- United have ignored calls from fans groups to freeze prices for next season
- Club will also charge members and concessions more for premium games
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Manchester United fans have criticised the club following the announcement of new ticket prices and guidelines for next season.
United have raised the cost of season tickets by five per cent while freezing the price for Under-16s. The club believe the increase of roughly £2.50-per-game is close to the levels of inflation and reflects their rising costs which they cannot continue to absorb.
But the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust raised concerns over plans to relocate fans sitting behind the dugouts at Old Trafford to sell their seats at premium prices, and introduce a new match categorisation model for non-season ticket holders with premium games priced at higher levels.
MUST also challenged United over an increase in the season ticket holder minimum usage requirement to 16 of the 19 Premier League games, the decision to impose a £10 charge on fans selling their tickets back to the club less than two weeks before the game, and a 15 per cent increase in car parking charges.
United chief executive Omar Berrada said: ‘We appreciate the loyal and patient support of our fans, and particularly our season-ticket holders who represent the core of our match-going support base.
‘We understand the importance of their backing for the team and have worked hard to come up with a pricing package that is fair and reasonable.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has hiked ticket prices again for Manchester United fans in an unpopular move
United’s season ticket holders will be charged five per cent more for their seats next season
Man United CEO Omar Berrada admitted the increase would be ‘unwelcome’ to supporters
‘After 11 consecutive years of price freezes, we increased prices by five per cent for the past two seasons and intend to do the same for next season to offset continued rises in operating costs.
‘We understand that any price rise is unwelcome, especially during a period of underperformance on the pitch, and we listened carefully to the strong arguments put forward by the FAB (fans’ advisory board) in favour of a freeze.
‘However, the club has decided that it would not be right to keep prices unchanged while costs rise and the club continues to face financial issues.’
MUST and protest group The 1958 have staged demonstrations in recent weeks to try and persuade the club to freeze prices. Following Monday’s announcement, MUST launched an immediate survey that will be open to supporters for the next 48 hours.
A statement read: ‘The Manchester United Supporters Trust has released the following statement: ‘For several months we have argued long and hard that the club need to look at the big picture and freeze ticket prices for next season. Other clubs have done that already and at United it would have sent a powerful message about the need for everyone to pull together to get the club out of the very difficult position it finds itself in.
‘We do note that the scale of the headline increase is less than many feared and we believe the enormous amounts of dialogue that fans groups have had with the club, alongside the public pressure exerted through the media and various protests, helped restrain the increase.
‘However the new match categorisation model for non-season ticket holders is a source of major concern with fans facing additional price increases for higher-demand games. We call for a strict cap on the number of games that will be placed in the higher price categories with the vast majority of games remaining at the base price level.
‘We also need to work to understand the detailed impacts of the seat moves and terms and conditions changes being made. In particular, we fail to see any justification for the increase in season ticket holder minimum usage requirement. The devil is so often in the detail, and any changes of this kind should always be carried out with full consultation with those affected.’
