Probably means real terms. Sent from my iPhone
On 18 Aug 2011, at 21:02, [email protected] wrote: > > Inflation is only 77% in the last 20 years - are they sure ? > > So a house that cost £10,000 is now available for £17,700 ? > A new car that cost £2000 is now £3440 ? > A pint that cost about 50p is still less than a quid ? > > Does anyone out in listland know of anything that costs only 77% more than it > did in 1991 ? > > Not that this excuses the ridicuous price of tickets though................ > > Sarge > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: DAVID NATTAN <[email protected]> > To: list leedslist <[email protected]> > Sent: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:32 > Subject: [LU] interesting article on prices !!! > > > Interesting piece by David Conn, shows that it's not just us who pay too much > for tickets > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn...l-ticket-prices > > The Premier League has priced out fans, young and old > Ticket prices have soared way beyond the cumulative 77.1% inflation rate for > 20 > years and excluded traditional support bases > > In the 20th year since the First Division clubs broke away from the Football > League to keep the new satellite TV fortunes and form the Premier League, > money > has transformed the game – and the price of watching it. As the gradual > changes > each season are contemplated – 6.5% increases at Arsenal this year; prices > frozen at Stoke City, the £10 adult ticket at Blackburn Rovers – awareness > fades > of the mighty disparity between what fans pay now and the prices before the > Premier League was formed. > > In 1989-90, the year of Lord Justice Taylor's report following the > Hillsborough > disaster, in which he recommended stadiums become all seat, fans watched Alex > Ferguson's Manchester United play the very top clubs for a cheapest price of > £3.50. With cumulative inflation of 77.1% since, according to the Bank of > England, United supporters who stood on the Stretford End or United Road > terraces then would now pay an equivalent £6.20 to watch Ferguson's Premier > League champions. But the cheapest ticket at all-seat Old Trafford this > season > is £28, lower than at other top clubs yet still representing inflation of > 700%. > Mostly, United's prices are higher; the £28 seats are available only in the > lower tiers of the East and West Stands, not in swathes as they were across > the > terraces of old. > > Matches against the clubs in Arsenal's current category A price, Chelsea, > Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Manchester City, could be > watched in 1989-90, on the North Bank at Highbury, for £5. Now, at the > 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium, which is becoming noted for high prices and > including English football's first £100 seat, the cheapest ticket for a > category > A game is £51. That represents inflation, since the Taylor Report, of 920%. > > After the wreckage of Hillsborough, the Football Supporters' Association > argued > against all-seat stadiums, principally because it believed clubs would use > them > as a platform to raise ticket prices. When addressing and rejecting that > argument, Taylor famously wrote in his report: "Clubs may well wish to charge > somewhat more for seats than for standing but it should be possible to plan a > price structure which suits the cheapest seats to the pockets of those > presently > paying to stand." > > The judge cited a price of £6 for seating at Ibrox Park, quaint compared to > the > prices now at the grounds, rebuilt according to Taylor's recommendations and > which formed the foundation for football's revival. "I do not think Taylor > saw > the commercial revolution around the corner, beginning with the increase of > television money," Rogan Taylor, chair of the FSA then, now director of > Liverpool University's football industries group, says. > > "Of course, the grounds have improved out of all recognition, but the ticket > price increases have not mostly been necessary to pay for that – they are now > going into the arms race of escalating players' wages. When I go to Liverpool > now [cheapest adult price £45 for category A matches compared to £4 in > 1989-90] > I don't mostly see a bourgeois, middle-class crowd, but ordinary people who > must > be stretching to afford it. And the two groups who were clearly excluded when > the prices went up were older people who had stuck with the game through some > terrible times, and young people." > > For all the game's problems in the 1980s, watching football was a rite of > passage in which children, mostly boys, graduated from being taken to > matches, > to watching as young men, with very few excluded because it cost too much. > > The figures from 1989-90, collated for the Labour government's Football Task > Force, show the cheapest season ticket at Anfield was just £60 and £96 at > United > – the equivalent prices with inflation would be £106 and £170 now – but the > actual lowest-priced season tickets this season are £725 at Liverpool and > £532 > at Old Trafford (1,108% and 454% inflation respectively). > > Clubs were usually neither sophisticated nor commercial enough then to > conduct > demographic analysis of their own supporters, but the memory and images of > young > people at grounds are borne out by research done at the time by Leicester > University's Sir Norman Chester Centre. Surveys of fans were carried out for > Coventry City, in the old First Division, finding in 1983 that 22% of > supporters > were aged 16-20. At Aston Villa in 1992, 25% of the crowd was 16-20; at > Arsenal, > 17% of fans were 16-20. > > Premier League surveys for years show a consistent reduction in the > proportion > of young people, who pay full price from 16. By 2006-07 the proportion of > fans > aged 16-24 was 9%; in 2007-08, the figure was 11%. Last season it bounced > back > to 19%, which the Premier League said was due to improvements in the way its > survey is carried out. > > According to the Premier League's research, 13% of season-ticket holders are > under 16 and the average age of an adult supporter is 41 – the core whose > loyalty was nurtured when attending games was affordable to almost all. > > "We must accept that some people feel they are excluded because they cannot > afford the prices," the Premier League's spokesman, Dan Johnson, > acknowledged. > "But many clubs work hard to attract fans with affordable deals, and there > are > different opportunities to attend. > > "Twenty years ago many people were excluded for different reasons: the > atmosphere was hostile and many grounds inadequate. We argue the experience > has > improved enormously, crowds have increased hugely, and a wider section of > society feel comfortable coming to football." > > Crowds do remain at historic highs. The average Old Trafford attendance last > season was 74,864, just below United's 75,769 capacity, while at the Emirates > Arsenal played to crowds averaging 59,930, nudging full houses of 60,361. > Overall, Premier League grounds were full to 92% of capacity, down from a > high > of 94% in 2005 06. > > Clubs in poorer, northern areas, including Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan, are > working hardest to maintain crowds, so offering the cheapest deals. In this > recession, though, the top clubs cannot assume fans will keep paying a large > slice of their incomes on expensively priced football tickets either. On > Tuesday, more than 4,000 Old Trafford tickets remained on sale for United's > match on Monday against Spurs. After years of sell-outs United – since their > US-based owners, the Glazers, began to raise ticket prices – have not been > guaranteed to fill the ground. > > "Some Premier League clubs do offer good deals," says Malcolm Clarke, chair > of > the Football Supporters' Federation, "but the prices at top clubs, and > particularly London clubs, are mostly outrageous. They are beyond the reach > of > many younger people who used to have access to football, and now, if they are > interested, they are watching the game in the pub. > > "Football, by tradition, was always accessible to almost everybody, and in > the > current economic climate, with jobs and standards of living under threat, > there > is a great danger an increasing section of the community will be priced out." > > Football's glittering success since the Premier League was formed tells a > contradictory story: the clubs operate well-respected community programmes > aimed > at "social inclusion" for young people in their neighbourhoods – while mostly > pricing them out of going to matches. > > > -------------------- > _______________________________________________ > Leedslist mailing list > Info and options: > http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist > To unsubscribe, email [email protected] > > MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it) > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leedslist mailing list > Info and options: > http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist > To unsubscribe, email [email protected] > > MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it) _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it)
