For the second year in a row, Manchester City have frozen season ticket prices. They have also frozen matchday prices, having reduced them last year. And, as important, the club have made significant moves to improve the ticket transfer policy that has been one of the main frustrations turning off supporters since August.
To say the fans are seeing some of the best football of their lives in a Pep Guardiola era filled with trophies, last season saw a deterioration in the relationship with the club. There were visible protests inside the stadium where thousands took part before official fan board City Matters vehemently rejected a proposed rise to force a club U-turn.
City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said afterwards that what had happened was ‘not okay’ and there was the same feeling from supporters. Lee Broadstock was one of the City Matters reps last year that went on strike in protest at the club not engaging on ticket prices, and as he took up chair of the group for this season he was determined for nobody to go down the same route this time.
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Ticket prices are generally the yardstick by which City Matters are judged by the majority of fans, who are not in on the minutes of the meetings held throughout the season on various issues. For the first big meeting with the club over tickets in January, the ten members of the group came prepared.
A document detailing the cost of living in Manchester, demographic detail and other factors in support of a price freeze was sent to club executives a week before the meeting, printed out for everyone in the room, and then discussed line by line over two hours.
There was a positive and confident mood from the group leaving that meeting, but it began to waver as silence followed. Fan group 1894 sent a visible message on a number of matchdays for the club not to price out the next generation of fans and The Citizens Trust launched as an independent body to protest the interest of Blues, but announcements from rival Premier League clubs did little to inspire confidence.
“We started conversations with the club back in January about season ticket prices for next season. And whilst that’s good from the point of view of the club are thinking early to start that process, so many things can happen after January,” explained Kevin Parker, one of the reps and head of the official supporters’ club.
“Are the team doing well or are they not doing well? How many games have we played? Does that impact on the revenues stream for the club? So starting early is good but then we’re also probably thinking from a City Matters point of view that everybody else in football is announcing a price increase. We’re part of the Football Supporters Federation and all the clubs are coming in with 3 per cent, 4 per cent, 5 per cent – whatever it is.”
Then came the next meeting with City Matters in March, and to the confusion of everyone in the group ticket prices were not one of the talking points. All the work that had gone into the paper that had been presented in January was not mentioned, and when the response finally came in an extraordinary meeting the proposals hadn’t been recognised.
“We had a full group meeting and it wasn’t discussed. And It’s like, well, what are you doing? By that point in March, it was like, if I had this for two months as a club, what would it be?” said Broadstock. “And that’s when we went and said we need an extraordinary meeting. We need this moving along. One of the final points on the ticketing paper was we want a clear timeline going forward.
“But when we did end up meeting with the club, they did put a proposal that we weren’t happy with, and a number of issues that we put to them that they were not going to change. We really laid it on the line. I think the club were a bit taken back with how heavy we were in terms of, this is not what we asked for, not what we wanted. Why is it eight weeks to get to this point?”
It was a feisty meeting, where City Matters made clear the choices that the club had: ignore the recommendations and be called out publicly for that, or show that they could commit to something that Premier League rivals were not. The fact that the rise would only have brought the club around £300,000 in additional revenue was also pointed out, with personal stories given of people who may walk away just so City could raise what would amount to the tiniest of fractions of their official revenue.
The mood after that was far less positive, but at least the group felt they had said everything they wanted to. And on the club’s side was outgoing COO Roel De Vries, who had listened to reason last year and is regarded as a pragmatic negotiator even if he can say things that sound out of touch with matchgoing fans.
In the end, it was not just De Vries but the City chairman himself who also got involved in ultimately deciding that the trust of fans and goodwill they would earn from freezing tickets was more important than the revenue they would make. Not that City Matters had any sense of that when they sat down for the initial meeting.
“Danny Wilson, [head of supporter experience at City], started with a list of reasons of what the club consider when they think what they do about ticket prices or season tickets or matchday,” said Parker. “And I think a few of us are probably thinking ‘you’ve gone the wrong way haven’t you?’
“And then Dan came out with a list of no season ticket prices, no match day increases, a reduced category D price for midweek games. Then we went into the ticket transfer policy where they’ve increased the number of people you can have on your friends and family. And you can transfer it to another season ticket holder which you couldn’t do before. I think we were all a little bit gobsmacked to be honest with you how far the club had gone.
“The only thing that we had to talk about after that to be fair was certain processes in terms of ticketing and season tickets and seat moves and renewals. The hard debate had been done and it was quite a relaxed meeting.
“I remember right at the start of this I was saying to City, don’t increase the prices and get out there and be the first to not. Obviously the club have a process that they have to follow, but I’m thinking that we can lead. In a strange way, the way that it’s happened, it’s been a bigger impact because other clubs probably still would have done what they’re going to do. They’ve done it and we could have been influenced.
“It’s probably fair to say that we at City Matters probably thought, because there are so many clubs who have announced that City are just going to go for an increase. And we will have our say, but they’ll still do it. The fact that they haven’t, I think it’s an even bigger plus.”
City Matters took the acclaim for their hard word, the club basked in a positive light, and lines were drawn for the next battles that are coming. What happens with the extended North Stand and the 115 verdict – if it ever drops – are the big items on the horizon but already there have been concerns on away ticket allocation and the 10-game personal attendance policy have been flagged.
“There’s improvements that can always be made,” said Broadstock. “But I think City Matters has been around eight years now. And it just feels like now we’re starting to really find our feet and find our teeth.”
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