West Ham owners now admit they made a mistake
The owners of West Ham now acknowledge that they erred in their decision to charge for tickets when the team relocated to the old London 2012 Olympic Stadium in 2016.
Afraid that the 52,500-seat converted stadium would not be filled, they offered up to 50,000 season tickets at a steep discount, with adult tickets starting at £289 and junior tickets at £99. Season ticket costs at the Boleyn Ground were lowered for many fans compared to the previous season.
The under-16 season ticket was priced at £99, and a new Band 5 season ticket was available for £289, which is the same as £15.20 per game.
Bands 1 and 2 adult season tickets decreased somewhat to £899 and £799, respectively, for the 2016–17 season, while Bands 3 and 4 saw a minor decrease.
Season tickets for disabled individuals were also reduced, with Band 4 seats going down by almost 45% to £250.
They were able to sell this as “family affordable football” and referred to all of the original sign-ups as founders.
While nearly tripling the Boleyn Ground’s 26,000 season ticket holders was no easy feat, they were able to accomplish it in large part because of their pricing strategy, which at the time claimed a 50,000 waiting list.
Pricing? They got it wrong
The pricing strategy, which we had hoped to compete against other London Premier League clubs, left us well behind, which was the problem in retrospect.
Just 6% more was made by the Hammers from ticket sales in the inaugural season at the London Stadium (£28.6 million) than they did in the previous season at the 34,000-seat Upton Park stadium.
We had a Europa League Conference cup run with a lot more home games last season, which helped West Ham’s ticket sales to reach £41 million.
In terms of ticket revenue, we are well behind Spurs, who made £106 million in their most recent financial reports, while Arsenal and Chelsea made £103 and £76.5 million respectively, despite playing in smaller stadiums.
West Ham needs to plug that revenue gap to compete and stay within financial fair play regulations but that is hard to do without rising ticket prices and still promising family affordable football.
No one likes price rises but sadly the reality is if we want to spend more in the transfer market the money needs to come from somewhere.
Season ticket prices were silently discontinued by West Ham last season, and this season we will witness price rises that are higher than inflation.
Concession discounts are restricted in the most expensive ticket categories, and the club is becoming severe with attendees who don’t show up and don’t relist.
Fans must choose whether to pay more to compete in the top six and challenge for Europe every season, or whether to purchase less expensive tickets and settle for yearly relegation and maybe mid-table irrelevance at most.
