Prior to our second leg against Copenhagen in the Champions League there were a lot of annoyed people.
After the 0-2 victory in Denmark, people were disenchanted with the pricing policy set out by the club for the second leg at Stamford Bridge.
Personally I agree with their disenchantment, especially in these times of austerity where money is tight enough anyway.
I’m certain that in the long run, the club could have re-evaluated their policy of this Champions League knockout match being Category A, especially as Copenhagen theoretically needed three away goals to go through.
On the Official Chelsea Website it states that “All Champions League knock out matches are priced at Category A prices.” The attendance at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening was 36,454. Unfortunately for the 36,454 the game ended 0-0.
The lowest priced ticket for the evening was £52.00 in the Matthew Harding Lower, with the highest priced ticket being £70.00 in the West Upper. Does the value of money outweigh the score in this instance? I don’t think so.
I agree that the club would not have known prior to the game that the score would have ended 0-0, but what they did know was that we had a two goal advantage and a gap of three weeks before the next leg.
In my opinion, it would be nice to get some kind of statement from the club and an understanding from them knowing if there would be any flexibility for the future in these circumstances. It would also be nice to know what our fans think and if they feel that the prices were fair and justifiable after the 0-0 draw.
For a lot of fans the price of the ticket isn’t just what they spend on the night, travel has to be accounted for along with food, drink and if you go as a family, or take a child then you can spend in excess of £150.00 depending upon where you sit. Sometimes in these situations parity is fair, plus the foresight to evaluate a situation when it arises.
The club may say, all you have to do is to look at the attendance on Wednesday evening, but if there were any new fans coming to Stamford Bridge having to pay those prices to see a 0-0 draw, then I wonder how many would return to pay those prices, under the circumstances?
Three or four years ago when I was writing for another Chelsea website, I was given the honour of being in charge of ticketing issues and enjoyed every minute. I was able to help people with their season ticket issues and any issues that they had, whilst I also liaised with the club for our fans.
So, personally I’d like to hear your views regarding the ticketing issues. Do you feel that the price for Copenhagen was fair, did you go to the game, or due to the prices, did you stay at home, or go to the pub to watch the game? We always want to hear our fans views.
We all love Chelsea, but we also have a point of view. As fans, expressing our views is as important as ever and the big issues are always something we always like to take seriously.
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