Season Ticket v Red Membership
By The Hampshire Gooner
Grade C games will sell out a lot quicker now
Last week, I got an e-mail from the club offering me two season-tickets for the upcoming season. This was a little surprising, as I was told that I was nearly 12,000th on the waiting-list just a few weeks before receiving the e-mail. I gave the club a call to see what the available options would be, and went through all of the possible seating arrangements - whether the seats would be beside each other and, after not a lot of thought, decided to turn all of the options down.
Red membership – You could get to every game last season
What is the point in paying out a lot of money in one lump sum where you are buying a product in bulk and not even receiving a discount for doing so? That is what a season-ticket is these days, in my opinion. I used to have a season-ticket at Highbury during the nineties, and I am sure - unless my memory fails me - that the cost of a season-ticket in those days worked out a lot cheaper than buying a single ticket for every home game.
The cheapest on offer to me was £1,158 in the corner of the upper tier near the back of a block, whereas the same seat is only around £33.50 for a CAT C game, £48 for a CAT B game and £81.50 for a CAT A game. The maximum amount of matches you can get for the season ticket is 25 so, if you factor in say 10 B games, 10 C games and five A games, the total cost comes to around £1,220 - if you do get the full quota of 25 matches, which is by no means a certainty. So the absolute maximum value for money you can get from the ST is around £60 off the cost of a single match-day ticket over the entire season. For that to happen, we would have to get some home games in the FA Cup or go all the way in the Champions League (don’t laugh please). Even if we did manage to get a couple of home games in the FA Cup, what sort of team would you be watching for the price of a CAT B ticket?
The only other possible purpose of paying out for a season-ticket would be to guarantee your seat for every home game of the coming season. This would have been well worth while a few years ago, and I would have seen the point of that straight away, but now?
For the last six seasons, I have been nothing other than a humble red member. When we first moved stadium it was hard to get a ticket as a red member for virtually any game. This trend has changed over the past few seasons, to the point where last season it was possible for me to get a ticket to every home game played at our stadium. This includes Man Utd, Spurs and Milan. You get an allocation of around 3,500 for every home league game as a red member, and you also get the chance of buying via the ticket exchange even when a game is officially sold out.
I for one like the flexibility that not having a season-ticket gives me. For example, on the first day of the season I am going to the V Festival, so I wouldn’t be able to attend the Sunderland game, and for the second game of the season my friend who was going to buy one of the season-tickets is away in USA on his hols. If we had bought a season ticket each, we would have had to hope that the match got to the point of being sold out and then tried to sell on our seats at a 10% loss via the ticket exchange.
One thing that stands out for me with the new ticket prices more than any other is the simple fact that sell-outs are more likely now for the smaller games such as Southampton etc. You can get the same seat for around £35 against the likes of the Saints as you would for £85 against United etc. That is a massive difference in price for the same seat and, in my mind, too much of a difference. The smaller games will sell out faster than last season in my opinion, which means that, as a red member, you will get more ticket availability via the ticket exchange than before.
One final point on the season ticket situation - if I was nearly 12,000th in the queue, and got offered two tickets within a few weeks of finding out my lofty position on the waiting list, what has happened to that waiting list? It must have disappeared quicker than an ‘underpaid’ footballer who wants to go elsewhere to ‘win trophies’. Which begs another question - if the waiting list has evaporated as it looks sure it has, what is the big deal about giving up a season-ticket and possibly returning to the back of the queue if the queue in question is now so short?
20th July 2012
User Comment and Reaction
User comments on this article are now closed. If you want to continue the debate, why not do so on the Gooner Forum.
