Wolves season ticket rises - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00 [Music]
00:10 Well, hello, I'm Nathan Jude. I'm delighted to be joined by Wolverhampton Wonders reporter for the Expressenstar, Mr. Liam Keane.
00:17 Liam, we finished the podcast earlier this week, last one of the season.
00:21 Didn't think we'd be doing this as soon as we finish recording, but we are. Season ticket prices are out and there are significant rises across the board, leading to a lot of fan fury, to be honest.
00:37 Before we get into it, I'm going to read out Geoff Shee's open letter to fans concerning the season tickets. Then we'll let you have the floor, explain the rises, explain where they are, and we can go from there. Does that sound suitable?
00:53 Yes, I think so. Let's do it.
00:55 OK, open letter from Geoff Shee. Here we go. When it comes to setting season ticket prices, we benchmark our prices against those of the other 19 Premier League clubs, especially those with similar fan bases, stadium capacities and sporting achievements.
01:13 We do listen to fan feedback and we understand that price increases are unpopular, but our aim is to ensure our prices are neither significantly higher nor lower than our peers.
01:25 Our ticketing team has thoroughly researched and compared Wolves with other clubs, and I believe our pricing reflects a fair and reasonable balance based on our current position, past growth and future aspirations.
01:42 Commercial growth is vital for our club's sustainability and competitiveness. While Premier League broadcasting revenue is indeed a major source of income, it is also easily offset by the club's wage bills.
01:56 This means that our disposable income largely comes from commercial activities, including ticket sales, hospitality and sponsorship. This revenue is the key difference between us and the biggest clubs that we have to compete with in the Premier League and is essential for us to grow over time.
02:15 Our head coach, his team and squad have put in a tremendous effort to ensure our club competes at the highest level on the pitch this season, and as we move into our seventh successive season in the Premier League, we will continue to keep progressing and supporting them as much as we can.
02:32 Your support is invaluable to us, and we are committed to keep growing Wolves to make the club a strong and sustainable presence in the top tier of English football. Yours sincerely, Geoff Shee.
02:49 Right Liam, that's Geoff Shee. The prices are out, you've tweeted them out this morning, there's obviously stories left, right and centre on the Expressenstar, including polls. There's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration out there, and I think we can both agree, understandably so.
03:06 Absolutely. It's important to note that the figures haven't been put out publicly by the club, so there is no, at the time of recording, which is roughly just before 2pm now, at the time of recording there's no public table or record from the club about the price rises.
03:24 I don't have anything on or off record of the price rises, so everything that we have so far is based off supporters that we've spoken to, obviously a lot of the social media anger that is around, and I verified price changes and rises with supporters as well that I've spoken to.
03:42 So just to make that clear first of all, that we're having to dig up a lot of this information to bring as much as we possibly can towards fans. And as you rightly say, angry, disappointed, I know Geoff in his open letter there has said the price rises will be unpopular, but in my humble opinion this is catastrophic.
04:06 To have increased the prices by such a large amount across the board was a massive surprise, first of all, and in my opinion a massive own goal from Wolves. I find it incredible that hard working, working class supporters are being forced to shell out this kind of money, and I say forced because many of them will be, because they are desperate to watch their team, and there are many that won't be forced because they simply cannot afford it and will have to give it away.
04:35 And my overriding feeling is sadness. Premier League football and Wolves is special, and there are fans that will be priced out of this. And then I go on to some prices with younger supporters that absolutely boggles the mind.
04:57 I cannot for the life of me explain or describe a reason that justifies under 14 prices in the family enclosure, which is the whole of the Billy Wright lower, going from £105 to £245. That's a 133.3% increase.
05:15 Jesus Christ.
05:16 Let me read out a few more for you. Under 14 tickets in the Billy Wright upper, £105 to £290, 176%. Under 21 disabled ticket for wheelchair users in the North Bank, £211 to £489, 131.7%.
05:35 I will bear that in mind that there was a slight difference in age bracket there between those two figures because the fan I'd spoken to, there has been some changes with age brackets where fans have been either moved up or down age brackets.
