Ian Ayre attempted to defend Liverpool’s new pricing policy at Anfield earlier this week by saying this.
“We can’t devise a business plan for the facilities of Liverpool and include all the revenues we expect because of a TV deal,” he said. “TV deals move around. The TV revenue goes into a completely different product on the pitch and the prices of that could be X, Y or Z.”
Which, given that TV income has risen exponentially and now gives clubs certainty that they will receive at least £100mn for each of the next three seasons assuming they can avoid relegation, is among the more asinine reasons given for continued price rises that outstrip inflation by several hundred per cent since the dawn of the Premier League era.
It also contained worrying signs of trying to drive some sort of wedge between armchair fans and match going ones (notwithstanding the fact they are often one and the same). And it betrayed the mindset of a breed of Premier League owners who believe they can combine success on the pitch with profits off it.
The huge increase in television income, to at least £8.3bn over three years once international deals are factored in, gives Premier League clubs a historic opportunity to think strategically about their future.
At a time when matchday revenue contributes an ever smaller percentage of their total income, it appears to be one they are determined to pass up. This could have been a cleansing moment – a one off opportunity to reset the relationship between clubs and their match-going fans. Instead, it could yet become corrosive.
In response, it feels as if something has shifted. The anger over pricing is no longer the minority pursuit of the few but a mainstream concern among many season-ticket holders. In the 1980s, we paid less but were packed on to terraces in unsafe, unsanitary conditions – piss running down the back of our jeans, crushed against barriers.
Once Lord Justice Taylor recommended all-seater stadia – largely paid for out of public funds – clubs took the opportunity to start ratcheting up their prices. Today, there is a more diverse, more comfortable crowd – but one that is paying through the nose.
Football has become a premium product and it is an almost irrational fear of undermining that status that seems to have paralysed decision-making among Premier League executives. Introducing a cap of, say, £30 for away tickets is a clanging no brainer in PR terms and in reality has little downside. It would head off further protests, at least for the time being, and would at least show a willingness among the cloth-eared executive class to listen to their consumers. It addresses a clear need, with a fifth of all away seats unsold last season compared to near sell-outs in the home end, and maintains the atmosphere that the Premier League’s executives have been able to so skilfully monetise around the world.
Anyone who doubts how integral the atmosphere and pageantry generated between rival supporters is to the overall appeal of the Premier League should visit the vast studios in west London from which it is packaged, sold and broadcast to the world. Shots of passionate fans in packed stands, their chants and cheers turned up high in the audio mix, are endlessly recycled as one of the Premier League’s USPs.
An away ticket price cap would at least be a start. It would tell match-going fans, unloved and feeling the pinch as matches are shunted around the calendar for the benefit of television (a feeling that will only intensify next season with the introduction of Friday night football), that they have not been completely abandoned.
And it would barely cost clubs a penny in the context of their vast rise in income. The fear of the big clubs that oppose the idea is that it would somehow enrage their own home supporters who were paying more and remove their ability to set their own prices. It is not a matter of cost but of control.
There is little evidence for the former and most fans would surely understand, and support, the fact that away fans across the league were benefiting.
Instead, those clubs opposed – Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea among them – would rather see an increase in the so-called Away Fans Fund that would allow them to subsidise travel and other schemes for their own supporters.
As with so many other areas – from grassroots facilities to supporter ownership, from coaches in schools to community investment – this mind-boggling Premier League TV deal offers a glorious chance for a one off corrective.
It provides an opportunity for clubs to maintain their competitive advantage over other European leagues while reconsidering their belief that they must squeeze every last penny into wages and transfer fees or take out profits.