Wayne 7:43am 20th Jul 2012
Who needs a ST anymore.I am Silver member.All the Cat A games are on tv so i wont be going to them saving over £300.All the CL games are on tv(Group games saving over £100).And the FA cup games where we play a B team are still on the ST and are Cat B games. Only a mug would buy a ST.Its a Kroenke/Gazidis rip off - Post No. 27090
XrisGreen 7:44am 20th Jul 2012
You sure it was 12 thousand-th and not 12 hundred-th? But, I agree...I've never held a season ticket at the emirates and have used my Red Membership to go to 15-20 games a season...it also solves the hassle of passing on the tickets for games you cannot attend...bonus all round. - Post No. 27091
Mike Stefan 7:50am 20th Jul 2012
Very good points. I wish AFC had announced the ticket price changes BEFORE i renewed my season ticket. Well done AFC. - Post No. 27092
Signorjay 7:53am 20th Jul 2012
I agree in principle with you, the days where a season ticket was the ultimate dream is over. Sometimes it can now be a hassle, I was very last season and there were quite a few games I couldn't attend but as the football we played was pretty dire I really struggled to sell my seat on to a mate. The ticket exchange system was useless so for a few games my seat went unsold and unused.They would have been impossible to imagine 4-5 years ago. One point about purchasing red tickets though, the club do add £2.10 booking fee on every ticket which adds to the total. - Post No. 27093
Scott 7:53am 20th Jul 2012
All good points but the one best reasons of having a season ticket is that you are a lot further down the list when it comes to away games and if for some miracle we do reach a cup final your not getting there on a red membership. - Post No. 27094
Darren 7:59am 20th Jul 2012
I decided not to take up the option for all the reasons you mentiin, but requested that they defer me for a year. If I refuse next year then I will go to the back of the queue. Last year I was told there 10,000 people ahead of me! - Post No. 27095
Angry & Frustrated 8:55am 20th Jul 2012
I was even offered a 10 or 12 man box for the coming season last week, and have never ever even enquired about having one! I think you are right, and that the supply will out strip demand this season by large numbers, and hence why pay for a season ticket? I wont myself be going to any games until Kroenke, Gazidis and Wenger have gone, and the club returns to having actual ambition on the pitch, rather than just profits. - Post No. 27096
JimmyGooner 9:23am 20th Jul 2012
@XrisGreen... I'm sure Hampshire Gooner does mean 12 thousand as I have a friend who contacted the club in May to find out whether they were ikely to be offered a ST this summer and was told "no chance - it will be at least another couple of years" and they were 14 thousand and something on the list. Guess what happened earlier this week? An email arrived offering them a season ticket. They had made other arrangements for this season (renting someone elses ST) so have deferred the offer for a year meaning they retain their place in the queue. I suspect a lot of other people have done this too, hence the reason people so far down on the list are receiving these offers. Have to say I might have had second thoughts about renewing my ST this season if I'd known about the price changes in advance, but as the wife pointed out when I was contemplating now renewing, what on earth would I do with myself at weekends if I had no Arsenal game to go to? - Post No. 27097
jezza 9:29am 20th Jul 2012
Same thing exactly happened to me, and like you I turned it down. I was over the moon when I bought my way to the top of the waiting list at Highbury by shelling out £5000 for a debenture. It was well worth it for all those fantastic games/unbeaten season; but I don't think we see another offer of that kind for a while; not worth it, as you say. - Post No. 27098
All the things I could do 9:45am 20th Jul 2012
As an Arsenal fan who will probably never watch a live game at the Emirates (being not inclined to ever visit the UK with your exhorbitantly priced currency), I must say that I find it to be a complete joke that the Arsenal faithful are charged these ridiculous rates when you can buy a Bayern Munich season ticket for as little as 120 euro! Even I (with my currency in the region of 1:10 to the euro) could afford that! - Post No. 27099
Bob 9:53am 20th Jul 2012
