The cheap ticket bubble has burst
The headline news is that West Ham is raising season ticket prices by between 6% and 14%, ignoring the rapidly falling rate of inflation (3.4%). This is worsening the cost-of-living crisis for Hammers fans.
The biggest rises hit the discounted two-year deals for band five and six tickets, with the two-year band five ticket rising by 14%. The cheapest annual season ticket is rising more than 11% (£35) to £345 and the kids’ season ticket by 10% (£10) to £109.
At the other end of the scale the top priced ticket (excluding Club London) is rising just over 6% (£100) to £1,720. West Hams still claims its pricing makes it a working-class club but these prices expose that lie.
Inflation
We need to put the rises in context. The much-criticised move to the London Stadium meant the club was desperate to drag unwilling fans to attend games. As a result, it cut the price of the cheapest season ticket from £620 to £289. This season, the cheapest ticket was £310, so had risen since that 2016-17 season by only just over 7%.
Next season the cheapest season ticket will have risen 19% since we moved to Stratford. That is less than cumulative inflation over that time, which the Bank of England puts at about 30%. By contrast, the most expensive tickets will now have risen by more than 56% in the same time period, much faster than inflation.
The club likes to talk about its cheapest tickets only. It points out that its cheapest prices are below other clubs facing relegation, such as Burnley and Sheffield United. But that selective comparison ignores the fact that most bandings at West Ham are much higher than either of those clubs’ maximum. The most expensive ticket at Sheffield for this season was £620, exactly £1,000 less than West Ham’s top tier.
No Concessions
The club has also announced that no new concession-priced tickets will be sold in the more expensive seats. Only band five and six will continue to offer concession rates to new applicants. That means someone invalided out of work through accident or sickness and on a reduced income will no longer be able to apply for their seat at a discounted rate.
This is from a club that gets the same share of the Premier League’s £1.5bn of TV rights revenue as other clubs but has significantly lower stadium costs due to the subsidy associated with the former Olympic Park.
This really is a shame.
Who should be so lucky?
Season ticket holders are the lucky ones. Non-season ticket match-day prices will also significantly rise. The club argues that this makes season tickets even better value. It says most clubs price season tickets so you save the cost of three of the 19 Premier League games but West Ham’s discount in bigger.
The club also admits that it expects there to be fewer season ticket holders each year. It says selling more on-the-day full price tickets will enable it to keep the price of season tickets lower.
It’s clear that the club wants to sell over-priced tickets to tourists – which doesn’t help the atmosphere on match days. WHUST also flagged the concern that the club is selling tickets to away fans within home areas and this causes conflicts. Stewards routinely fail to evict away fans in home areas. If this happens near you, let us know the details.
Financial fair play?
The club justifies the price rises using the threat of a points deduction under the profitability and sustainability rules set by the Premier League. These were introduced in a bid to stave off regulation and used to be called financial fair play. Basically, they prohibit clubs spending more on players’ salaries than the club earns from all forms of income.
Already Everton and Nottingham Forest have had points deducted for breaking the rules, though appeals against these remain outstanding. Leicester stands accused too and the hearing is due soon.
West Ham needs a bigger squad to cope with its European football campaign and a better squad to stay a big six contender in the Premier League. It can’t, the club claims, increase its playing budget without increasing its income.
As a sop, there may be a few extra cheap games thrown in. The club is considering a category D pricing structure for what it describes as “Bournemouth on a Wednesday night if we’re in the middle of a cup run”. That’ll be kids for a quid. This was a suggestion fan groups raised last season.
Working for the clampdown
Leaving your season ticket seat empty is going to be a no-no. The club will be monitoring usage and people who fail to attend will be tackled. Exactly how is not yet clear but other clubs do police this better than West Ham currently.
The club’s ticket exchange is unpopular due to it failing to provide real cash in exchange for sold tickets but only “club cash”. Supporter groups have raised this and the club says it is under consideration. Meanwhile the club is keen that season ticket holders who cannot attend make use of the friends and family options to transfer tickets to other fans so the stadium is filled.
Our cup runneth over
There will be a very different cup ticket scheme. No longer will the club automatically take your money and give you your seat. There are two main reasons given:
1. Too many payments bounce as people moved bank accounts and change cards
2. The different away ticket allocations for cup games – and take-up by the opposition clubs – means many season ticket holders have to be relocated (the club must offer potentially twice as many away seats for an FA Cup game than a Premier League game, for example).
Instead, there will be a window for season ticket holders to buy their discounted seat before it goes on general sale at an inflated price.
Away days
Although Away Season Tickets (ASTs) will be renewed as usual this year, the numbers have been falling as no new ASTs have been made available. The club has indicated it wants to talk to supporter groups about ending the scheme.
WHUST has already put suggestions to the ticketing office about simplifying and speeding up the away ticketing process. With increasing security checks and anti-touting activity on away ticketing, there’s more to be discussed. The ASTs will be added to that list.
We sent a number of questions to the club, which they said they would include as FAQs on their announcement.