Is £37 too much to pay to watch a football game? That’s what Leeds are charging Birmingham City supporters for tickets to the game on Saturday, £5 more than they charge their own fans for a standard ticket. The72 website published a comparison of the cost of being a Championship awayday traveller for the first game of this season. Sheffield Wednesday charged the most, £39, and Leeds’ tickets were the second most expensive. The Guardian survey of Championship ticket prices reveals that Sheffield Wednesday charges £52 for some games. Birmingham City’s were the cheapest at £20 and their average matchday ticket price is well below the League average.
For the last two years, the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) has been running a campaign against high ticket prices for away fans. The cost of travel added to high ticket prices can make the total cost prohibitive. FSF are asking for all away tickets to be capped at £20 and this weekend, fans of every Premier League Club and many Football League clubs will be displaying banners in support of the FSF’s Twenty’s Plenty campaign.
Birmingham City fans will be joining the protests and Blues Collective will be looking after the banner. They report that Leeds has refused permission for it to be taken into the ground so they will display it outside the ground. In their statement they say,
“Please get as many photos as possible in the coach park with Blues fans and then the flag will be on the steps by the Billy Bremner statue at approx 2.15 – 2.30 as will the Leeds Twenty’s Plenty flag. We ask as many fans as possible to be there and to take as many photos as possible and send them to this page so we can send them to the FSF.”
Slaven Bilic, the manager of West Ham, has backed the campaign and said that football should be affordable for all fans. He said,
“Football is not golf or polo for VIPs, for the elite, Football is the people’s sport, it is a sport for the masses. It shouldn’t be a privilege to be able to go”.
We agree and think all supporters should back the Twenty’s Plenty campaign.