For me, the key advantage of a season ticket was always that is guarenteed you a ticket to a cup final should Arsenal get there. There was no 'away credits' nonsense - as a season ticket holder paying a huge amount of money right up front at the start of the season you knew you would be sorted. Now, many season ticket holders miss out. In a perverse way, in the last few years I was relieved when we didn't make finals as I hated the stress and uncertainty of whether I would get a ticket. I am very happy to have given mine up. - Post No. 27100
Ron 10:02am 20th Jul 2012
ST isnt worth it. The cost of going to football is such that the extent of the commitment required in having one is far too much. Better doing odd games with the Silver/Red. As for all of this Cat A stuff etc etc, are the bigger Clubs really that much of a more attractive proposition than the so called lesser ones? I think not. I mean Liverpool? Whats the attraction about those hoofers? The Spuds game is the 'occasion', certainly not the opposition and going to the Lane and turning them over there is the best NLD of the two anyway. Chelsea for me arent that glamourous really despite the money there. Man C are just new on the block and for me, will never match Utds box office appeal. There a bit of a calamity Club and have been all of their history (such as it is) even if they spend a trillion each season. It leaves Utd, who i have to say, are always good to see yet its always on TV anyway.No, ST arent what they were years ago at Highbury. Premier League football is all media bull and artificial glitz now and gets more americanised (prob due to the vile SKY) as each season passes The substance of it isnt so genuine in my view. Even Utd dont have the glamour players of yesteryear. - Post No. 27101
James 10:26am 20th Jul 2012
Having had an ST for so many years now it would be very hard to go back to having to book for individual games again - I like knowing that I have a ticket for all the home games without that hassle. As another comment said if you still go to away games (which I do) it is hugely beneficial to have a season ticket. And when we do reach another cup final (which will happen at some stage) without an ST you can pretty much forget it. - Post No. 27103
GoonerGoal! 10:35am 20th Jul 2012
A friend who had been on the list for more than 5 years was suddenly offered a season ticket last year, “anywhere he wanted” to sit at the Emirates. Much to his surprise after such a long wait, he was even offered two, if that’s what he wanted. My understanding is that “officially” there was only something like an 11% drop in renewals prior to the 2011/12 season. Heaven knows what it will be this time. It seems we may be very quickly approaching that point when profitability is going to peak out at the Arsenal. Time for Kroenke to cash in his chips perhaps? VIVE LA REVOLUTION! - Post No. 27105
Ronster 10:56am 20th Jul 2012
Go watch the ladies at Borehamwood FC instead....stroll up on the day,hand over a fiver at the turnstiles,choose where you want to stand or sit and enjoy watching honest,committed and skilful footballers! - Post No. 27106
jj 11:01am 20th Jul 2012
It's ironic that the board moved supposedly to compete and now they appear to be hawking around tickets, desperate to get some cash in. Their business model will fall apart if someone at the club doesn't get that to grow you have to invest. - Post No. 27107
UTU 11:10am 20th Jul 2012
My First Season Ticket cost me £8O for the 1988/89 Season. Compare that to £ 1,000 plus that Arsenal Fans are expected to stump up in harsh economic times nowdays. People can no longer afford it. - Post No. 27108
GunnerX 12:22pm 20th Jul 2012
I'm just a lowly Red Member, and to date I have not used it to book a single ticket as I much prefer booking via a mate who has a Silver member-ship, it means we can sit together. I can only afford to do 10 or so home games per season. - Post No. 27114
Dave 12:31pm 20th Jul 2012
Should be some interesting attendances next season. Remember those days of 25,000 rattling around Highbury? I often wonder what our core support is? The biggest issue Gooners face at present is the cost of supporting our great club. - Post No. 27115
jjetplane 14:18pm 20th Jul 2012
Ha ha - £35 is OTT for any piddly game & when I last had a season ticket when Wenger first came it was the equiv of 4 A games for season! As I still remember getting in the schoolboyz for a shilling you can understand my laughter and why even if I could afford - will never step into the Emirates. It just really ain't Arsenal anymore. The way these mercenaries play, its hard to even listen to it on the radio. Don't have Sky either. Its like an old relationship receding with time. Au revoir or wotever! - Post No. 27120
