Anyone got a tenner to see a match? Arsenal announce new “teen section” ticket pricing

As an Arsenal supporter there are many things we can find to complain about. Take your pick, lack of quality players, no ambition, the manager, the board, or another list of 20 or so odd things that on any given day you hear Gooners being frustrated over.

But more than these the one thing that really gets at Gooners is the exorbitant ticket prices a supporter must pay in order to see Arsenal play. Since the move to the Emirates, Arsenal are either the highest or one of the highest tickets in all of Europe. Surely in all of England.

And given the last 8 years of dust collection in the silverware cabinet there is hardly any real justification for the prices.

Sure as Ivan Gazidis once told Tim Payton of the AST:

“The Club has never approached ticket pricing decisions by reference only to supply and demand conomics,but has always taken into account a  wide range of factors, with  the effect on our loyal fans very important  in our thinking.   This is why, despite long waiting lists and rising operational and player costs, and in contrast to other clubs, we have held ticket prices absolutely flat, with no adjustments even for inflation, in all but one of the past five seasons since we moved to our new stadium.  Those decisions mean that our ticket pricing has in fact decreased significantly in real terms since we moved to our new home.

I know that AST supports the Club’s self-sustaining business model and I hope you can understand that a failure to account for inflation,in the face of rising utility and other costs,is not sustainable forever if we are to be able to compete at the highest level, which our fans rightly demand.  Price rises will never be popular with fans, but we need to take a balanced view and there has to come a point where the Club must take an inflationary rise.”

This was in response to Tim’s letter questioning the recent 6.5% price reason in tickets. Enough at some point to make your skin crawl.

But what Ivan fails to realize is that while sports have gone Global and there are certainly many other considerations for the club to take into mind when establishing pricing, that the life blood of any sports organization it’s died in the wool supporters.

I am a foreigner and while I detest being told I couldn’t possibly know anything about Arsenal because I didn’t grow up in North London – I get the sentiment. I am not the biggest bulk of fans who buy tickets on a regular basis. Who sing their throats raw with adulation regardless of the situation.  I get that. I also get that by increasing ticket prices Arsenal have effectively shut these supporters out and by extension insured the likelihood that they’ve prohibited the growth of another generation of Gooners.

One of the great things about English football is the generations of families that grew up supporting one club. Why? Because their father did and their father’s father did. It’s what you did. And like anything that is generationally ingrained on you – you never lose it.

The problem now arises in the fact that over the last few years catering to those who can afford the new prices – mainly the corporate elite – the club has likely stifled the ability to grow a whole new crop of supporters.

Until last week.

Last week the club took one of its more positive steps in addressing support concerns by creating a new  teen-section within the stadium. The tickets for this section will run around £10 per supporter and it is not perfect as it does have an upfront membership fee and isn’t going to apply for grade A games (it should and hopefully will)

The driven by AST’s Simon Hill,  as well as from AISA the drive for this section was taken on  due to a growing concern at a lack of young match going fans, especially as used to happened when groups of youngsters went together to what was known as ‘schoolboys’. Simon proposed to Angus Kinnear reintroducing a subsidised section.  And credit has to go to the club for making it happen.

It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not a complete overhaul mind you but a positive development. Still there is work to be done. AISA and BSM are driving forces right now to preserve low ticket prices for away fans. One of the best parts of English football is its away fan culture.

As club’s review their ticketing, the cost for away fans continues to go up and up and while the press made noise about a price for the Arsenal v Chelsea match, Arsenal are not the only club charging over £55 and up for away supporters.

Additionally, at home ticket prices have to be reviewed especially amongst increasing TV revenue and enhanced commercial deals.  As more money comes in and the club become less reliant on match-day revenue for sustainability then it has to reexamine its pricing structure.

Those of us that have become cynical in our time supporting the club aren’t too sure they will. There is still a general feeling that the club have to go a long way to show it is less talk and more action in terms of the conversations and changes that have been mentioned.

The teen section has to be considered at least a tacit acknowledgement of the pressure being applied by supporters and supporter groups like AST, AISA and BSM.  Hopefully, they will acknowledge that they’ve stunted the growth of future Arsenal supporters with their current prices and will do something to make sure that not only a teen section is  created but the same teens can enjoy the game with their hard working parents who find it increasingly harder to attend the games with their kids.

On a level I get the ticket prices. I’m in big business I know why they happen. I don’t have to like it. I may be more numb to it here in the US because these kind of ticket prices have been the norm since the mid-90’s as our sports clubs all built new state of the art stadiums.

They like the Emirates went more corporate and they like the Emirates now have found the folly of their ways. The problem is it took almost 10 to 15 years to acknowledge them locking out their fans.

My hope is that this first step for the teen section means that Arsenal are learning their lesson quicker than their American predecessors.