The short version
- Several local season ticket holders at Manchester City are feeling squeezed out due to rising prices.
- The club has increased season ticket prices annually for the past twelve years, with some tickets 11 per cent more expensive.
- Supporters fear that the club is focusing more on tourists and visiting supporters instead of locals.
- Dissatisfaction causes some supporters to protest, and they want more recognition from the club.
- Manchester City have not publicly commented on the displeasure, but manager Pep Guardiola expressed understanding.
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– They are doing well now that the club is doing so well. But what happens when Pep leaves, what happens when Haaland leaves? If they don’t take care of the core supporters, they will go back to having empty seats, says Dante.
He is the spokesperson for the supporters’ group “1894”, and invites Phil, Liam and Fin to the table with VG at the supporters’ bar “The Townley” in the hours before the big game against Real Madrid.
It ended with a Champions League exit on penalties, but that’s a different game actually will talk about. The fight to be heard and recognized by the club they support.
They have something on their minds:
- The prices of season tickets have risen annually for the past twelve years, and especially a lot in the past four years. In March, the club announced that season ticket prices are going up five percent, with some tickets up to 11 percent more expensive.
- It did not come long after Manchester City announced a record profit in the “Treble” season, amounting to just over one billion kroner.
- New season tickets are also not offered if someone stops buying – or dies. As a result, the number of season ticket holders is steadily decreasing, year after year. They are replaced by supporters who buy tickets for individual matches.
– They are trying to replace us with a tourist who buys a package of hotels. I have no problem with the club trying to make money, but do it in a way that does not destroy the atmosphere, says Dante.
The supporters’ theory is that the club wants to piss off the season ticket holders a bit, so that they can be replaced with more lucrative supporters: the visitors.
The club has started work on the stadium, a hotel will be built and the capacity will be expanded. But not to the delight of those who follow the club with a season ticket, the quartet VG suspects will meet at the supporters’ bar The Townley.
All this at a time when the high cost of living is being referred to as a crisis here in Manchester and England.
The sum of all this means that they are now protesting.
This is the increase in season ticket prices at Manchester City from 2016 until today
This is how the price for a season ticket for an adult in the lower section of the “East stand” has developed.
2016/17 season: 750 pounds (10,300 Norwegian kroner, rounded to the nearest hundred)
17/18 season: 770 pounds (10,600 kroner)
18/19 season: 795 pounds (10,900 kroner)
19/20 season: 820 pounds (11,300 kroner)
20/21 season: Played without spectators due to covid
21/22 season: 820 pounds (11,300 kroner)
22/23 season: 845 pounds (11,600 kroner)
23/24 season: 880 pounds (12,100 kroner)
24/25 season: 915 pounds (12,600 kroner)
This is an increase of just over 22 per cent over nine seasons. Source: The Athletic
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It’s about recognition
Being a City supporter consists to a significant extent of defending the club against attacks from rival fans, and defending the club they do.
The club is accused of 115 financial breaches by the Premier League, and the ownership itself from Abu Dhabi is controversial.
Dante, Phil and the others stand on the barricades for their club, believe in it wholeheartedly – and would like a little more recognition for just that. A witch hunt against the club, Dante says they experience it as.
– It would be the world’s easiest PR trick to say that we are freezing ticket prices now as a thank you. Why do they piss people off for a couple of quid? It’s about us feeling valued, says Dante.
An objection they often get, also from VG, is what they are really complaining about – Manchester City has, after all, become one of the very best teams in the world. Shouldn’t it cost more to look at it?
But that’s not the point, we learn.
– We do not get that recognition from the club. It takes the shine off the whole thing, Dante says matter-of-factly.
It is also important to emphasize that the four VG are talking to are only a section of the supporters. Many are satisfied, the vast majority do not protest.
Dante nevertheless claims that they only get appreciative nods from their fellow supporters now that they raise their voices. And The Athletic wrote an in-depth article in March in which several supporter groups expressed their displeasure.
Guardiola support
Finally, they decided to come clean. Before the home game against Arsenal, they lowered the banner above – which was quickly removed – before the start of the match.
– You only do something like this if you have no other choice. I don’t think the club expected a reaction, as they live in their own bubble. Just give us some loyalty back, says Dante.
He believes the club leaders must live in a bubble if they do not understand why the protests are coming now. “They live in a different world to us, unfortunately,” he sighs.
The club itself has not publicly commented on the dissatisfaction, nor have they responded to VG’s inquiry into the matter. Initially, they explained the price increase with inflation and increased operating costs on match days.
However, manager Pep Guardiola acknowledged that he understood the supporters’ frustration ahead of the big game against Arsenal.
– I absolutely understand that. They will support us unconditionally. The team is the team, and we respect all opinions. I know it’s a sensitive topic, but on Sunday they are with us, Guardiola said in March.
Manager at Manchester City
In the years before the change of ownership that made Manchester City one of the world’s best clubs, they had an average attendance of between 42 and 47,000According to Transfermarkt..
By all means respectable considering that the capacity is 53,000 and the club would eventually go 35 years without a trophy.
It is nevertheless there Dante fears the club could go backwards if the success were to end, and the core supporters do not feel valued.
– They must change their attitudes towards the supporters. We feel we are taken for granted. They have taken it too far.
Tags: supporters rebel club
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