Stevesam 14:37pm 20th Jul 2012
You can buy a season ticket at Wigan for £300 per season and watch all the same PL teams that we see at the Emirates!They also have an owner who invests his own money into the Club and they have built a new stadium. The Silent Stan model is flawed. There is now a trend - we sell our best players for approx £30M and buy two replacements for £20M, therefore £10M profit - sustainable business. - Post No. 27121
Gooner1711 14:40pm 20th Jul 2012
If anyone thought they were getting value for money then that has long gone. Remember, the club no longer cares about the fans. It's money, money, money. It will be a long, long season I fear. This summer is much the same as the last 8, worried about losing rather than who we bring in to strengthen. BTW: Who is going to fancy paying £62 to watch another has been great, Liverpool, on a cold, dark, midweek January evening? There'll be lots of empty spaces in both Arsenal and Liverpool ends for sure. - Post No. 27122
Mike Hennessy 15:30pm 20th Jul 2012
I must say, after finding out that my usual ticket as a Silver Member for matches that I go to (seemingly, rated as Cat C by the club) is nearly 25% cheaper this season, I'm laughing. But then, I'm a Silver Member who, due to economic reasons, picks and choses the 10/12 matches a season he goes to, and I'm not a Gold Member, who is probably feeling a bit conned at the moment. - Post No. 27123
Peter Wain 16:04pm 20th Jul 2012
Waste of time buying a season ticket when we are lied to and taken for granted. Should organise a home match boycott so that they realise how much we hate the current policy. Yank out Gazidis must be sacked. - Post No. 27125
Cameron 17:01pm 20th Jul 2012
Paying 1000 quid, let alone 1500+, for a season ticket is utter madness. You could go on two or three foreign holidays for that. And for what? Seeing a game of football every other week? Madness. When it comes back to around 500 quid for a season ticket which is what I paid toward the end at Highbury, I will CONSIDER getting back on the list, but even 500 quid is surely too much for a team that never really looks like winning anything. - Post No. 27126
SJ 17:16pm 20th Jul 2012
So glad I came across this thread - as above I received an email today which was surprising because I was also about 10000th on the list. Always hoped about this materialising in the next 2-3yrs but now its come around quicker than expected I am in two minds! I dont have the time to go to all the home games and in the last season I went to all the 'A' games at home apart from Spurs (but includes City UTD and Milan).. thinking that if i get the season ticket i am guaranteed semi-finals and finals which are usually hard to come by but then again thats relaiant on us doing that well this season. Need to make a decision by Sunday eve but as one person said I may defer and re-assess! - Post No. 27128
Craig 17:37pm 20th Jul 2012
In case anyone hasn't pointed it out, the ST includes 7 cup tickets and if we don't play all 7 the difference is refunded. So the only variable is whether any of the 7 cup games that are included are sold as A games (so ST holders effectively pay less), as happened with Barca. - Post No. 27129
Old Timer 17:45pm 20th Jul 2012
The club used to be very fair with fans - I remember a Spurs-supporting friend of mine being envious that it cost me a fiver to watch Arsenal v Barcelona at Wembley in 1998/9. At the time an Arsenal ST was one of the cheaper ones of the London PL clubs. Your article shows what happens when the cash cow is milked too enthusiastically. - Post No. 27130
DW Thomas 18:40pm 20th Jul 2012
