Manchester City fan protest's interviews with Finn and Simon from 1866 group
02/04/2025
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Uk
02/04/2025
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Uk
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Why are you here tonight?
00:01Because it feels like the club aren't prioritising the local fans.
00:07Like that. Hold it still.
00:10I'm going to need to stick this on as well, because I'm getting too much noise from that.
00:14Right, so Finn, why are you protesting tonight?
00:18It feels like the club aren't prioritising the local fans and it's not good enough.
00:26As in, we get a lot of supporters from overseas and stuff, but when I know plenty of people
00:35who can't get tickets to matches such as United away this weekend,
00:39but you'll see plenty of supporters who have never been to matches before, maybe, getting them,
00:45it's... the ticket policy's a joke, basically, and it's been taken too far.
00:52Does it feel even more difficult, effectively, to give it to a ticket-reselling company,
00:57which is going to then put the prices up even further?
01:00Yeah, that's what it is. So the box standard, as many people know, is £30,
01:06but you could go online and get one for United away for £200, £300,
01:11and that could... whether that's given from the club, we don't know,
01:15but it's... the fact the club just allow it, and it seems as if they're leaning towards
01:21that more of a franchise sort of thing more than a football club.
01:25Times like these where different fan bases can come together for the greater good.
01:30But it's not about the fans, isn't it? It's not about the clubs in your region?
01:34No, no, no, it's not.
01:35We're all being ripped here, aren't we?
01:37Yeah, exactly, and it's... you can put your rivalries to one side for things like this,
01:43you can argue about everything else like on another day or whatever,
01:47but, you know, situations like this, and every club's having these same issues with their own fans,
01:55all the fans are having issues with the clubs.
01:58Do you think the... I mean, we'll come to the ticket prices rising.
02:04The real sour taste seems to be the clubs outing tickets.
02:09Yes, yes.
02:10Whereas what would happen to a fan if you were caught outing tickets?
02:14Well, I think the club, they've employed their own ticket compliance officer
02:19and they're clamping down on fans allegedly touting tickets.
02:24I've no doubt the odd fan does sell a ticket above face value every now and then,
02:27but from what I've heard, they're also clamping down on fans who are selling them at face value
02:31if they can't make a game, you know, just to help another fan out, or even less than face value.
02:34There's been a lot of problems here, hasn't there, recently with the away fans?
02:37Absolutely, yeah.
02:38And a lot of it is probably less to do with fans selling their tickets on,
02:44probably more to do with the club dealing with all these third-party ticket agencies.
02:49You don't get groups of Real Madrid fans together in the home areas of the stadium,
02:53like they did the other week, if fans are all selling their tickets on.
02:58They would be dotted about rather than a group of 10 or 15.
03:02And, you know, in that game as well, the laughing is the Real Madrid fans didn't sell out the away allocation.
03:06There's probably as many of their fans in the home areas than the away end.
03:10When we look at the ticket price rise, what is the percentage here?
03:16I've talked to a lot of pensioners who've been coming for 50, 60 years,
03:22and they go, I only get to one game every six weeks now, I can't afford it.
03:27Yeah, it's hard to put an actual figure on it,
03:29because obviously different areas of the ground increase by different percentages.
03:33But I'd say since COVID, before COVID, I think we did a little bit of research into a few the other week.
03:41My ticket had gone up maybe, I think, 3% in the season before COVID hit.
03:45Since COVID, since the pandemic and fans are being allowed back in the stadium,
03:50my season ticket's gone up like 6% one season, then 9%, then 8%.
03:56So it's definitely gone up a lot more since the pandemic.
03:59Now is that the club trying to get a bit of money back after they lost money during the pandemic?
04:05So what are we looking at? So from 2020 to now, what's the price rise for you?
04:10I'd say overall, my season ticket has gone up by about 30%, 35%.
04:14Which over four or five seasons, people might say, well, it's only 5% one year, 6% the next.
04:21Might be 40 or 50 quid a season for some people.
04:24But it's not that, it's the incremental price increases and they all add up.
04:29At the end of the day, we know that City are a different club to what they were 25, 30 years ago.
04:34They've got a lot of big salaries to pay, they operate on a different level.
04:38So we understand that you can't get into the ground for a tenner for a Premier League game.
04:43But I've heard that Liverpool actually offer £9 Premier League tickets to the local fans, with the Liverpool Pals.
04:49There's not many, but at the end of the day, it's still a gesture, really, for the local fans.
04:54Would you like to see that sort of thing done here as well?
04:57I don't think there'd be anything wrong with it.
04:59It doesn't have to be 10,000 tickets.
05:01We're not expecting 10,000 tickets, but if there was like the 500, like they offer Liverpool,
05:05then it just gives local fans just a bit more of a bite of the cherry.
05:09And I know, obviously, they'll be oversubscribed, but people will get a chance.
05:13Have you had any dialogue with the club?
05:15We haven't spoke to the club directly on ticket prices, probably since last year.
05:21But the City Matters group, which has nine or ten representatives representing different factions of the fan base,
05:28they may be like a disabled rep, a season card rep, etc., a matchday rep.
05:34They're the ones who talk to the club the most.
05:37And the club was supposed to have promised them a meeting about six weeks ago.
05:43It never materialised.
05:45Only after they announced the Viagogo thing last week, later on in the day,
05:49the club did come back and say they'll be meeting the City Matters people actually tomorrow.
05:53So we're going to look at, you know, what the outcome of that might be.
05:57If it's satisfactory, we get a price freeze on season tickets,
06:00maybe a reduction in the cost of some of the matchday tickets,
06:03because they're extortionately priced.
06:05Priced more than Liverpool, believe it or not, on a matchday for adults.
06:10Then, yeah, then obviously, like, you know, things might calm down.
06:13But if we don't get a satisfactory answer and it turns out there's going to be a price increase again next year,
06:18then we're just going to have to escalate things, really.
06:21What possible escalations do you have?
06:24Well, we're going to see what this nine-minute thing does tonight.
06:27You know, it's pretty hard on a midweek game when fans are still pouring into the ground,
06:31you know, a few minutes into the game to gauge how, you know, how effective it will be or how successful.
06:38We'll probably be looking at an extension of things like that.
06:41Maybe people coming off the Cup schemes next year, recommending that.
06:46The Cup schemes, the League Cup scheme, the Champions League Cup scheme,
06:50or it might be the Europa League next year, and the FA Cup scheme,
06:54the voluntary schemes that season ticket holders join.
06:57And it guarantees, obviously, a ticket for every single home game in those competitions,
07:01and you get priority on that.
07:03But it's obviously guaranteed income for the club as well.
07:06So if, say, a couple of thousand people come off that and the club are going to get hit in the pocket,
07:10because that's a couple of thousand more seats to fill,
07:12which might be able to do it on a Champions League game against Real Madrid.
07:15But if it's the League Cup at home to City, Gillingham, they'd struggle to sell all them tickets.