Pricing out the next generation: Ticket hikes show how Leicester are taking fans for granted
Leicester City announced the match day prices for the 2023/24 season and the price hikes have left a lot of fans frustrated and a number feeling priced out. Adam Hodges explains how the club have got it wrong.
Seeing Wout Faes hopelessly watch the ball as Slovakia took the lead in their first group match of the Euros left me with a sense of what is to come next season; and a day later we were served with a timely reminder of the challenges we face, both as a team and as fans.
Tuesday was Premier League fixture announcement day – a day of excitement when we plot out which fixtures will fall on which day before they are inevitably moved due to TV rights.
Before the Belgium v Slovakia match, I was browsing Facebook and saw a nice memory from nine years ago where I posted screenshots of the upcoming 2015-2016 season fixtures and said, with tongue in cheek, that we should be aiming for mid-table to European places. At least I was proved right on the European qualification!
This year’s upcoming fixtures were announced early on Tuesday morning and I spent my lunch break at work identifying which games I’ll be going to next season and couldn’t wait to tell my wife when we can see Premier League football once again.
However, when I got home from work that excitement turned to frustration with the club’s announcement of ticket prices for the upcoming season.
Unbelievable price hikes
My friend and I have been Foxes Members since 2016, with the Community Shield being the first step on our points ladder. I recently asked my friend why we didn’t get the membership earlier, he remarked that it was a lot easier to get tickets then and he was right.
Although I didn’t see a league game during that dream season, I did see Ranieri’s Unbelievables in home League Cup games and FA Cup ties without being a member. Now it seems to be a necessity to be a Foxes Member to have a chance at even buying tickets and Tuesday’s announcement of individual matchday prices seemed to be a slap in the face to all Foxes Members who do cough up the membership fee.
It would be naïve to think prices wouldn’t go up, as we see that everything around us costs that bit more than it previously did. But as I looked closer at the prices per block on the LCFC website, I was struck by just how much ticket prices at the King Power have gone up.
It was around the Seville game that my friend and I decided that the G1/G2 block is our preferred place to sit, with the atmosphere of the Kop coupled with the vista of seeing the whole of the ground by the corner flag.
Back in the days when you could collect ticket stubs, I recently saw my ticket from G2 back from the Vichai Memorial game in November 2018 where a seat against Burnley cost me £35. The cheapest ticket in G2 next season will be £45. Roughly 29% inflation across six years.
Nothing to C here
In Tuesday's announcement of ticket pricing, the club are looking to justify this by saying a third tier of pricing will:
“Minimise price increases at entry level”
However, what proportion of the 19 fixtures will be in Category C? The top six, rivals (from both East and West Midlands), televised games and (hate to say it) relegation rivals are likely to be higher than Category C, which I expect will only be against the likes of mid-table Brighton and Crystal Palace.
Let’s look at the averages then with Category B prices. For G1/G2 a Category B ticket will cost £51. Across 19 home games that’ll cost £969, plus the £35 signing on fee, for a total of £1,004! The price of a brand-new season ticket for G1/G2 is £536 – being a season ticket holder is now the most cost-effective way to follow the team at home (by a long way).
I now go to most games with my wife who is also a Foxes Member but has roughly half the amount of points as I do, so I decided against entering the Season Ticket Ballot last month but will be seriously considering my options for 2025-26 under this current price structure. I could pretty much get two tickets for the price of one. Of course, entering the ballot doesn’t equal an automatic season ticket so, for me, this is price gouging.
The club state:
“When compared with prices from all Premier League teams in the 2023/24 season, and without factoring in other clubs’ potential increases for the new campaign, our cheapest Adult Match Ticket (£33) for 2024/25 would rank 10th in the 2023/24 Premier League, while next season’s most expensive seat (£72) would be 9th.”
However, we are not a stable mid-table team who can demand from their fans the ninth most expensive and the 10th cheapest tickets in the league.
The club have also introduced a ‘Fox Cub’ membership tier for 0-6 children at a price of £10 and an entrance fee at the lowest of £8 per game. However, this is redundant if the adult taking them is charged as high as £33.
I feel that Members' willingness to earn points to be eligible for Season Tickets is being taken for granted and the club shouldn’t underestimate the fan base. Pricing like this does long term damage by pricing out new or the next generation of fans.
