A Weekend In London

It is hardly news to say football is too expensive.

If it was then Cheap 5 a side wouldn’t need to exist, but a couple of things happened last week that really brought it home.

First I got a ticket to watch Stoke play Fulham at Craven Cottage. Lets be honest, this is not a fixture that sets the pulse racing. But that doesn’t seem to bother the powers that be. The price they are charging for the game is £35, that’s £35 to see two teams that no one cares about really battle it out in a game that is fairly inconsequential in terms of…..well …anything really.

The weekend of the Fulham game is shaping up to be an expensive one. On the Friday night, I am going to a gig at Wembley Arena, when Prog Metal Legends Dream Theater play. The ticket for that was the same price as the football, which seems wrong doesn’t it? The concert will be an event in a way that we are told football is, but it really isn’t – not a game like Stoke v Fulham anyway.

As soon as the Fulham game finishes we will hotfoot it to another gig, this time in Brixton, where another metal band, Mastodon play. This was considerably cheaper than both, at £18.

The point I am making here is that, as much as I like these two bands, if these gigs weren’t priced in the way they are, we wouldn’t be going. That isn’t the case for the football. If sacrifices need to be made for football then they get made. Because we are Stoke fans we turn up. And it’s this loyalty that clubs play upon.

It is often said people pay what they think something is worth, but when it comes to football that just isn’t true. I KNOW that this game isn’t worth £35 but I still fork it out. Football fans aren’t your normal “consumer” – largely we don’t shop around.

Other sports are more, shall we say, customer friendly. On the night of the Fulham game the next instalment of the Prizefighter boxing series takes place in Wolverhampton. I would like to have gone to this and did look into the possibility of going. A good seat for this is £30. For this you are guaranteed seven fights and plenty of excitement, which does seem not a bad deal at all.

And a good deal is what we are interested in after all. It just doesn’t to apply when blind loyalty and 11 a side football mix. The same isnt true of 6 a side don't worry