05:48 So there is, albeit no confirmation forms as it stands, there looks like some sort of changes with age brackets as well across the board.
05:55 South Bank adult prices £625 to £735, 17.6%. I think that's very similar for the North Bank as well.
06:04 So the South Bank and North Bank adult prices seem to be, from what we've got so far, some of the lower increases and they're still 17.6%, which is in itself an astronomical rise, let alone almost tripling wheelchair user prices.
06:21 There is no defence of this. I find it remarkable that it's happened. And the communication before, during and after has left a lot to be desired.
06:35 I'm absolutely staggered, Liam. We knew there were going to be increases. I think everybody understands that there's going to be increases. But I find it, you're right in what you say, it's incredibly sad because to watch a Premier League game, to watch the team that you support and being priced out, this is a working class city.
07:01 And the product that's on the pitch, that let's be honest, the irony of this as well, really frustrates me because this is the first season where folks are going to be self-sustaining.
07:13 So they're not going to put money in. This is the first season where they're going to have to speculate to accumulate. They're going to have to be able to buy players.
07:23 They're going to have to sell. There's no improvements in the infrastructure. The stadium is in terrible condition. Some inside, some outside. There's no spending going on there.
07:35 And yet the only people, the only people who are made to pay are the fans. And these are the people who have come left, right and centre.
07:44 Boston make a big statement, Geoff, she made a big statement by going to the Premier League board saying you are killing this game for the fans. VAR is killing the game.
07:53 Well, you're killing the game as well for the fans because you're increasing prices like this. There are so many people that will not renew.
08:00 And I don't get this whole, well, there's always a waiting list. If you don't, you don't pay, someone else will pay. This is a huge, huge mistake.
08:10 You can't go and say, let's say VAR is spoiling the game. We're doing it for the fans. And then a few days later, increases in ticket prices to this sort of level.
08:19 This isn't two or three percent rises or Crystal Palace price freeze or Aston Villa, four percent. These are massive. These are insane amounts of increases.
08:29 There is a lot of anger that you finish 14th in the Premier League. You know, players are getting paid astronomical wages.
08:36 Don't you say that you need to do this because of wages? You know, what about thirty five million pounds that you've pissed away on strikers or, you know,
08:44 twenty five million pounds of people who don't want to be here? It's it's these.
08:48 These are the decisions and it's the fans who have been having to made to pay. And it's really annoying. It's frustrating and it's damning.
08:56 Now we get to watch the game, but all those people in the atmosphere, the atmosphere at Molney, that's what gets the team over the line.
09:02 So you want a load of people are going to be coming all over the country because they can afford to pay.
09:06 And then all of a sudden, the Moliney atmosphere changes. You want the people who have been there, not just last year, five, 10, 15, 20 years ago,
09:13 young people coming into the game, young kids who want to watch. You can't watch the game anymore if you're a young kid.
09:20 And to be honest, I can't blame them. That's the sad thing. We love this club. You know, I'm emotionally involved in this club.
09:25 You've been a fan since you were a little boy, you know, so you're there. You've seen the good and the bad, but you can't see the good and the bad now.
09:33 You can't because if you're not a certain income level and it's got to be very comfortable income level to go here,
09:39 then you're not going to see the club you love. And that is absolutely disgusting.
09:46 And I've got to throw a point to you. Talk about kids not being able to watch their club.
09:50 I spoke to a fan over DM today and was going back and forth on a few prices and they were giving me a bit of information to use.
09:59 And they made a very good point. They said, what my fear is, is that kids who can't afford to go will very easily walk into.
10:10 And obviously, it's the adults that pay for it. But regardless, they can't afford to go.
10:13 These kids, they will walk into Sports Direct and they will spend 30, 40 quid, 50 quid, 60, whatever it might be by a man city shirt.
10:24 And we'll support a team from afar because they can't afford to go watch all mountain wonders.
10:29 We've spoken on previous years and previous podcasts and previous videos about price rises.
10:33 And it's been 5 percent, 10 percent, 11 percent. And I've said I can understand why costs of things are going up.
