Tag Archives: She Wore

Why did more clubs not take up Newcastle’s ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ offer?

3 Replies

On Tuesday, we began discussion on the pricing scandal at Manchester City. One of the aspects of the article was the Twenty’s Plenty campaign spearheaded by The Football Supporters Federation. On the back of this, Newcastle United offered all clubs in the Premier League a reciprocal pricing agreement where they would charge away fans £20 if their opponents reciprocated the offer.

Of all the other 19 Premier League clubs, only Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion took them up on the offer. A couple of other clubs have done some side agreements, such as Crystal Palace offering to knock £5 off of the Newcastle travelling fans ticket if this was reciprocated, but by and large, the offer by Newcastle was ignored. The question going through my head when reading this was a simple one.

Why?

Everyone says that the reason why a single club is unable to lower ticket prices as they then generate less revenue, and as a consequence, put themselves at a disadvantage to other Premier League clubs. If that rationale is true, why then, would barely any club take up an offer which, if every club took it up, would create a disadvantage not to themselves, but to an opponent. In this case Newcastle United.

Had every club have taken up Newcastle United’s offer, they would all be down a similar amount in revenue, that being the difference between the usual ticket price and the £20. Meanwhile Newcastle would be down 19 times that. So if clubs are refusing to budge on ticket prices due to putting themselves at a disadvantage, why would they not take up this offer? Greed.

Greed can be the only answer. Whilst clubs all pay lip services to giving fans a better service and more competitive prices (‘we would if we could’ is the often justification), when it comes down to it, they refuse to budge.

£20 for an away ticket to go to Newcastle would have been more than reasonable. In fact, I would say it is cheap. With an £80 train to Newcastle still required you are still looking at an Arsenal away fan spending £100 to get from London Kings Cross to Newcastle. Incidental, despite Manchester City charging us £58, my cheap rail (£31) means that the Manchester City trip is actually cheaper. Anyway, I digress. £20 would have been a good deal for fans. But then the brain cogs start turning.

Why can Arsenal, for example, reciprocate the Twenty’s Plenty agreement with Newcastle, but then not offer the same to Sunderland, Southampton or Swansea. Why can they not get an agreement that Twenty’s Plenty with Cardiff and Crystal Palace? The fact is, they would have no justification to not come up with similar agreements throughout the Premier League.

One reciprocal agreement would have raised the questions of more. More would have created more. And before you know it, all Premier League clubs have decided that Twenty’s Plenty for all away fans. One deal would have unravelled the cartel, the price fixing, amongst Premier League sides.

You see, they all agree to keep prices high, everyone has to pay that high price. One club makes the Twenty’s Plenty offer, the cartel then has a decision. Either all adopt it, or all boycott it. They decided the latter. Premier League clubs act as a cartel. All agreeing to keep prices high to ensure profits are maximised.  They are no different to energy companies or supermarkets. All of whom fix prices to ensure it is the customer that loses out. They do it for greed.

Greed is the only justifiable reasoning for all clubs not jumping all over Newcastle’s Twenty’s Plenty offer. The joke is, how little the greed actually makes Premier League sides.

Arsenal has the second largest away capacity in the Premier League, after Manchester United. The maximum amount of tickets an away side can claim in the Premier League is 3,000 (although the area can be expanded to 4,500 behind the goal for cup games). Now Arsenal announced earlier this season that:

“There will be five ‘A’ Category, eight ‘B’ Category and six ‘C’ category matches in the Premier League across the season.”

Now a little bit of mathematics shows that the 5 Cat A games will generate £310 per seat. the Cat B ones £284 per seat, and the Cat C games £153. A total of £747 for all 19 Premier League games. Now divide this by the 19 games gives you an average of £39 per seat.

Now if you are still with me (and not bored or in the process of taking off your socks to check my maths), the difference between £39 and £20 is £19 (I did that one without my calculator), that works out as £361 per seat over the 19 league games. Now for the magic.

£361 multiplied by the 3,000 seats is £1,083,000. That is how much Arsenal would lose if they offered every Premier League side an away ticket for £20.

£1,083,000

That is the cost of a Premier Leagues greed. Taking into account that, as we mentioned, Arsenal have the 2nd largest ground, and amongst the highest ticket prices, it is unlikely that anyone will have a bigger loss then Arsenal. £1,083,000 is the price of a football clubs greed.

