Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) has sent a letter to the club’s chief executive Omar Berrada branding the newly-announced ticket rises a “disgrace”.
The fan group is applying pressure to United’s football leadership in a bid to provoke a U-turn on the policy to increase the price of seats for the remaining games at Old Trafford to £66 each.
MUST calls the hikes, which were announced on Tuesday night without consultation, a “scandalous” way to treat younger fans, who will not be granted concessionary discounts in the new system.
The letter sent to Berrada also emphasises how making the changes unilaterally “undermines the integrity” of the club’s fan engagement policy, which is a requirement of Premier League regulations.
The price rises, which will affect everyone who wants to buy a home ticket from now until the end of this season, are the result of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s determination to raise revenue to comply with financial rules. But MUST claims the move will generate “meagre returns” that add “insult to injury” to real cost for under-16s.
Berrada was appointed chief executive by Ratcliffe this year, starting work officially in July.
MUST letter in full
Dear Omar,
We write on behalf of the members of the Fans’ Forum, Fans’ Advisory Board and the Board and Committee of MUST, to protest in the strongest possible terms to the ticket price changes announced on 26 November.
These changes are a disgrace, both in their substance and in how the club has gone about making them.
First, you are making changes to ticket prices mid-season, with immediate effect. This has never happened before.
Secondly, the scale of the increase to individual fans is at a level never seen before — as much as a 40% increase for adults and 164% for kids. The worst aspect of this is the removal of discounts for children and seniors. A U16 ticket costing £25 in one of the ends is now £66. A parent taking their child will now pay £132, around double the current price.
Surely we can all agree that youngsters going to the game with their parents are the future of the Club? And yet, scandalously, it is this very group that will suffer the biggest increases of all. Furthermore, it is of great concern that the Club has taken this approach to concessionary tickets and the way these policy changes have been communicated, bearing in mind the Premier League Rules that surround these issues.
Thirdly, this increase in ticket prices will indisputably have an impact on the 15/19 Usage rules. Your conditions state that in order for a resold ticket to be counted as used, the Club must be able to re-sell it. Did the Club do any analysis of how price increases would impact take-up for these spare tickets? This is a direct change to Season Ticket policy mid-season which surely has not been explored in terms of its impact. Is it the Club’s intention to penalise Season Ticket Holders who, despite trying to comply, fall afoul of the Usage Rules?
Finally, with the ink barely dry on your recently published Fan Engagement Strategy and despite a consultation protocol agreed in discussions with FAB and MUST (one that explicitly addressed matters of ticketing), the Club made this decision without any consultation whatsoever. The manner in which this has been done completely undermines the integrity of the Club’s fan engagement processes. It adds insult to injury that such an unprecedented and controversial approach has been adopted notwithstanding the meagre returns this programme will yield. This is a clear-cut case of the cure being worse than the disease.
Tickets are the access point for match going supporters. By exploiting them, you risk losing the goodwill and affinity which brings so much added value to the club, not just in support for the team but financially as well, both in terms of fans’ discretionary spend and also value for sponsors. The marginal gains in ticket revenue will be outweighed by the loss in these other areas. Compared with our main rivals, United has a proud tradition of fairer pricing, which in turn has helped to generate our huge loyal support over decades. Decisions like this one take this loyalty for granted and put it at risk.
The Club’s announcement of these changes stated that you wish to engage with fans to discuss longer-term changes to tickets and prices. Such engagement can only take place in an environment of mutual trust — and that has been undermined this week. It is as if the Club has decided to set fan engagement back to the dark ages. That is unacceptable.
There are three things we ask you to do now:
- Pause these changes until meetings can be held with the FAB and FF to discuss them properly.
- Re-commit to the principles of consultation the Club previously agreed with the FAB, FF, and MUST.
- Establish, in conjunction with all three bodies, the consultation plan that will govern next year’s ticketing decisions.
We look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
(Carl Recine/Getty Images)
