Premier League agrees to £30 cap on away tickets

, 9 March, 15comments  |  Jump to most recent
The member clubs of England's top flight have collectively agreed to a cap of £30 for away fans effective next season.

The new ticket price ceiling, one that Everton in particular pushed for at a meeting only last month, will be in place for the next three seasons.

The move comes as the result of pressure over the last couple of years from supporters groups under the banner of the Football Supporters Federation, including the Blue Union and Spirit of Shankly from Merseyside, to reduce ticket prices under their "20's Plenty" campaign.

While the reduction doesn't go as far as those pressure groups would have liked, it represents clear progress towards making Premier League football more affordable for travelling fans, particularly at the bigger grounds like The Emirates where prices north of £60 for top-tier fixtures have sparked protests.

Everton CEO Robert Elstone welcomed the news, saying: Elstone said: “This has been very much top of the Premier League’s agenda, with a long discussion about it at the last meeting, and today’s undertaking is absolutely right for away fans and for the Premier League.

“Most clubs have recognised for some time that we need to do something for the travelling supporter. That supporter makes a huge commitment to their club, they are almost all Season Ticket holders and, as a consequence, they go to support their team for a large proportion of the 38 Premier League games in a season. It is absolutely right that football, as a family, looks after that group of fans.

“Our away fans are among the most dedicated and committed throughout the Premier League and that loyalty is deserving of this commitment by the clubs.

“We demonstrably put our fans at the heart of what we do and the top of every agenda and pricing is one of the most important ways in which our actions underpin our words.

“The Board, myself, the staff all feel that we are custodians for this great Club. We are tasked with growing the fanbase, building loyalty and, if we can offer better value for money on tickets, then we should do it. We have to do what is right for Everton, which is why we have gone this way.

“On away ticket pricing, we welcomed the scrutiny on us and our Premier League rivals, we welcomed being held to account and we now welcome the collective decision of the clubs.”

 

Reader Comments (15)

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Paul Andrews
1 Posted 09/03/2016 at 15:57:55
£80 for train; £62 for Arsenal ticket; a few drinks, bit to eat... and it's £200 to watch a game of football. It hasn't been a working class man's game for a long time.

This is long overdue; all credit to the lads who campaigned for it.

Brian Williams
2 Posted 09/03/2016 at 17:44:39
In a recent meeting between all the clubs, Everton were the ONLY club to vote for this so there's been a BIG swing in a very short space of time. Excellent news.
Rob Hooton
3 Posted 09/03/2016 at 19:20:25
Everton leading the way for the fans yet again. If our on-field exploits matched what our great club does in the community, we'd be the biggest club in the world!

Always proud to be a Toffee even when I feel things aren't quite right.

Tony Abrahams
4 Posted 09/03/2016 at 20:44:15
I suppose it's a start, but when you look, at the time, money and effort that goes into following your team away from home, surely they could have went a bit further.

Sky have invested an unbelievable amount of money into The EPL, and you can't tell me that the passion in the stands, hasn't helped clubs get the best deal possible.

Big Thank You to everyone involved in this campaign though, for helping to keep money in our pockets.

Clive Lewis
5 Posted 10/03/2016 at 00:37:20
There goes the away allocation , great idea but I have feeling of bad execution, does this suggest that Premier League clubs will cut the allocation for away fans. I was under the impression that they have to allocate 10%.
Dennis Ng
6 Posted 10/03/2016 at 00:52:16
Clive, indeed, good gesture but perhaps they will tinker with allocation. Hopefully they will enforce a minimum away allocation.
Matt Traynor
7 Posted 10/03/2016 at 02:02:32
Clive / Dennis, they have to offer a minimum of 10% of capacity for away fans – it's in Premier League rules. Nearly all clubs exceed this, so you could see some of them reducing allocation. Other clubs seem to get exemptions (like Man Utd when they were expanding the stadium). I hope these are not allowed to cut further.

Everton almost always sells out their away allocation – back in the day I had to go into the home end on more than one occasion. It'd be a shame to see that away support diminished – especially as the away games seem to be the only source of pleasure watching the Blues these days!

Tony Abrahams
8 Posted 10/03/2016 at 08:59:21
Matt, things will never change regarding some things, and as you quite rightly point out, it will just lead to supporters going in the home end, just like at Man City, in the cup the other week.

Thousands of empty seats, but they wouldn't up our allocation. At least the traveling blue army, is still something to be feared, anyway!!

