Of all the issues impacting football supporters the price of tickets has always been close to the top of the table and, over the past few years, many fans have faced eye-watering price hikes – particularly in the Premier League.
Supporters have long campaigned to keep football affordable and there have been some big wins – such as the £30 away ticket price cap in the Premier League and FA pledges on semi-final and final costs which came about after FSA campaigns.
But anger has grown on home prices which have gone up by 19% since COVID.
And this season, the fight back against ever-rising ticket prices has begun with the #StopExploitingLoyalty campaign.
Growing discontent
Over the last two seasons ticket price problems have been particularly acute in the Premier League as clubs began announcing seriously expensive season tickets and matchday tickets.
That led to early-season protests at Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur where supporter groups organised direct action challenging their clubs in the 2023-24 season.
Fulham Supporters’ Trust and the Fulham Lillies led protests – under the #AffordableFulham campaign – at Craven Cottage to draw attention to the prohibitive cost of watching matches at Craven Cottage – the London club is now home to the most expensive non-corporate season ticket in the country at £3,000.
“The problem is a completely misguided ticket pricing policy that fundamentally misunderstands what it means to be a fan”, Fulham Supporters Trust said.
“It’s a policy which, piece by piece, is alienating a large part of our core fan base to the extent that increasing numbers just can’t afford to come to a game or bring their friends and family to help create that next generation.”
Fans at almost every Premier League club have been speaking out about the price hikes they’re seeing for the 2024-25 season, with only Crystal Palace keeping their prices the same.
Prices are estimated to have risen by around 7% since 2023-24 with an astonishing 100%+ increase in some children’s, young adult and disabled categories. Some clubs have even removed concessions entirely, which has led to a fierce backlash.
“PSR made me do it!”
While fans have been speaking out about the rising cost of going to the match, one of the defences we regularly see is that clubs are “forced” to extract as much money out of matchgoing fans as possible due to profile and sustainability rules (PSR).
And having looked at this argument with football finance experts we’re not convinced it stands up: ultimately football has a spending problem, not an income problem.
Clubs in the Premier League are enjoying record revenues and matchday income represents a relatively small amount of those record numbers.
The potential revenue that a club can raise from squeezing normal fans is nowhere near enough to help a club that has really got its sums wrong and is falling foul of the profit and sustainability rules. A couple of million simply won’t save a club from breaches but will do lasting damage to its relationship with supporters.
Stop exploiting loyalty: Fight back begins
In the summer of 2024, supporter groups from across the country came together at the FSA AGM, held at Wembley Stadium, to discuss ways fans could push back against the rising tide of unaffordable tickets A motion for new policy, which committed the FSA to another round of ticket price campaigning, was unanimously passed by FSA members at conference.
Supporters present argued that ticket pricing should be a key part of fan engagement work (which is being implemented by all Premier League clubs) and even something the incoming independent football regulator should be involved with – ensuring fans have genuine input into their club’s ticketing policy through the aforementioned engagement.
Out of those discussions came plans for a new campaign under the banner of “Stop Exploiting Loyalty” which has already been seen at Premier League fixtures throughout the 2024-25 season.
Protests from FSA members at Premier League grounds have secured thousands of column inches since the start of the 2024-25 season.
Supporters want to make clear their anger at price rises, attacks on concessions and a general feeling that loyalty is simply not understood or appreciated at the top of many clubs who see matchgoers simply as a resource to be exploited.
© Alamy
#StopExploitingLoyalty is the FSA response to that and this campaign would not be possible without the fantastic action at supporters’ groups across the country.
Andy Payne from Hammers United said: “We adopted the FSA’s #StopExploitingLoyalty motto and have had joint protests with fans from Man City, Spurs, Ipswich, Liverpool, Arsenal, Forest, Everton, Leicester City, Man Utd and Newcastle and have flown our Black Bubbles (balloons to signify the death of concessions) at all of our away games this season.
“The unity and solidarity has been incredible and heralds a new era of cross-club fan co-operation. We will continue to stand with other fans, not least Wolves and Bournemouth in the next week and plenty more planned until we get our concessions back.”
