A Season Too Far ?

I can't remember where I recently heard someone say "It's not the principle, it's the money". It made me laugh, and could easily be applied to what's happening at QPR, and many other football clubs to be fair.

Here's a good piece from the Mirror about club owners :

Why football fans should care as much about who owns their club as they do who plays for it .

QPR of course get a mention, and he makes a fair enough point. These guys are not philanthropists, and while it's true that the club was in desperate straits when they came in, no one thinks they did it out of charity. On top of the Derby fiasco, QPR have apparently rejected Manchester United's offer to reduce prices for the league cup tie, and £40 it is again.

They say the money is going to be reinvested in the team, and as long as it is, I expect most people will tolerate it. If it isn't though, well we'll have to see what happens. I myself am thinking about drawing a line in the sand after this season. Anything more than £20 to watch a football match is ridiculous when you think about it. Compare it to the cinema, 90 minutes entertainment, sometimes good, sometimes bad - £6.

There are clubs who are doing it right ; Hull City are charging £20-25 for Premiership football [1], and they've made a statement about staying in the black whatever happens, and keeping to their wage budget accordingly. Not a bad start in the Premiership either ! Charlton's prices were reasonable in the Premiership and still are in the Championship (although maybe their fans might prefer more investment in the team). But the real blueprint IMO is Bradford City. They've gone completely the other way with admission prices ; £140 for a season ticket, and as a result they get 13,000 in League Two, compared to the all the other 2-5 thousands. Consequently, they sell 3 times as many programmes, hot dogs, etc, and they have a bigger crowd cheering on the home team and intimidating the away.

I'll be out of town for the Forest game, and then the next one is Birmingham City in 3 weeks time. This gives me a break at least. After that I might just turn up whenever, not worry about it too much and try to just enjoy the games. Then maybe next year I might find something better to do TBH.

[1] I don't know if this is increased for Liverpool, Man U etc. but there's no indication on their website that this is the case.

Correction : The decision about ticket prices for the cup game was entirely down to Manchester United :

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1419984,00.html

I should know better, the amount of complaining about the press I do !