Gary Russell
9 Posted 10/03/2016 at 13:09:05
Yesterday's article reporting on this story. The usual suspects mentioned but nothing about Everton who were supposedly the most vociferous.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/09/premier-league-away-fan-tickets-capped

Andrew Ellams
10 Posted 10/03/2016 at 13:47:23
When you think that the majority of Premier League clubs could have given all of the tickets for league games away for free this season and still been financially better off with the new TV money, this isn't nearly enough really is it.
Dave Abrahams
11 Posted 10/03/2016 at 15:10:35
Andrew (11) back you all the way there, I hope that the fans who have battled for a long time to get tickets reduced don't end the protests with this relatively small reduction, and I hope that tickets including season tickets will continue to be reduced.

Let's see more and more taken from players, managers and agents and the money put back in the fans pockets, these price reductions have been a long time coming and are long overdue, the game is nothing without fans, let's make sure all the Premier League clubs understand this and make them play the game, the players have had milk and honey since the Premier League started now it is the fans turn, and these reductions are not enough.

Clive Lewis
12 Posted 10/03/2016 at 19:02:14
I remember Liverpool reduced the away allocation due to supporter safety issues.
Anthony Washington
13 Posted 10/03/2016 at 20:28:30
Gary (9) Re: Everton being the most vocal which you are right hasn't been mentioned.

Kevin Miles when asked on talksport did the anfield walkout have anything to do with it, he was quite insistent it did not and that it was a dispute about home tickets with their own club, and that the FSA had been campaigning for a number of years for a reduction.

Later on the main ITV news Ian Payne said this price reduction all started from the Liverpool walkout!

So there you go the whole country brain washed again into thinking this was the red shites idea.

Colin Fitzpatrick
14 Posted 11/03/2016 at 11:05:20
Gary (#3) and Anthony (#13), I wouldn't be too worried about any perceived lack of recognition of Evertonians for the role they're playing in the ongoing campaign against unfair ticket prices, the guys involved certainly aren't. Nor would I be too worried about Liverpool supporters taking all the credit, the reality is it's a campaign involving activists from nearly all Premier League clubs.

You're always going to get misinformed journalists ready to exhibit their ignorance on a whole range of subjects, the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) CEO, Kevin Miles, was completely correct when he stated that the Liverpool supporters recent walkout had nothing whatsoever to do with the Â㿊 away ticket price cap announcement; their protest was a local issue regarding increases to their 2016-17 season tickets which was seen as an insult following extensive cooperation on a ticket price working group.

Having said that, whilst the FSF initiated the 'Twenty's Plenty' campaign, the Spirit of Shankly (SOS) did organise the first protest to the Premier League in London. Following several meetings in Manchester, which Evertonians attended, fan organisations from all over the country descended on London. SOS organised their own coach but, being a different breed, we took the Virgin and arrived faster and fresher. You can read the report of that demonstration: Merseyside fans hail success of Premier League HQ ticket price protest

That was almost three years ago; since then, there's been further demonstrations in addition to many meetings with Scudamore and the Premier League sponsors. To be fair, it was very much a case of pushing on an open door with these people; they could see the benefit of promoting a better deal for long-suffering away fans.

In 2013, concerned by falling attendances and lack of atmosphere affecting their product, they set up the 'Attendance Working Group' whose aim was to develop an acceptable policy in line with the aims of the FSF campaign. It was different with the clubs, particularly the usual suspects who are forever motivated by greed and greed alone.

It was therefore refreshing, and for Evertonians a proud moment, when Everton CEO Robert Elstone alone spoke eloquently in favour of capping away ticket prices at the 5½-hour Premier League club meeting in February. His speech, at the time, fell on deaf ears when, following a poll, seven of the twenty clubs rejected the proposal. Yet, when the clubs reconvened in March and the proposal was put to an official vote, it was unanimously agreed.

Robert Elstone's words are worth remembering, "On away ticket pricing, we welcomed the scrutiny on us and our Premier League rivals, we welcomed being held to account and we now welcome the collective decision of the clubs." 

It's a step in the right direction, it's a victory for activism – but, most of all, it's a victory for common sense.

Anthony Washington
16 Posted 11/03/2016 at 17:47:44
Thanks for the reply Colin. When I read my piece back it does look like I'm moaning about Everton not getting any recognition, when indeed it was the FSF and its member clubs and individuals who campaigned for Twenty's Plenty.

It was the lazy journalism on the ITV news which pissed me off and the fact that no-one picked up on the fact Everton had tried to address the prices at a Premier League meeting.


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