Premier clubs set £30 top price for away fans from next season
LONDON: The Premier League has responded to rising anger over ticket prices by setting a £30 ceiling on away tickets for the next three seasons.
From the 2016-17 campaign, clubs will be able to charge visiting supporters only a maximum of £30 each.
The system will remain in place until at least the 2018-19 season. The new cap will replace the existing Away Supporters’ Initiative (ASI), which was introduced in 2013 in an effort to assist fans when travelling to away matches.
In a statement confirming the measure, the League acknowledged that most fans have to pay additional travel costs on top of match tickets. The League also said that each club will be responsible for its own ticket prices and should consider offering deals to help fans attend matches.
“Clubs know that away fans have a unique status,” the League said. “They are essential for match atmosphere and stimulate the response from home fans that distinguishes Premier League matches from those of other leagues.
“Away fans have additional travel costs and pay individual match prices, as season ticket and other discounts are not available to them and the responsibility for them is shared between clubs and therefore it is right that there is a collective initiative to help them.
“At their last meeting on February 4, 2016, the clubs unanimously agreed that more should be done to help away fans and, after consideration of a range of options, have now decided to introduce the new £30 maximum price for away tickets.”
The Premier League has been under pressure to reduce ticket costs after signing record domestic media rights deals with broadcasters in the UK. In February of last year, the League confirmed that the three-season deals, which run from 2016-17 to 2018-19, will generate total revenue of £5.136bn.
Sky will remain the league’s primary live broadcaster after acquiring five of the seven packages on offer, while rival pay-television broadcaster BT Sport picked up the remaining two packages, covering 42 matches.
The deal represented a 70-per-cent increase on the £3.018bn the league earns in the current media rights cycle, 2013-14 to 2015-16, in which the value had also jumped by close to 70 per cent.
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