Arsenal and Celtic fans are being ripped off

[pintofmilk]

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MATCHhotels did some research into football club prices for away game travel and the results were surprisingly bad for loyal fans. The research shows that football fans that travel to away games are getting royally ripped off by their own clubs. How clubs justify this is beyond me - its biting the hand that feeds you.

Here are the rip-off prices that we found:

AC Milan vs Arsenal - hotel + flight is £315 through Arsenal / Thomas Cook, but if you search the web you can do it for £80.

Barcelona vs Celtic - hotel + flight is £459 through Celtic / Thomas Cook, but you can do it independently for £242

I am very interested to hear what fans think of this.

[Greavsie]

very interesting but not surprising to be honest.

Clubs are run by financial teams and not fans; therefore some travel company comes along and offers X packages with a nice earner for the club. The loyal fans believe their club would provide a pretty good package so they go with the club.

Obviously all the prices depend on the hotel and airline also. does your research so a like for like transaction i.e. same hotel and airline. If not then i guess the club could provide a better hotel maybe? Plus some of the airlines are so badly run that i'd be willing to pay extra for a proper branded airline so i can definitely make the game.

Personally, fans are ripped off everywhere.
- Man Utd with more kits than necessary
- Chelsea and Liverpool with more players than necessary
- Birmingham (my team) never playing a decent game of football ever
- Villa for being Villa

[pintofmilk]

The comparison was like-for-like:
- hotel is a 3 star as offered by Thomas Cook.
- flight was with Ryanair and was originally at priced at £30 but its now gone up to £60.

If you don't like Ryanair (which is understandable) going with a more expensive airline like Swiss costs £110 or British Airways £116. These more expensive airlines only push the price up to £166 !

Just read a 2005 Guardian article that says it is cheaper to watch Milan at the San Siro (and that includes air fare!) than it is to watch Chelsea:
English or Italian? Football's yawning ticket prices gap | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

[Dave@Profitistic]

As a Derby fan, no other season ticket holder is ripped off more for price vs quality!

(sorry, please don't respond to this as this thread is a serious issue!)

[Affi Liate]

Being a loyal Barnsley fan, I find the
price of flying by private leer Jet to
both home and away games more than
reasonable.

If any Arsenal or Kiltic fans ever need
a lift just drop me a line.

Obviously you'll need to sort the hotels
yourself.

Tally ho!

Cheers

Affi Airways
PS. No kilts onboard please...

[HRPufnstuf]

>>>How clubs justify this is beyond me - its biting the hand that feeds you.

Here is the justification...

FC Barcelona v Celtic Day Trip 04 Mar 2008 Sold Out
FC Barcelona v Celtic 1 night Trip Dep 3 Mar 04 Mar 2008 Sold Out
FC Barcelona v Celtic 1 night Trip Dep 4 Mar 04 Mar 2008 Sold Out
FC Barcelona v Celtic Day Trip 04 Mar 2008 Sold Out
FC Barcelona v Celtic 2 night trip dep 3rd March 04 Mar 2008 Sold Out
FC Barcelona v Celtic Day Trip
FC Barcelona v Celtic 1 night Trip From Belfast dep 3 Mar

They have added yet another day trip at £245 to meet the demand, so the prices are what the market will bear. The hook is you get a match ticket with the flight.

In 2005 Celtic played in the UEFA cup final in Seville, Spain and news papers were reporting 80 thousand fans decended on Seville (we are mental ).

Celtic in Seville: Observer Sport Monthly index | | The Observer

As a Celtic season ticket holder im utterly disgusted by this. I want to go to the game and i can afford to pay but Celtic can shove their Barcelona trip up their ***.

pintofmilk you have a very nice site.

P.S. Affi thanks for the free articles, and im glad you like my name ;o)

[pintofmilk]

Cheers HRpufnstuf! Which site did you get the sold out packages from? We looked at Celtic away match page but couldn't see it.

[Wardy]

HRPufnstuf why not just book your own flightds and gaff and get a ticket through the club for the game. The club have to provide tickets for those who want to make their own travel to european games so unless you don't qualify for one why not just do that?
I've been abroard 25 times to watch United now and never travel on any official trip put on by the club.

As for the being ripped off issue to be honest I think we (Manchester United) supporters get royally ripped off wherever we go. As all locals up and down the country like to come and watch when we come to town our games are usually categoriesed as "A" games hence us having to pay extra. An example being for one away this season we were paying £45 when a few weeks earlier when a not so desirable team were there they were only charged £15 just to get people to turn up (I can't remember if this was at Birmingham or another club). Anyway, up and down the country we get ripped off like this all the time.
The price away fans pay at a ground should be the same for every different team. Why should us northern monkeys have to be paying more just because other teams fans want to turn up and watch us. Add to that the majority up here I imagine are not earning the same as those darn sarf yet we still have to pay more where ever we go!

Cheers
Wardy

[mcol]

As a Derby fan, no other season ticket holder is ripped off more for price vs quality!

you should check out the prices at Elland Road.

[HRPufnstuf]

>>>>Which site did you get the sold out packages from?

Thomas Cook Sport - Celtic Champions League

>>HRPufnstuf why not just book your own flightds and gaff and get a ticket through the >>club for the game. The club have to provide tickets for those who want to make their >>own travel to european games so unless you don't qualify for one why not just do that?

Wardy, you are correct and im looking into it.

[pintofmilk]

Thanks HRP - I found that yesterday and used it to inspire a press release today.

Cheers
Ben

[Graham@Buyagift]

I have to pay £11 week in week out to watch a semi-pro side near the foot of the Conference South - now that's being ripped off

Graham