Peter Kenyon: forget cheaper tickets
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CHELSEA have told supporters to forget cheaper tickets — because the club’s millionaire players are demanding massive pay rises.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon revealed everyone is queueing up to get their hands on the revenue from the new £625million TV deal. And, despite The Sun’s ‘Cut the cost of football’ campaign, Kenyon made it clear to a Blues fans’ forum that their sky-high wage bill means they cannot afford to cut prices next season.
Kenyon claimed: “A reduction in prices is a difficult topic because other sectors of the business want their share of the TV cash and the players also want a slice.” The bombshell came as Frank Lampard and John Terry are demanding £6.3million-a-year contracts to put them on a par with top earners Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko.
Supporters’ representatives had calculated that slashing £5 off every Premiership ticket next season would cost Chelsea just £4m. They argued that could be funded by the massive increase in TV money which the club will receive next term.
Every club in the Premiership is guaranteed a minimum of £30m a season when the new deal kicks in, with the champions getting £50m. But those hopes were quickly kicked into touch by Kenyon at a meeting with a group of 15 fans before last Saturday's home game against Middlesbrough.
Kenyon, accompanied by operations director Ron Gourlay and ticket manager Graham Smith, spent 2½ hours with fans’ forum representatives. Chelsea are currently the second most expensive club in the country for supporters, with only Arsenal charging more.
The cheapest tickets for a match at Stamford Bridge start at £35 and season tickets cost up to a staggering £1,150 a year. Yet the club bankrolled by Roman Abramovich’s billions are still set to announce a massive loss when the financial figures for 2005-06 are revealed next Monday.
Kenyon is under increasing pressure to start balancing the books after announcing record losses of £88m in 2005 and a further £140m last year. That task has been made virtually impossible by an annual wage bill which has soared beyond £125m over the past season.
But Chelsea fan Paul Fletcher, from Woking, countered: “The players don’t seem to have any understanding of the costs involved in following the team. “I know some Chelsea fans who pay more than £1,000 a year. But I simply can’t afford that sort of money.”
A Chelsea spokesman insisted: "No decision has yet been made on ticket prices for next season. We have consulted the fans and their comments will be taken into consideration.” -
Its just a matter of time when Mr Roman decides enough is enough and pulls the plug to his 'favourite' team..
Then Chelsea will spiral down.. and down...and down..
..all the way to the bottom leagues!
Very far-fetched idea I know; but well, one can hope can't he?
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Have to agree with the Chelsea fan Paul Fletcher. The players are really a selfish lot thinking only about themselves, neglecting the fans' pocket. Most humans are selfish anyway, just that for this case it's way too much in my opinion.
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hmm.. so says the most evil man in the EPL..
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even if they double it, stamford bridge will still be a full house
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I find that quite hard to understand... cos at present they even have trouble filling their 42,000 stadium every match and if they double it they can be a full house?Originally posted by used:even if they double it, stamford bridge will still be a full house
Then better quick double it... -
Double? If u give me choose ar, i triple the tickets ar..Originally posted by zocoss:I find that quite hard to understand... cos at present they even have trouble filling their 42,000 stadium every match and if they double it they can be a full house?
Then better quick double it... -
cos most of the of them are season tickets holders and they will renew no matter the cost. but the price increase will bring a different crowd. like those high end ppl. and also crowd trouble will decrease cos the foot ball hooligans now cant afford the tixOriginally posted by zocoss:I find that quite hard to understand... cos at present they even have trouble filling their 42,000 stadium every match and if they double it they can be a full house?
Then better quick double it... -
But the problem is they don't have many so called "season tickets holders" in the first place... Unlike Arsenal whose is charging more but their "season tickets holders" demand exceed that of chelsea. That is why they don't have a problem filling their 60,000 stadium.Originally posted by used:cos most of the of them are season tickets holders and they will renew no matter the cost. but the price increase will bring a different crowd. like those high end ppl. and also crowd trouble will decrease cos the foot ball hooligans now cant afford the tix
In chelsea's case, its completely different, They can't even fill their stadium every week unless its a "big" match. So where do you go and find these Extra fans who wants to buy these season tickets?
Season tickets holders are like for those who wants to watch every week regardless its a big match or a average team coming... and from the looks that they have problems filling their stadium whenever a not so attractive fixture is on the cards, i would say they probably don't have enough...
And increasing ticket price doesn't necessarily makes crowd troubles goes away, If anything, the present crowd are already very well behave. -
so it looks like chelsea are gonna get screwed if they raise their price of the tix
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RA cannot sponsor?
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Music to the years.
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yao shou gui~~