Stoke supporters have expressed their outrage at being charged £37, plus a £1 booking fee, by Coventry City to be in the away end for their Championship meeting at the CBS Arena next month.
Fans are dissatisfied with the prices announced this week, especially given the Premier League’s £30 cap on away tickets, but the cost has been rising for some time. It was £35 for an away ticket at Leicester last weekend and at Bristol City previously. So far in the league this season, Huddersfield Town has set the lowest ticket of £25 while Millwall, Ipswich, and Norwich have set prices of £27, £28, and £31 respectively. Away fans are charged £25 at the bet365 Stadium.
At Coventry, fans under the age of 18 are charged £25 plus a £1 booking fee. Under-11s can get a season ticket in any stand at the bet365 Stadium for £23 at Stoke.
The Football Supporters’ Association’s chairman, Malcolm Clarke, a Stoke fan, expects that the impending appointment of an independent regulator will assist address the distribution of money in the game.
He said: “The FSA is opposed to these ludicrous prices. It is kind of a spin off from the problem with income in the game and the fact there is a huge gap between the Premier League and the rest. Premier League clubs can afford to keep tickets priced at £30 – or in fact they can afford to keep it lower than that – but Championship clubs are trying to get into the land of milk and honey. This is one of the consequences of the failure of the Premier League to share more money to the EFL.
“The Government has been putting pressure on recently but there still hasn’t been an agreement. When we get the new regulator hopefully we will get a more sensible distribution and we can better look after supporters up and down the football pyramid.
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