Ticket price hikes becoming a regular occurrence in the FA Cup will bring the death of the competition as we know it and it’s not the clubs’ fault.
This season we have seen cases where non-league clubs have ramped up ticket prices when playing against much higher up opposition in the FA Cup with Tamworth’s home tie against Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur being the most recent and notable of examples.
This enraged fans from across the country with many taking to ‘X’ to express their opinions.
In no way whatsoever do I condone the pricing of these tickets however I believe that their anger is being directed towards the wrong people here.
Instead of being angry at the club for hiking prices, they should be angry at the FA for scrapping replays.
If replays hadn’t have been scrapped Tamworth would have earned themselves over half of their annual revenue, but now that replays have been scrapped the game had to go to extra time and then penalties instead.
I think this highlights exactly why Tamworth raised their ticket prices.
Most football clubs at this level are owned by an individual owner, not a multi billion pound conglomerate with many investors, every single penny counts and it is no surprise to me that Tamworth’s owner still tried to get a big payday from an occasion that doesn’t come round very often at all.
Lower league/non-league clubs have to do absolutely everything they can these days to survive if they don’t want to become another Macclesfield or Bury with the gap between the ‘Big Six’ and the rest of the pyramid growing ever larger.
So, to cover the fact that there won’t be any replay money that non-league and lower league clubs banked on previously, Tamworth chose to raise their ticket prices and I feel that many other clubs will follow suit.
This is just one of many negative side effects of FA Cup replays being scrapped and it’s the supporters who are the ones most affected.
The worse it gets for fans, the lower attendances will be and subsequently nobody will be watching the FA Cup thus bringing it’s downfall. Without the fans there is no FA Cup.
Prices will rise, attendances will drop and the FA Cup will fade into irrelevance if the FA doesn’t stand up to the ‘Big Six’ soon.