I pay about $50 per month to watch the Arsenal each week and have had thoughts recently of just following on a live blog, checking the news online, and looking for highlights later. I would probably buy a ST if I lived in London, but Wenger's recent interview and commments again about money, spending, FFP, and competing again sound like delusions of grandeur. Especially when ticket prices continue to rise at the club and the team performances do not. With a manager who lives in a fantasy world where everyone is loyal and plays nice, this team will continue to stagnate or worse, go backwards even more. I am still being patient to see what happens when RVP leaves, who is brought in. Investment in the team before the season begins is still required for squad depth. We will not be able to compete with City, Chelsea, United, Bara, or RM if we continue with substandard bench players or even some first teamers. I cannot stomach the comments anymore that our manager spouts about how he sees things and his "philosophy". He may have been innovative and great 7-8 years ago, but no more. Now he looks like a dinosaur with no ideas to lead this team back to glory. I'll eat these words if we are top of the league or close in October or later. You just cannot sell your best assets each year and expect to remain at the top of your game. Period. - Post No. 27132
Glitch33 19:33pm 20th Jul 2012
Don't forget booking fees. Min £1.65 Spent years waiting for a ST and finally got one in the move to AG. During the Highbury years I avidly dialled and redialled for ages to get a ticket for each game. How times have changed. I gave up my ST's last season and didn't go to a single game. Managed to watch on TV or t'internet. I renewed my Silver again this season - another massive price increase imposed by the club. Might go for a Cat C game or two in the cheap seats. I am unlikely to pay min £61 for a Cat A when it will be on TV. - Post No. 27133
Cameron 4:46am 21st Jul 2012
I think everyone should boycott the Category A games, becasue a minimum price of SIXTY QUID (more like eighty quid plus for most tickets I expect)is simply taking the piss. If fans keep paying up they'll keep taking us for mugs. If we stop paying up they'll stop. Its simple really. - Post No. 27140
Gooner S 14:41pm 21st Jul 2012
Nobody "needs a season ticket". It is a discretionary purchase. Going to see Arsenal is expensive. I think very carefully about renewing each year. £1000 + is a lot of disposable income. Mine cost 1,075 . That works out £41.00 per game for this coming season (19 league + 7 cup = 26). So, if you are going to go to most home games, if not all of them, then the season ticket is better value because the banding doesn't apply. Now, if you don't want to renew because we haven't won anything for sometime and think we wont do so this coming season thats your call. Similarly, if you think the board are robbing the fans and not giving them value or you want Wenger out, again your call. For me, I renewed because I want to see Arsenal play as much as I can, whilst I can still go and can still afford to do so. I don't renew expecting us to win the league each year but I do go to games expecting us to compete and I go to enjoy the football. I still get a buzz out of it. If I stopped enjoying it I would stop going. - Post No. 27147
clockendpaul 18:26pm 21st Jul 2012
Scott seeing how there are 40,000 season tickets and we get around 20,000 if, in the unlikely event we reach a cup final, i think you might find its not a given anymore even for you with your cherrished ST. I let my ticket go this year after 27 years, don't see any advantage in having one anymore. - Post No. 27150
Big Andy 23:37pm 21st Jul 2012
This is a really interesting article. The most illuminating piece was about just how easy it is to now get a season ticket. Kroenke and Gazidis's flawed logic is now being cruelly exposed. Supporters are now no longer prepared to pay the highest prices in the world to watch a team which is only interested in finishing fourth. Seven years of failure, and of selling our best players and refusing to replace them, have turned us into a second-rate Premier League side. We WOULD pay big money to watch a quality, championship-winning team. But not this garbage. Another bad season and we will be playing in front of 40,ooo crowds. - Post No. 27151
Andrew Cohen 10:20am 22nd Jul 2012
Big Andy is right. You can't buck the market. However good the PR machine is, however blinkered the manager may be, however weak and feeble the media are in their criticism of the set up, the players and fans are voting with their feet. The really upsetting thing about all this is that once the crash does happen, will those thousands of fans that the board has alienated and priced out of the stadium go back? The answer for many will be no. Mr Wenger please leave, and take the AKB's with you when you go. - Post No. 27155
GoonerGoal! 14:35pm 22nd Jul 2012
