FOOTBALL'S FUTURE IN JEOPARDY
Richard Caborn, the sports minister, has warned Premier League clubs they should be "worried about the future of the game" because younger fans are being excluded from grounds by excessive ticket prices.
The Premier League's own survey for last season shows that fewer than one in 10 fans, 9%, are under 24, and crowds are steadily growing older with the average now 43.
In surveys at individual clubs as recently as 1992, the proportion of younger fans was much higher; 25% at Aston Villa between 16 and 20 and 17% at Arsenal. Between 1989-90 and this year prices to watch top-level games rose by around 600% from an average then of £5.40.
"These statistics are quite shocking," Caborn said. "The recent criticism of ticket prices had been a wake-up call to clubs. This must be a worry because in a competitive sport and leisure market they have to look to the future of the game. The clubs have to start listening."
David Conn looks at the problem:
In the recent, long-overdue criticism of the Premier League's wallet-screwing ticket prices, nobody pointed out its most obvious effect: a large proportion of those who cannot afford to go to matches are young. Before the rampant ticket inflation, young people crowded on to the terraces of the big clubs and became fans for life, but since the Premier League was formed in 1992, a large part of a generation has been priced out.
Clubs have mostly offered concessions - still not cheap - for under-16s but above that they have charged full price. Few teenagers, students or young people in their first jobs can afford £30 a ticket, or £400 for a season ticket, even with some clubs' credit deals, at 19.9% APR.
According to the Premier League's most recent supporters' survey, the average age of a Premier League fan was 43, part of the balding army who fell in love with football in the 1970s, then developed a supporting habit through the 1980s when it still cost £2 or £3 to get in.
In those earthier days, the Football League did not conduct surveys of those paying at the turnstiles and pouring in, but some clubs pondering commercial strategies did employ Leicester University's Sir Norman Chester Centre to do so. The surveys found that at Coventry City, then in the old First Division, in 1983, 22% of fans were aged 16-20. At Aston Villa as late as 1992, the survey found 25% of the crowd was 16-20, while at Arsenal, then League Champions, 17% of fans were 16-20.
The proportion of young people steadily reduced as prices went up after the Taylor Report recommended all-seater stadia in 1990. In 1989-90, the average price to watch Manchester United was £4.71; it was £5.41 to go to Anfield, £6.71 to see George Graham's Arsenal. The lowest prices, to stand, were a good deal cheaper than that.
At Manchester United, most tickets are between £30 and £37 now, Liverpool charge mostly £32 for category B games, £34 for category A, while Arsenal charge between £32 and £66 for category B games, £46 and £94 for category A. All three clubs make some half-price concession tickets available for young people but only until the age of 16.
"The under-24s figure may be 9%," a Premier League spokesman said, "but it is 9% of higher crowds than before, so we don't know if there are fewer young people overall. Some clubs have reduced prices for next season and we have always encouraged clubs to have a range of prices."