It is time to take stock.
The Trust had less than 24 hours’ notice of the announcement which included some elements that were not included in earlier drafts provided by the Club.
Prior to this, THST held two meetings with the Club, on 21 February and on 1 March. The proposals changed significantly between these dates and between 1 March and the final announcement.
The Club presented THST with its proposals on each occasion stating that it intended to publish within one working day. This turned out to be true only when the final proposals were sent on 5 March. We said in our statement on 6 March that because of our input, changes were made. We argued against a flat rate increase for all fans and against a quicker, sharper increase of price for seniors.
As a Trust, our position is:
- The removal of senior concession Season Tickets from 2025/26 should be reversed, and senior concessions made available to eligible season ticket holders, wherever they currently sit in the stadium.
- Senior concessions should be attached to the person and not the seat: concessions should be offered in all areas of the stadium.
- The six per cent price rise for season tickets should be reversed or, in the alternative, the club should commit to keeping prices at the 2024/25 level for at least three seasons.
- The club should maintain stretch pricing across the stadium.
- The club should commit to comply with Premier League rules which require it to offer senior concessions (Rule R8)
We have been inundated with messages from concerned supporters over the last few days. We have been contacted by hundreds of concerned, angry and frankly disillusioned supporters. We would like to summarise key points and themes emerging from this considerable engagement by the fanbase:
- A lack of appreciation that football is different. Fans accept if they cannot afford a Ferrari, they choose a more affordable car. Fans cannot choose to follow a club with cheaper tickets. Fans loyalty is being exploited.
- Renewal prices now being unaffordable and potentially splitting families where seniors can no longer afford to attend.
- Disappointment that the Club wishes to remain being amongst the most expensive season tickets in the world.
- Fans who have held season tickets for 20, 30, 40, 50 years – well before the current ownership – feeling abandoned by the current regime.
- A feeling that the Club consciously wants to remove senior supporters from buying tickets.
- Fans of all ages united in disgust at the senior concession policy.
- The Club not valuing supporters if they cannot increase the money they are prepared to spend at the club.
- Lack of understanding of the impact of the cost of living crisis.
- Fans pointing out the above-inflation scale of the increase (the club cannot on the one hand claim benefit of freezing prices in one year and then apply a two-year inflationary increase the next).
- Fans questioning whether a four-fold increase in senior concessions is a problem and calculating whether the total percentage of concession would still be below the proportion of pensioners in the general.
- A feeling that fans made the effort to maintain support during the Wembley years or years when the club was less successful on the pitch, only to be split from their friends in the new stadium and now to have ticket prices hiked.
- The financial strength of the club arising from TV revenue and matchday income means it is unfair to pass rising costs onto match-going supporters when they can be absorbed elsewhere.
- An overwhelmingly negative response to the standard form response the Club has been sending over the last few days, which is merely a re-ordered version of the original announcement, increasing the feeling the Club does not value loyal supporters.
- A lack of consistent approach when children pay adult prices via ticket exchange but the Club’s concern is seniors passing tickets on to full-paying adults.
- The Club’s justifications for the increases feeling artificial and lacking in necessity.
- International supporters expressing frustration at the damage to the Club’s reputation by the announced changes even though it won’t affect them personally.
- Fears that the negativity created by the announcement will lead to poor team performances on the pitch.
- Wishes for the Club to see supporters as stakeholders and not as “clients”.