Now it might seem a large number to some of you. However, when you take into account that in 2013, the turnover of Arsenal Football Club was £242,800,000, a little over £1m is no longer that big a number. It would be 0.4% of our turnover. The greed of Arsenal, and other clubs, is so minuscule it is unexplainable. £1,083,000 for a football club is nothing, especially when the new TV deal, in this season, will see the BOTTOM clubs income rise by around £22 million. The greed is unexplainable. But then again, the greedy always want more.

What the clubs are clearly worried about is the Pandora’s Box that Twenty’s Plenty could open. If they can offer away fans tickets for £20, why can they not offer home fans? And they the ball of string will begin to unravel. By boycotting Newcastle’s offer, they ensure that away fans do not get a better deal, and as a consequence, ensure that home fans continue to pay a premium.

If that box were to open, how much would it cost Arsenal? Well their match day revenue is around £100m (give or take), were they to offer tickets for £20 to all 60,000 supporters over a 28 game seasons (taking into account average amount of cup games) Arsenal would see a revenue drop from £100m to £33.6m. Around a £60,000,000 drop (although this does not factor in the coporate seats). Now that is the greed!

All I know is that Arsenal Football Club would not miss £1,083,000 if they agreed with every club in the Premier League tickets for £20, however, as a regular away fan an extra £361 (approximately) in my pocket over a season would make a BIG difference.

Keenos

Do clubs do enough for disabled fans? – An open letter to the Premier League

1 Reply

This season, every Premier League club has been instructed to spend £200,000 to better the experience of away fans. Many of the clubs, Arsenal included, are spending part of this on away fans visiting the Emirates Stadium, as well subsidising away tickets for travelling fans. Whilst all of this is positive news, making football a little bit (the subsidy is only £2.50 per game) more affordable and accessible, it seems there is one group of away fans who continue to get a raw deal when travelling away.

We were recently approached by a disabled Arsenal supporter to publish his open letter to the club and the Premier League highlighting the problems for disabled away supporters:

To whom it may concern,

Last week I’ve been to two games and been bitterly disappointed with the seats I’ve received from the club at both fixtures I’m afraid to say. In both instances I felt that I’ve wasted money on travel and ticket purchases as a result. Yes, I have a disability of being partially sighted from a generic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which effects my night vision, as I can see inside stadiums as they have sufficient light but as soon as I’m outside relying on seeing from the aid of street lights I have a big problem.

The seating allocation I received for the Dortmund game was ridiculous! The nearest Arsenal fan to me was in a wheelchair at the half way line and Arsenal fans were the opposite end to me. Half of the actually match I spent extremely paranoid as one guy was continually staring at us, and it seemed like a few others were as well. I don’t speak German so that made me even more paranoid when we got looked at and then spoke in their native tongue. The guy who was continuously staring at us came up to us at half time and I can honestly say I was petrified, but he was actually friendly when he spoke to us, which was a huge relief.

In my humble opinion though I should have never have been put in this situation. When we scored I felt that I was not able to celebrate, as we were situated with home fans that were extremely pissed off to say the least. All I could do was look at our fans at the other end wishing I was able to celebrate with them. I’m not being funny but if I had watched it at home I would have been able to celebrate our goal with a smile on my face rather than sitting down feeling down!

As for Manchester United game yesterday, I’m afraid it was more of the same. We were stuck in seats with Manchester United supporters surrounding us, but this time our away fans were on top of us. As we arrived early with the arsenal coach we went into the ground to have a drink and something to eat. Unfortunately we felt uncomfortable eating because the only place to eat was with United fans, and surprise surprise they were staring at us!! So we had to leave that area and go to our seats until the game started even though we wanted to watch the game shown on the screens inside.

To make matters worse the United fan next to me through out the match was blatantly trying to wind me up to the point I wanted to hit him. I even heard him say to the guy beside him say “I’m gonna wind him up”, referring to me! Yet again, I feel that I would have been better off watching the game at home.

The bottom line is that I have spent over £200 over the last week to feel down, uncomfortable and paranoid. If I knew this was going to be the case I would not have travelled all those miles to have these emotions that are detrimental to my well-being, as I suffer from depression which I’m on medication, and pay for it!

