According to The Telegraph, Arsenal have decided to downgrade their FA Cup fifth round tie at home to Liverpool to a Category B fixture following a campaign by supporters of both clubs.
The decision will see the cost of Liverpool’s 9,000 away tickets capped at £54, with many available at £35.50, and the most expensive seats in the home section down from £93 to £54. Lower tier tickets for Gooners start at £35.50 instead of £62. (full price list here)
It looks as though the fixture will still count as the final cup credit for Arsenal season ticket holders meaning the Bayern Munich game on the following Wednesday – a Category A game – will be added to the cost of next year’s renewal for anyone wishing to attend. On a separate note, Bayern announced some time back they’ll be subsidising the tickets of their travelling fans for the Emirates showdown.
Any further home games in the FA Cup and Champions League would also see season ticket holders accrue further charges, unless they opt out.
Coming off the back of yesterday’s announcement of a commercial deal with Puma, the renewal of the Emirates sponsorship and the fact the club are due a healthy windfall from the latest sale of Premier League rights, it looks as though the club have bowed to pressure and done the decent thing. We do though await confirmation.
A pat on the back to those associations which took up the baton on this. The Black Scarf Movement and the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust led the charge from N5 while the Spirit of Shankly worked magic with sharpened quill on Merseyside.
Incidentally, despite being the constant target of sniping reports from the press Arsenal was voted the ‘Away Day of the Year’ at the Football Supporters’ Federation Awards in January.
how were they lowered if they were not even announced?
I changed my mind about turning in my grave
I don’t understand the way the season ticket works. So you have to go to the games and the price is added on to next years renewal? What if you don’t renew next year? Why don’t they just give you the option to buy your seat or give it up for general sale or something?
Nice!
Yeah, we simply need the highest possible number of witnesses, don’t want any pool fan to miss this: on the menu we’ll be serving a cold can of whoop ass.
I try to keep my bitching and moaning about prices to a minimum, cause lord knows away fans and the press do enough of that for everyone, but this is gonna put me up to £1250, ffs. Hard to not feel bitter and cynical when we’ve just announced the largest kit deal in Europe. Surely they could have fixed it so that Bayern was the last included ticket and we’d pay for the cup.
I hasten to add that I *am* very pleased that they made Liverpool category B, for both sets of fans.
Well, it was utopical to expect that they will lower prices AND give Bayern as Cat B AND not raise prices next year. Granted this doesn’t affect you at all, but it’s still a progress. Baby steps.
Thanx to the groups that fought for this.
What a relief, I’ve been planning to travel down for this game. At least I’ll save some money.
Good to see they actually consider these things
Are the black scalf movement something like the black hand gang
We should be charging those scousers more, not less!
Has da Draxler signed yet? Urgh. It’s never gonna happen. Come on Wenger! It’s time to play poker in der Schalken bar you majestic old French bastard!
Good gesture by the club.I read somewhere that a season ticket holder doesn’t have to pay for the first 6 cup games. If only they could have included the Bayern home fixture.
seems a bit unfair on season ticket holders who’ll miss out on the benefit of the FA Cup game being changed to cat B but will get thwacked with the full price for the Bayern game the following week
although it’s better than the alternative ie permanent gouging of fans’ pockets, which is the usual way for all organisations earning from football from clubs to broadcasters.
It makes no sense. Forums should think twice before kicking up a fuss. It’s Liverpool at home in the Cup. An important game that I’d love to be able to get a ticket for. But I can’t.
Tim at 7amkickoff made a good point in his recent article (http://www.7amkickoff.com/2014/emirates-plus-puma-means-arsenal-earn-60m-a-year-on-their-shirts-but-is-it-enough/). This extra money coming in is fantastic, but I don’t see it dropping ticket prices as the money will literally go to buying players, and the more money there is, the more you’re expected to spend per player. It’s why a Draxler costs such a ridiculously large amount (for a fantastic prospect, no doubt) while AW went for a more realistic valuation-offer of £25m (or so they say). This price drop is nice, and we should make use of it while we can. I strongly doubt the ticket… Read more »
As much as i love going to the games only as a red member i cannot afford cat “A” games along with the travel and ticket price this being lowered will give me the option to attend this will also give the same option to many like me in this situation so i applaud this and hopefully there at the Emirates
Personally I think the club should always charge Liverpool fans in amounts that use 89 so they never forget that win up at Anfield. £89 for a ticket, £8.90 for a burger, £0.89 for a bottle of water etc etc
In fairness Jallen I believe for Liverpool fans 89 is a more poignant number for more obvious reasons……..
Maybe I’m not understanding this correctly. Your season ticket is valid for all league games and a certain number of cup games. Arsenal will be playing more than that certain number this year. Thus there will be an increase in the price of a season ticket renewal. So people are upset because if they want to go to a game, Arsenal will not make them pay for it until next season? And they have the option to not go to any extra games and then renew at normal price next season?
Its having to shell out extra for more Category A games (min price about £60) to be added onto next season’s renewal – the Club should have the extra games as Category B (£35) or even C (£25), IMHO.
So going by Arsecast extra that means no signings will be made 🙁
Seems like Arsenal’s Commercial Team could get creative with this situation. Why not enlist a corporate sponsor who would like to create a lot of positive vibes and doesn’t interfere with our current deals (Microsoft, Coke, Apple, Nokia, etc..) Ask these corporate sponsors to help subsidize the cost of our traveling fans ticket prices. These away games could be “sponsored” by these companies. They get some feel good awareness from the millions of Gunner fans and the club could beef up their commercial earnings. Everyone wins.
If the rules and present contract agreements allow for it then it would be a brilliant idea. We could enlist a coach/rail transport company to sponsor it for example, but it don’t know if that would sit well with our current automotive sponsor (Citroen).
Nevertheless, I’m sure something could be done here.
I’m Irish and I’m going to try get tickets to this game if possible. Always seems impossible to get reasonable priced tickets from Ireland for some reason. I’m going to London that weekend anyway so would be a good opportunity to go to a match. Anyone have any advice about how to get cheap tickets? Cheers!
Bit of a kick in the teeth for season ticket holders this one, should have lowered prices for the Bayern game (and any more Cup games we’ll have to pay for in next season’s ticket renewals). The Club caves into the scouse-loving media for the sake of cheap publicity. Not impressed.
But why “should” they lower prices? And why “should” they change the category of the games? I’m looking for a reason other than “I don’t want to pay more” Perhaps a season ticket should be only for league games and then you pay for every cup game the same as anyone else. But offer the seats for cup games to season ticket holders first, and then those that decline are sold to general public or to those on a waiting list. It seems reasonable to me, that the cost of a ticket should increase if it includes more games. If… Read more »