The cost of supporting your áo bóng đá team is ridiculous these days, especially for the truly dedicated fan and it really is no surprise to me when you see empty seats at a match.
For starters, there’s the cost of your ticket. For lower division sides this isn’t as much of an issue but to watch Championship and Premier League football, fans have to pay over the odds in my opinion. I support a Championship side and have recently shelled out just under £500 on a season ticket. The reason? I’m hopelessly dedicated to my team and I know that if I don’t pay that amount for a season ticket, I’ll only end up paying more for single tickets throughout the season. £500 is what I think a Premier League club should charge as a maximum, not a Championship club as a minimum.
So you’ve got your premium rate ticket and your heading towards the match but on the way you want to buy a programme. At my club, they cost £3, which again, is too much in my opinion, especially as they’re full to the brim with adverts on nearly every page and have little interesting content. I’ve stopped buying them in the last couple of seasons and haven’t regretted it for a minute and I’d advise anyone other fan to do the same.
It goes without saying but you should never pay for food and drink inside the ground at a football match as you’ll pay well over the odds. My club isn’t that bad in this respect but still charge over double the average retail price for a chocolate bar or a soft drink. However, I’ve heard horror stories about Premiership clubs charging huge amounts for sub-standard drinks and food.
A big issue in recent times is the price of football shirts. I think the tipping point was when clubs started to ask for more than 40 quid for a shirt that would out of date in less than a year. More teams are changing their home and away shirts every season these days, prompting calls for cheap football shirts from the fans and rightly so. A football shirt should cost no more than £30 in my opinion, especially if a club is going to change the design on a yearly basis.
Football is the national game and to keep it that way, teams need to use the money they get from television rights, sponsorship and sugar daddy owners to lower the price of admission as well as their commercial products. It’s the right thing to do.