Part of the reason why I make these trips are to get out the house and be with fellow Gooners win, draw and lose as we are family. I feel we are been segregated which makes it all pointless. As disabled supporters we should at least be told if we are seating with our own supporters so we can make an informed choice!

My eyes sight are deteriorating and I struggle outside to see in crowds in the dark, but what keeps me going is being with Arsenal fans, its one area in my life that makes me happy. If I do not need a platform I should not to be subject to this, as I just need seats. Sorry to repeat myself but I’m bitterly disappointed.

Leon Boreland

The Arsenal and Me – Andy’s Story

Leave a reply

It all started with me walking out of the back entrance of Sutton Dwelling with my older brother, onto College Cross and turning right onto Liverpool road.

Little did I know that this day was to forge a relationship stronger than any wedding vowels ever taken in the history of mankind?

Soon I was walking past the Kings Arms on the corner on Islington Park Street, next came Lewis Buildings and its unique red brickwork, then there was Laycock street where I first went to school, past Highbury Station Road, all landmarks I knew well, but now I was into territory unknown!

The next stop was the ‘Adam and Eve’ pub were my brother was soon shaking hands his with his mates, everyone in the pub had either ‘red and white’ or ‘yellow and blue’ on.

I was soon given a bottle of coke with a straw and a packet of crisps and led to a safe haven towards to the back of the pub where there were many other kids of my age, all grouped around our own little table. We looked nervous, we looked out of place but one thing’s for sure “We were all Arsenal”

I don’t recall how long we stayed in the pub that day nor do I recall our opponents that day, but when we turned onto Drayton Park I was swept away with a wave of ecstasy.

Police horses, coaches, hamburger stalls, programme sellers, stall holders – selling hats, gloves, badges and scarves, I was like a kid in a free sweet shop, I was blown away by the sheer exhilaration of it all, I was in “Utopia”

All the way down Drayton Park I held my brothers hand as proud as punch, I felt at home, I felt safe (Although I was a small 6 year kid amongst thousands)I felt that I was part of this broad church that was soon to be my home for next 25 years or more.

Soon I climbing the steps of the world famous ‘North Bank’ this place was huge, the lush green grass, the massive clock at the other end of the pitch, two identical stands running down the side of the pitch what more could a local Islington boy want on a Saturday afternoon?

We soon took our place, just too right of the goal as you look at the pitch; I was placed on a bar on the lower part of the stand, with the middle gangway some 5 feet behind me.

This was to be my ritual for many years to come, come rain or shine I was there every Saturday we played at home and some of the memories that stand out for me whilst sitting in this place are as follows:

The peanut seller

Sammy Nelson pulling down his pants

Emily Hughes getting whacked on the back by a school kid as he went to retrieve the ball for a throw in, in front of the lower West. He was running down the clock in a league cup game, which we needed to score.

Supper Mac grabbing a hat trick against Newcastle

Liam Brady scoring a sublime free kick on the edge of the box against Sheffield Wednesday at the end of extra time in an FA Cup reply, they were a 3rd division team at the time in the old format.

“You’re going home in a London ambulance”

“Clock end, clock end do your job”

“There’s only one way out”

The Metropolitan Police band at half time, they guy never did drop that baton.

The manual score boards in the corner of the Clock End / Lower West and the North Bank / Lower East and Hereford taking us all the way in a league cup tie.

When I was allowed to go on my own my friends and I moved into the schools boys, then back to the north bank, then onto the clock end before I became a football snob and bought a season ticket in the lower East before buying a bond in the upper North Bank.

Over the years that followed and from various parts of the ground I’ve seen Graham Roberts shove Charlie Nicholas into the stand

Brian Talbot score near on identical free kicks at the clock end against both Newcastle and Liverpool

David Platt donning and Arsenal goal keeper’s shirt whist having to stand in goal for Villa, cues to “You’ll never play for Arsenal”

Dennis Bergkamps first goal for the club against Southampton

Ian Wright with bleached blond hair

Getting knocked out of the FA by Watford

Brain McClair’s penalty miss – For which I am in that picture

My list of memories is endless and when I think back of the old ground and the times I spend their right through to end it brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye.

Sadly my days of going over The Arsenal are limited, but it was a pleasure and something that I would never change nor forget and whenever I am introduced to someone new I gladly tell them “Arsenal is my club”

Andy

If you would like to tell your Arsenal story, click here