10:42 I can understand that. I don't like it, but I can understand it.
10:45 If it was my decision, football would be far, far cheaper across the board, let alone just walls.
10:50 But I can understand, albeit difficult to stomach, why it's gone up by that percentage.
10:55 To see some of the percentages today. There's just no justification for it.
11:01 There's no justification. I can't almost lost for words with how damning this has been.
11:09 Disabled price rises, Liam, for disabled fans. It's almost like this is a nightmare.
11:18 You're going to wake up from it. And I don't know whether they expected this reaction.
11:23 Maybe this was levelled in with what they were going to do.
11:27 Would you appeal now to Fosun, to the people who made these decisions to maybe look at this again?
11:35 Is it possible to look at this again? Could they look at this again and change it?
11:40 Because this is probably, I would say, the biggest mistake that has been made for some time at Wolves,
11:47 who were overall a decently run club. This is a huge on goal.
11:53 Look, if you've got the opportunity to listen to the supporters and overturn any decision, this is the decision.
11:59 This is the decision that you look at and you make. Very, very hard decisions for them.
12:04 They're going to be wrong. To go back on something is going to be difficult.
12:07 You want a safe face, but I think you have to listen to the supporters here.
12:11 I'm getting tweets of season ticket holders for 50 years who are admitting they just can't afford to go next year,
12:16 which is so sad. That's not what football's about. It's not what football's about.
12:22 And that comes down to a different point. There's something I don't tend to reply to people on social media very often,
12:27 but I felt compelled to earlier today with a few responses I was getting.
12:32 Everyone's entitled to their opinion. I think people are misinterpreting like the Jeff Shee Collum, for example,
12:37 totally written by Jeff. I have zero input in that at all. I have no communication with Jeff.
12:42 You don't send it to him. He sends it in to the newspaper, which we've explained before.
12:48 Just because there isn't an interview with Jeff doesn't mean that me and plenty of other people, by the way, are not asking for those interviews.
12:55 We want those interviews. We ask for them regularly. The fact we don't get them is not our fault,
13:00 but we just don't publicise that consistently because it doesn't make a lot of sense to.
13:07 So we're asking for these. We ask the hard questions. We put ourselves out there.
13:11 People that's not everyone, but I think there's a small minority that seem to think that, you know,
13:18 we are restricted in what we can say and what we can ask, which is absolutely not the case.
13:22 And I wanted to make that clear to a few supporters by replying to say there's going to be a lot more content.
13:26 This video included to come talking about this. I'm not going to just randomly tweet something.
13:32 I'm going to take my time, however long that might be, whether it's a couple hours from now or tomorrow morning, whatever it is, and put out my thoughts.
13:39 This video is helping to do that as well, of course. And there is zero defending this.
13:44 I cannot, in good conscious conscience, sit here and look like a mug by defending something that is indefensible.
13:53 This is outrageous. And I am gobsmacked that Wolves have done this.
13:59 And I think there are plenty of people at the club that will advise against this.
14:05 There always is on big decisions. There's people fought against and they come to a decision.
14:09 And those people now, I think, will feel vindicated because they have been made to look silly.
14:17 We asked Gary O'Neill what his favourite moments were this season.
14:20 And he said one favourite moment. He said, "My relationship with the fans."
14:25 He said, "The interaction I've had, giving it the fists away from home, at home, in front of all the supporters."
14:32 That kind of unity that him and Matt Hobbs have brought to this football club, regardless of the finish.
14:41 Some fantastic moments this season and really have united a club that was kind of broken from the inside at the start of this season.
14:50 And got the fans back on board, believing in the product, believing in this team. Young, exciting, scoring goals.
14:57 And I just feel like this decision could just completely shatter all that good work.
15:04 Not because of them, but because of decisions that were made above them that are just, as you say, Liam, completely indefensible.
15:13 And I do feel so much for these fans who are getting these emails, coming in dribs and drabs about certain prices.
15:21 I mean, you would look at it and go, "Oh, it's that bad?" You're looking at it and go, "There's an error. You've made an error."
