The Emirates stadium sits in the middle of Islington, a traditionally working class borough of London. The Gunners’ loyal following were uprooted from their beloved Highbury stadium after 93 years and the 38,000 that packed out Highbury has turned into 60,000 at Ashburton Grove. The demand for tickets at ‘The Arsenal’ are still in high demand as the season-ticket waiting list swells year-on-year.
However, this may be a turning point in the future of trips to Arsenal and may also have ramifications for ticket prices in English football as Arsenal look set to become the first British club to break the £100 barrier for an ‘ordinary’ seat, which would make them the most expensive non-hospitality seats in the history of English football.
This is not the cost for a corporate box or a VIP Lounge, Arsenal ticket prices are on the rise despite the club announcing record profits last month.
Sales of apartments on their old Highbury site worth £156.9 million boosted turnover to £379.9 million and pre-tax group profits to £56 million, up £11 million on 2008-09. That allowed the club to pay off £129.6 million of loans on the property business, leaving them debt-free.
They do have outstanding loans though, £239 million on the Emirates Stadium, and interest charges rose £2 million to £18 million.
The success of the property business masked falling revenue and rising costs in the football business. Elimination in the last 16 of the Champions League meant there were five fewer home games, reducing football revenue by £3 million to £222 million.
The wage bill also rose, from £105 million to £111 million, as the club moved to secure young players on long-term deals.
Although Arsene Wenger’s side have not rewarded their dependable fans with the acclaimed silverware that eludes them, it seems Arsenal’s hierarchy are giving the fans the tab for the new expenditure at the club.
After years of becoming familiar to the Premier League’s ‘prawn sandwich brigade’, the fight back of regular fans to pay for tickets can only get harder once the landmark price has been reached as a result of the planned rise of VAT to 20 per cent on January 4.
The club’s website booking page warns: ‘Please note that, with the VAT increase due in January 2011, our matchday ticket prices will be subject to change.’
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters’ Federation feels forcing fans to suffer will alienate them further.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: “A £100 ticket in the present climate is ridiculous. It is proof that football is not living in the same world as the rest of us.
“The game has more money going into it than ever before and it is not helping fans. Football is no longer a game that is readily accessible to all sections of the community.
“Prices have risen way beyond the rate of inflation, and the bigger clubs have gone the furthest over the last decade.”
It appears he’s right as the Premier League has become a rich man’s playground lately, with foreign owners commonplace taking the reins at the majority of Premier League clubs, Blackburn the latest club to fall under foreign ownership.
Incidentally, Blackburn had the cheapest adult season in the Premier League with tickets at £224 – just over twice the cost of a single high-end ticket at the Emirates.
A £100 ticket would make watching Arsenal 11 times more expensive than following Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. The German team charge just £9 for their cheapest seat.
The most expensive normal seats at the Emirates Stadium – in the centre of the upper tier for ‘category A’ games against popular opponents – are £94 per person, plus a booking fee of up to £2.30 and £2.20 postage.
That makes £98.50 for a typical purchase. But, with VAT rising from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, that ticket would break the £100 barrier for the first time.
No club can afford to charge such prices throughout their grounds and stay busy, and Arsenal have a wide range of prices, from £48 to £94 for ‘Category A’ games against top opposition such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham.
Arsenal’s cheapest adult season ticket for 2010-11 cost £893, while their most expensive ‘ordinary’ season ticket, which has no hospitality, was £1,825. Liverpool were the next most expensive for 2010-11 at £680, followed by Tottenham (£650), West Ham (£585) and Chelsea (£550).
The club with the next most expensive single ticket price in England is Tottenham, where the most expensive ‘normal’ seat is £76 per game, which will increase to £78 when VAT rises in January, according to Spurs’ official website.
The most expensive ordinary seat at Chelsea costs £73, and at Manchester United just £49.
It’s clear that the London clubs are setting the standard by raising prices as they feel the pinch of the age of austerity under the new Conservative government
This step by Arsenal will not only begrudge their fan base, it will also push ticket prices into a frightening new era.
Impressive research, Saad. I believe that Arsenal have always been one of the more expensive teams to watch but £100 is a huge price to pay for 90 minutes of entertainment. I use the word entertainment deliberately, not because of the football that Arsenal play (although it is entertaining, obviously), but because a lot of clubs are raising the prices that casual fans pay to see one-off games. This is to cash in on tourists who might fancy catching an Arsenal game as part of their holiday. At Old Trafford, they call them day-trippers.
100 quid to watch the shower of sh*te that was on show last saturday !!
I would be demanding my money back after a game like that !