Morning all, welcome to midweek, and it’s ticket prices that are the main talking point this morning. Arsenal yesterday confirmed a new ‘pricing approach’, which means a 6.5% rise in ticket prices for next season.
We thought about this increase, the first in three seasons, very carefully. We fully understand fans are facing rising costs in many areas of their lives and their club faces the same issues. We have acted responsibly over the years to balance the impact of even inflationary increases on our fans with the rightful demand that we compete at the highest level and we will continue to do so.
Naturally enough the reaction has been almost universally negative from Arsenal fans and supporter’s groups. It was always going to be a hard sell after the last few weeks and a win against United didn’t generate nearly enough goodwill to soften the blow. It would have been tough, even with a trophy, but fans will wonder why the money they spend on the team, via tickets, via the third new home shirt in as many seasons etc, doesn’t seem to get invested back into the team as much as it should.
Genuine gripes, that’s for sure. Perhaps there’s a hint of something in what Gazidis says. The ‘rightful demand that we compete at the highest level’ shows, at least, an awareness that there’s a general belief that the squad needs strengthening. Whatever about a United win, the kind of signing that signals real ambition would make the price rise easier to swallow, if still a bone of contention. A continued reliance on just youth and a failure to address some of the team’s issues would create a serious issue for the board, led by new majority shareholder Stan Kroenke.
A Cultured Left Foot deals with it in concise and measured way, calling it a ‘PR disaster’. He makes the point that ticket prices shouldn’t necessarily be linked with success on the pitch but such was the level of unhappiness over the last few weeks there were very strong rumours that the price rise was under serious consideration. You can’t necessarily separate the two. Fans will ask why they should pay more and more without seeing the same from the club.
Announced on the same day as a new ‘multi-million pound’ sponsorship deal with Indesit, this price rise must have had serious consideration at boardroom level. They surely weren’t blind or deaf to the prevailing climate amongst fans. There were dialogues with AISA and the AST, they knew fine well how people would react to this, that there would be more frustration and anger. Which is why we have to hope that there’s an element of them taking some short term pain for long term gain. The price rise would go some way to funding the wages of a ‘star’ player this summer.
And I’m not trying to excuse or condone it, merely understand it, because if I had to front a decision like that I’d be very hard to convince. Gazidis is hands on, he knows how fans feel and what the consequences would be, yet it went ahead. There will be people priced out of renewals, which is a real shame, and the games become less affordable for many people. A point well made by erstwhile columnist Tim Stillman, and one which I’m sure he’ll touch on this week, is that ticket prices these days prevent younger fans from attending games, from being bitten with the Arsenal bug. They’ll find different ways of following the team, via TV, via streams, but it’s a different experience from being at the ground.
It’s not just an Arsenal problem either. Football in general is big business, fans are no longer viewed as such, they’re clients, customers, who are targetted and marketed at relentlessly. Shirts, programmes, food, drink, merchandise, travel, and so many other things (do the club still do the Arsenal credit card?!), provide income, and you have to wonder is there value in it? Clubs know they have a captive audience, an audience that’s loyal for life, but there’s a real danger they’ll milk the life out of themselves.
Arsenal have done well in the past, the discounted Carling Cup tickets for example, but like every other club they’d do well to remember that football fandom is generational. Listen to the stories of those who attend now about how they were brought to their first game, how the green glow of the pitch as they came into the ground captivated them, gave them that first delicious taste of Arsenal, and remember that’s what needs to happen to the generations that follow. For some people it’s going to be impossible, simply because they cannot afford the ticket prices.
It’s a tough one, in fairness. The economic realities of the game, the spiralling wages which contribute so much to the cost of the game for fans, mean that everything moves upwards at all times. When other industries were making cuts in salaries and workforce, footballers got pay rises. But there has to be something approaching a happy medium and I guess it’s somewhat promising that Gazidis has promised an ‘entire review’ of the ticketing policies at the club. Hopefully, with the continued input of the fans groups, changes and improvements can be made, because they’re necessary for the for the healthy long-term future of this club.
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Meanwhile, Stuart Pearce has justified his inclusion of Jack Wilshere in the England U21 squad, saying:
I had a conversation with Jack a month ago and asked him: ‘You’ve played a lot of games, what are your thoughts on the summer?’ He wants to go because he likes playing for the Under-21s. So it would be hard for me to turn around to him and say: ‘Have a rest, son’. We’re going into a major tournament against some very good nations. They’ll be turning up with their best players. We want to turn up with ours.
Jack wants to go because Jack loves playing football. If it were England U21s or anyone else he’s the kind of guy who would play anywhere, for anyone, just because he loves the game. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right thing and Pearce must know that. Yes, it suits him going into this summer’s meaningless tournament but it doesn’t suit Jack or Arsenal. It’s classic short-term thinking and we’ve got to hope that it doesn’t come back to haunt us.
Pearce using someone like Bojan at Barcelona as another way of justifying it really doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. Wilshere has made 41 central midfield starts for Arsenal with 5 substitute appearances, in the fastest, most physical league in Europe. Bojan has started just 13 for Barcelona, up front, in a much less demanding environment. He might well be more established than Jack but the comparison does not hold up at all.
As for his pointed remark about only ever hearing from Arsene Wenger on this subject, he proves the manager right by using Theo as an example. Maybe, just maybe, the reason Theo didn’t make the World Cup squad was a consequence of him going away with the U21s and getting injured.
Anyway, there appears to be little or nothing we can do about it, other than to ensure that Jack gets a proper rest this summer, even if that means delaying the start of his Arsenal season by a month or more.
Right, that’s yer lot. More tomorrow.
