Cardiff, Southampton and then any other fixtures which are switched to a night.

[HOLTENDER]

No it didn't, it comes from the clubs. No one forces the clubs to charge £40-50 a ticket. They could have chosen to use the increased TV money to lower ticket prices, they have chosen not to. Much as I can't stand them, that has nothing to do with Scudamore, Sky or the Premier League.

The premier league distribute the monies they get from sky to the clubs. Just like government distributes its income (taxes & revenue) to local government. Those who distribute monies can put in stipulations of how the money should be spent, just like the government do to local government.

Therefore the premier league could effect the prices that away fans are charged.

Just my opinion, but does seem straight forward really.

[PeterWithesShin]

No it didn't, it comes from the clubs. No one forces the clubs to charge £40-50 a ticket. They could have chosen to use the increased TV money to lower ticket prices, they have chosen not to. Much as I can't stand them, that has nothing to do with Scudamore, Sky or the Premier League.

The premier league distribute the monies they get from sky to the clubs. Just like government distributes its income (taxes & revenue) to local government. Those who distribute monies can put in stipulations of how the money should be spent, just like the government do to local government.

Therefore the premier league could effect the prices that away fans are charged.

Just my opinion, but does seem straight forward really.

Unlike local government, the clubs could just tell Sky to feck off and get the money from somewhere else. In my opinion Sky needs the clubs more than the clubs need Sky. Plus as Dave says, the PL only exists because of the clubs, just like the clubs did with the Football League they can also tell the PL to feck off.

[dave.woodhall]

No it didn't, it comes from the clubs. No one forces the clubs to charge £40-50 a ticket. They could have chosen to use the increased TV money to lower ticket prices, they have chosen not to. Much as I can't stand them, that has nothing to do with Scudamore, Sky or the Premier League.

The premier league distribute the monies they get from sky to the clubs. Just like government distributes its income (taxes & revenue) to local government. Those who distribute monies can put in stipulations of how the money should be spent, just like the government do to local government.

Therefore the premier league could effect the prices that away fans are charged.

Just my opinion, but does seem straight forward really.

The Premier League is owned and controlled by its member clubs.

[lordmcgrath5]

I read the other day that the average age of the match-attending PL football supporter is 41.

You'd think, given figures like that, that the clubs themselves would be thinking about where the next generation is going to come from.

An awful lot of those current match attenders will be in their 40s and above and will remember childhoods where there was next to nothing to do compared to the options kids have today. More recent and future generations will have grown up with a plethora of other leisure pursuits to amuse themselves, they're not going to be as likely to have spent half their childhood kicking a ball up against a wall for hours or collecting Panini stickers.

There is easily, easily enough money washing around top flight football to massively reduce ticket prices. Not just your fiver off here or there or your family deal, either, but to significantly reduce prices across the board and change the demographic of people who go to football matches.

They won't though, instead it'll all continue to get pissed away, thrown at agents or greedy players in a never ending spiral of money wasting. The clubs are only too happy to have their sterile stadiums with their high prices and their fans getting thrown out for standing or singing.

It's a shame that with all this cash coming into the game, the only people involved in it who see next to no benefit are the fans. I'm sure SSN would tell you how it's great we get to see better players as a result of the clubs having all this money, but that's really only the case for the clubs who can actually attract the best players (via playing in the CL) as well as afford them. I am sure the rest of us, the vast majority of fans, would like to see a more competitive league and an improvement in the atmosphere at matches.

I know it gets said all the time, but as in most walks of life, the Germans with their social concern and forward thinking have got it absolutely right, while we in England are far too busy getting told by Jim White how amazing our league is and how everyone loves the Premier League.

Great post, couldn't agree more. Was trying to cut it down in my quote but found myself agreeing with every single point.

The average age comment in particular rings true, doesn't it? Look around you at most grounds in Britain and - speaking as one myself - crowds are dominated by blokes in the 30+ or even 40+, age bracket. No wonder when you consider the prices here. This is where standing and sensible prices really, really make a difference. Stand at a German ground and you'll see loads of youngsters who can actually afford to go on their own. You can blame Sky for plenty of wrongs in the game, but they don't set the prices. That's entirely up to the clubs, and in making it so hard for an entire generation of young people to go to the match, they've shat on their own doorstep in quite spectacular fashion.

[olaftab]

Yes he bloody could he could say 'here is a pot of money knock a fiver off away fans ticket prices'.

How does a fiver off £55  at chelsea help?
How many tickets should he subsidise per match?
Clubs have different prices so is it a fiver or a percentage off?
Exactly what criteria would you you use for this? and and and

[Mister E]

There's a number of things they could do instead of simply supporting people using the coaches (I tend to drive to away 'cos I'm based in N Yorks):
- getting a better allocation of tickets;
- reducing the cost of game tickets;
- providing better facilities when at away grounds - some of the northerly ones are pretty rubbish (Burnley, Blackburn, Barcodes as examples).

Re Scudamore, it's his job to maximise the EPL revenue: encouraging a better in-ground atmosphere at a time when the TV / internet 'product' is unassailably growing and undermining the game-vibes is - I suppose - understandable.

It does smack to me of 'engineering': "let's ship in a few more away fans to improve the TV product by 'upping' thr atmosphere."

[bertlambshank]

Yes he bloody could he could say 'here is a pot of money knock a fiver off away fans ticket prices'.

How does a fiver off £55  at chelsea help?
How many tickets should he subsidise per match?
Clubs have different prices so is it a fiver or a percentage off?
Exactly what criteria would you you use for this? and and and

Asked Liverpool they are doing it.