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Arsenal fans concerned about tickets price hike

Arsenal Supporters' Trust state: 'We are disappointed that the FSA’s ‘Protect the Fans, Protect the Game’ proposals calling for a ticket price freeze across all Premier League clubs has not been taken up. Neither the Premier League nor Arsenal have seriously engaged with the idea that a freeze at all clubs would help stop the ‘arms race’.

Season tickets will be going up by 3.9 per cent (slightly above the rate of inflation) and most season tickets will cost over £1,000.   A seat in the centre of the lower tier will go up by 27 per cent to £1,281.

AST continued: 'We firmly believe that with the football sector benefitting from ever-increasing broadcast and commercial revenues it is time to stop squeezing match-going supporters so hard.

Arsenal recently reported to Deloitte a big increase in last season’s total revenue to £691m (up by 10%) and ticketing income of £154m (up by 19%).

It is frustrating for fans to see football clubs and leagues do so little to combat increasing costs in the game, with ticket prices continuing to rise. The AST has led efforts through the FSA and FSE for regulation to control agents’ fees. Yet the football authorities and clubs seem incapable of collectively addressing this. 

We now expect both Arsenal and the Premier League to give more explanation as to why they have chosen to ignore the compelling case for a price freeze put forward by the ‘Protect the Fans, Protect the Game’ campaign, which was overwhelmingly backed by supporters including all representative members of the Arsenal Advisory Board (AAB).

Protection of all concession categories and ticket fees

We welcome Arsenal’s decision to retain all concessionary ticketing categories (children, young adults, disability and senior) and a community tickets initiative. At a time when many clubs are reducing concessionary commitments it is good to see Arsenal retain these important protections.

We are also pleased that Arsenal will maintain the policy of not charging fans for using the Ticket Transfer service, the Ticket Exchange, nor signing up for a digital membership. Many other clubs are exploiting loyalty by increasing fees for these types of services and we commend Arsenal for recognising how important these services are to supporters who share tickets among family and friends helping to fill every seat.

Fairer categorisation of Champions League games

Arsenal have partially responded to our request for a review of pricing categories for Champions League matches by committing to apply Category C to the group stage match against the team seeded in pot four.

We still believe that the pricing categories for Champions League games are too high – especially for group stage games where almost certain qualification carries little sporting jeopardy – and we will continue to press Arsenal for fairer prices. We believe the new B+ category could justifiably be used instead of the A category for some Champions League games.

Improvements to the option to buy a 19-game season ticket for Premier League matches only

Last season we were pleased that our long-standing request for the option of a 19-game season ticket was introduced. But we advised at the time that take up would be low given that those season ticket holders who took up this option were not afforded any priority rights to buy their seat for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

This year we again strongly advocated that the 19-game season ticket should give holders an automatic right to purchase their seat for all other competitive home matches in the League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League. This is in line with arrangements at other Premier League clubs, and recognises the dedication of season ticket holders and their still large up-front financial commitment.

For next season Arsenal are proposing to amend this option so that a 19-game season ticket holder has the right to buy all League Cup and FA Cup tickets and Champions League group stage games, but not the Champions League knockout games.

We made it clear that this adjustment will not move the dial and that take up will remain low until 19-game season ticket holders have the right to buy tickets for all Champions League knockout games. This is a missed opportunity, as encouraging more season ticket holders to take up the 19-game option would create more ticket availability for silver and red members – a vital priority.

Arsenal did acknowledge our concerns and have committed to a further review of the 19-game season ticket before season 2027/28 when evidence from this year’s change can be fully reviewed.

More ticketing information to be made available to supporters on how away tickets are allocated

We are pleased that Arsenal have committed to publish more transparency on how away tickets are allocated from the start of next season. The club are also undertaking further reviews and improvements to how away tickets are distributed to ensure fairness and continue the fight against touting.

More action to tackle ticket touting

It is also good to see more action being proposed on ticket touting in general. Our longstanding call for photo ID verification on membership purpose to be applied to all red and silver members will be introduced. This should reduce the number of duplicate memberships being held by touts. In time there is a case for ID checks being applied to all membership categories.'

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