15:26 It's that ridiculous, some of the price rises. And I don't know whether that will be it for Wolves.
15:32 And they won't say anything else. Whether this outcry will force, as you say, maybe people to look back into the figures and maybe change them or do something.
15:42 But communication is key. They've always said communication is key between the fans and the club.
15:48 You've got to listen to the fans here. You've got to listen to the fans.
15:52 Because if you're not going to make improvements in and around the ground, if you're going to make improvements into the ground,
15:57 if you say you've got to sell to buy and you've got to be self-sustainable, but then the fans are the ones who are having to pay extra.
16:03 Come on. Smell the coffee.
16:05 And when it comes to the benchmarking, I suppose, justification and the reasoning for it, from a business point of view, I understand it.
16:15 I understand why that is. And the fans won't, of course, because it's difficult to see through the anger.
16:22 But I think from an analytical point of view and a business point of view, I understand why that word is used and why that sort of strategy is used.
16:31 But who are Wolves being compared to? The details on the benchmarking has been very vague from Jeff.
16:40 We're not told whether they're comparing Wolves to Fulham, for example, who in a very well-off area of London will be having a different.
16:52 Chelsea. Yeah, exactly. Being able to, you know, fans will be able to spend, by and large, be able to spend a different fee than the Wolves supporters will be.
17:01 So the benchmarking has been too vague from that point of view.
17:04 And just taking in the geographical and, you know, cost of living crisis part of this argument, I don't think they've been considered long and hard enough.
17:15 I understand Wolves want to keep up with these clubs and try to maximise their sporting achievement and sporting merit.
17:24 But I just think this is the wrong way to do it. Now, look at look at Villa very briefly.
17:28 So Villa last couple of years have been 10 percent and 15 percent, which are big, big numbers rises.
17:34 And then announced they only announced the actual figures, but announced this year that they're going to do 5 percent across the board.
17:40 And they've got Champions League football, of course, so their money, their their prize.
17:44 You're already seasoned. Exactly. Their prices are already high.
17:47 But that 5 percent in alongside getting Champions League football from PR points of view makes Villa look a hell of a lot better than it does Wolves right now.
17:55 And Villa's highest season ticket price is roughly for the next season with this 5 percent will be roughly around nine hundred and ten pounds.
18:05 The highest we've seen so far for Wolves, there's been some suggestions of the Billy Wright Upper Adult Prize being eight, seven, five.
18:12 And I've seen some fans suggesting now, again, we're still waiting to work with Wolves and double check these things.
18:19 But we've seen some suggestions from from fans that their tickets are nine, three, nine, which is even which surpasses Villa.
18:28 Now, I'm obviously waiting to hear whether that's a ticket in the centre of the Billy Wright Upper out on the wings, whether there's different prices across there, which I would imagine in some cases there will be eight, seven, five or nine, three, nine, whichever, whichever it might be.
18:41 In comparison to a roughly nine, ten for Villa's highest with Champions League football is for me benchmarking gone wrong.
18:53 Just feel really sorry, you know, and also, you know, it is what it is.
18:57 It's very few small section of fans as well that kind of say, oh, well, like you say, Liam, the tough questions or, you know, you don't give your opinion.
19:05 You know, people who do who know us, who listen to the podcast, who watched our videos, we flip and give our opinion whether it's right or wrong.
19:11 And of course, we want Wolves to do well. We all want to support them. We all want to be in a good place.
19:14 We all want to be winning games. We want to be singing praises of everybody.
19:17 But I tell you what, we will always from me doing this for 10 years for you, been doing this for a long time.
19:22 You will always call a spade a spade. If we like it, we'll say we like it.
19:26 If we don't, we don't. And this is a disgrace. This is an absolute disgrace.
19:31 Couldn't have put it better myself.
19:33 Liam, thank you very much. That season ticket prices across the board.
19:36 I'm sure Liam will be, his column will be posted online tomorrow and at the Express and Star newspaper.
19:42 Buy that. It's going to be very interesting column. Liam, thanks very much.