'Can that really be true?' - Aston Villa slammed by football finance expert as fans hit with ticket price hike
Aston Villa face Newcastle United on matchday one
Aston Villa have been slammed for increasing their ticket prices significantly ahead of the new Premier League campaign.The Villa Park club finished last season in sixth position, reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup and also progressing to the quarter-final of the Champions League.
They only narrowly missed out on a return to Europe’s elite competition on goal difference after a defeat to Manchester United on the final day of the season and only finished two points worse off than the previous campaign where they finished in fourth place. However, all is not entirely well off the pitch in terms of PSR after a subdued summer of transfer activity, while the club’s new ticket prices have also caused backlash ahead of the team’s opener against Newcastle United.
Aston Villa criticised for home ticket prices
Finance expert Stefan Borson has hit out at Aston Villa for pricing many fans out of being able to afford to go to matches on a regular basis and believes there’s not a sufficient number of fans that would be willing to pay the new prices set.
The cheapest adult ticket will set fans back £58, while prices reach £82 behind the goal in the Holte End and the premium 1888 half-way line seats are priced at £92. Reacting to the news, Borson told Football Insider: “It’s so much money for a ticket behind the goal that I had to check can that really be true?
“It is true. The only sort of thing that you would say is that there are very substantial discounts on concessions in the Holte End.I don’t know how many people will be paying the full price, but that is a massive ticket price for a league game.All these American owners are looking at the ticket prices and thinking ‘Well, we can charge much more because we do it in the US and we get away with it, so we’re going to do it here’, and you’re going to see this sort of inflation all over the place.I can’t believe that there are sufficient numbers of local fans in Birmingham that will be able to afford £82 behind the goal for a league game. I can’t believe that.
“So, I don’t know, there is a limit, clubs are going to take it too far. But it just depends how much money either their fan base have actually got or their fan base are prepared to spend on sport. It seems to me we must be getting close. If you’ve got a Midlands club charging £82 behind the goal, we must be getting close to the limit.”
When does Aston Villa’s Premier League season start?
Aston Villa play host to fellow European hopefuls Newcastle United on Saturday 16 August at 12.30pm in a game that’s televised on TNT Sport. It’s the first meeting between the two teams since Unai Emery’s team ran out 4-1 winners against the Magpies in April at Villa Park. Likewise, it’s the second time in three seasons at the teams meet on the opening day of the campaign. The last one, however, is not one Villa fans will remember fondly with Eddie Howe’s side securing an emphatic 5-1 victory at St. James’ Park.
Neither club, at this stage, has had a very productive transfer window. Newcastle have added Anthony Elanga to their squad but face a battle to keep Alexander Isak at the club after he revealed he wants to explore a possible move away from the North East. Villa have added Marco Bizot, Yasin Özcan, and Zepiqueno Redmond but are yet to significantly bolster their first team. They face a battle to keep hold of stars such as Emiliano Martinez, Ollie Watkins, Jacob Ramsey and Morgan Rogers among others heading into the new campaign.