Everton Chief Executive Robert Elstone hits back at BBC Price of Football survey
Ticket prices have risen at twice the rate of the cost of living
Robert Elstone, Everton FC chief executive
Everton FC Chief Executive Robert Elstone believes that the BBC Price of Football survey has unfairly branded many football clubs in this country as “greedy and exploitative.”
The fourth annual survey was published on Wednesday, pointing out that ticket prices have risen at twice the rate of the cost of living.
But Elstone, whose club actually comes out of the survey positively, published a blog on Everton’s official website defending Premier League prices.
READ: Price of Football report: English fans paying nearly four times as much as those in Germany
“All football clubs think long and hard about ticket prices and most develop broad pricing structures that meet the needs and budgets of the vast majority of fans,” he said. “Junior prices are invariably attractive as clubs work exceptionally hard to get young fans in their stadia. Many clubs work with local schools, junior football clubs and businesses to offer heavily discounted group rates.
“I would also suggest almost every club offers healthy discounts for the early purchase of a season ticket and, from Everton’s perspective, we work hard every season to offer increasingly diverse payment options to help spread the cost of a season ticket.
“A quick scan of a published price list, at a certain point in time, picking up only ‘highs and lows’, misses all of this, and broadcasts to the nation misleading and flawed conclusions.
“By way of illustrating some of these points - and highlighting the real price of football from an Everton perspective - consider the following in relation to our match-goers in 2014/15:
*1 in 5 (17%) of our 27,500 season ticket holders pay less than £10 per game representing 1 in 8 (13%) of the paying Goodison attendance.
*9 out of 10 of our season ticket holders buy early and benefit from an average discount of £85. The highest price this overwhelming majority of fans pay for their season ticket is £599 (compared to the BBC’s reported highest price season ticket of £719).
*Only 500 supporters (1.3% of the average gate) paid late and paid the reported £719 after the early-bird window closed.
*60% of the gate for Saturday’s game against Aston Villa will be paying £30 or less.
*Only 6% of fans at Goodison Park, across the entire season, pay more than £40 per seat; and
*Over the past five years, the amount of money we take per seat – all games and all seats – has reduced by 15% when compared to the rate of inflation.
“Football isn’t cheap. Finding the money - even at the above prices - to come and watch Premier League football is difficult and should never be taken for granted. But, let’s get our facts right and acknowledge that almost every club is totally committed to providing value for money and making football accessible to the widest possible cross-section of society. That’s certainly true at Everton.”
Source: Echo