“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has…” There are times when it's necessary to fight against things that have become so wrong that they should no longer be allowed to remain. The word “revolution” comes from the Latin for "a turnaround”. The turnaround we seek at Arsenal is one of culture, economics, and ideology. The Wenger/Gazidis/Kroenke triumvirate hopes to maintain the present situation by continuing to pull the wool over the eyes of the fans with a mix of good old “snake oil peddling”, speaking in generalities rather than specific outcomes, and a combination of half-truths and lies, all encompassed within tightly controlled media speculation and exposure. Yet the only true weapon of power in this revolutionary war, the ultimate WMD if you will, is in the control of us the fans, and that revolutionary weapon is our very own “disposable income”. It’s what the present regime feeds upon; if we deny it to them they will start to whither and ultimately have to seek sustenance elsewhere. So why don’t we the fans put them on diminishing rations, why don’t we threaten to starve them of power? Starve the Power! Let THEM eat cake! VIVE LA REVOLUTION! - Post No. 27158
GaryFootscrayAustralia 5:03am 23rd Jul 2012
And to think that I was pissed off back when I thought we weren't a big enough club because Chris Sutton wouldn't sign for the Ayatollah... - Post No. 27173
Bentley 11:37am 23rd Jul 2012
Good article but one thing not pointed out is the rights holding a Season Ticket (with Away points obviously) gives you to purchasing tickets for Away games and possible cup finals etc. Other than that, for the vast majority, Silver/Red works out really well. - Post No. 27175
Mark 16:22pm 23rd Jul 2012
I applied for the ST waiting list about 4-5 years ago and was over 65,000 on the list. I got a letter last week offering me a ticket, priced £12-1500. I would have gone for it if I could afford it as I've never had one and to be honest, never thought I'd get the chance when I originally went on the list. It says a lot though, that the list has dwindled to the point that there presumably isn't one anymore. It should serve as a wake up call to the board, but then again I also hoped that big brother would finally finish last year and the X Factor would be made illegal - Post No. 27177
Lee 23:27pm 23rd Jul 2012
After 17 years i just about renewed BUT seriously think this will be my last! and before all the mr 100% do gooder im the biggest gooner f**k off elsewhere brigade jump on me, ive no problem with self sustainibility IF there is ambition TO WIN! not to run the club as a profit making business!! were having the p*ss taken out of us now and our loyalty taken for granted! if the muppets running the show drop all prices then we wouldnt moan so much and we moan BECAUSE WE CARE! home and AWAY for 20 years and europe! - Post No. 27179
goonercolesyboy 23:40pm 23rd Jul 2012
I agree with Gooner S, if you don't want to renew for whatever reason then don't...simples..... - Post No. 27180
SouthCoastArsenal 7:27am 24th Jul 2012
I can't believe anybody would justify paying £1200 so they are 'guaranteed' a cup final ticket. In teh extremely unlikely event that we do manage it again, who would want to see another Birminghamesque performance? No chance in the FA Cup or Champions League whatsoever. If you're so bothered about the league cup final, boycott a season ticket & give a tout £250 for the final. "Tout's are profiteering & rip off the real fans" Must have learnt from Mr. Kroenke then! - Post No. 27189
Paul Thurston 9:49am 24th Jul 2012
Good article, looking at the comments it seems to have caught the mood well. I got offered a season ticket a few years back when we first moved to AG after spending 5-6 years on the list at Highbury. The club contacted me out of the blue saying I had to turn up at the box office by next tuesday and pay £1250 if I wanted one. Who has that kind of money sat around to spend in one lump sum?....I don't even pay for my car insurance like that. The attitude really pissed me off and even though I could have scraped it together (student at the time) I couldn't justify it. - Post No. 27198
weststandlower 15:02pm 24th Jul 2012
'All the Cat A games are on tv so i wont be going to them' Wayne you sum up all that's wrong with the modern football 'fan'! I don't go to Arsenal home anymore because it's a load of overpriced, soulless rubbish, but to claim TV is the reason you don't go! haha - Post No. 27206
11th June 2013
Arsenal can become Bayern Munich
Online Ed: Just give us a couple of years, says Ivan Gazidis at annual q&a
No. 17
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