Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has advanced a mixture of moral and pragmatic arguments to suggest that Premier League ticket prices should be cut. His conclusions are based on research he did for his MBA at Manchester Alliance Business School.
His remarks have reignited a long-running debate about how many traditional fans and young adults have been priced out of football, with season tickets at some clubs costing £1,000 or more, particularly in London. Manchester City season tickets cost between £299 and £635.
He argues that clubs need to a draw 'a moral line' and help 'the right communities' to attend matches. They should make sure that working class fans who have supported them for generations can go to games.
More pragmatically, he argues that a full stadium with a passionate crowd drawn from the local community can improve the home team's performance and inhibit visiting players. The clubs that ranked highest for atmosphere in his research were mainly in Germany, where some are community owned and ticket prices low. Few Premier League clubs did well for atmosphere in his research, an exception being Huddersfield Town.
Television and commercial revenues are far more important than tickets to Premier League clubs. The proportion of clubs' annual revenues from match day ticket sales was 29 per cent in 2007-8, but is set to fall to 15 per cent in 2017-18, according to Deloitte.
Away ticket prices have already been reduced and paradoxically it can cost more to go to a game in the Football League.
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