Well done Sue on Radio 2

Everyone is having a pop at the clubs ripping off fans but I think the root of the problem is that players' salaries in England are higher than other countries.
To appease fans, clubs are forced into paying inflated wages for sub standard players. I wonder how many players in other European countries are paid 4 figure weekly salaries to play 5th tier football? The answer is probably none (and I expect they are all part time).

In my opinion, player greed is a significant reason why football is so expensive in ths country.

I'd like to know how many tickets are actually made available by the bigger clubs at those so called reduced prices? 

We effectively make tickets cheaper when we do Quid a Kid. 

Antony

That's confusing cause and effect.  Players salaries are high because the business model of English football has allowed them to get high.  Saying players are greedy is unfair - they are just trying to maximise their income in a short career as they would anywhere else in the world.  The problem is that we have a model of football that has allowed wage inflation because there's not sufficient governance to stop clubs saying no and to stop rich owners inflating the market.  It's the business model that's broken - players wages are a symptom of this, they're not the cause.

We have a model where clubs compete for the best players with no proper cap on the amount they spend and no proper safeguards on spending beyond their means.  They then pass on as much of these costs as they can get away with to their fans - who are not normal consumers because of the expectation of loyalty; they're a kind of captive market.  Therefore the conditions exist that allow clubs to push the margins time after time again in order to cover some of the losses for a business model that makes no sense.  It is barmy.

But, for me outside the top clubs, football clubs themselves are community resources not businesses.  Their buisiness is only functional if people feel a connection beyond simply a transaction because if they treated it like any other product they'd be screwed because 92+ professional teams is evidently not sustainable.  This is why clubs should treat fans with more respect and we need to get passed the idea that football clubs are businesses because they are not in the current climate.  Football is a business these days and aspects of football clubs are viable businesses - but football clubs themselves are patently not businesses in any normal sense of the term and treating them like they are is part of the problem.  Look at Rovers - it's not Rovers themselves that's a financially viable business, it's the possibility of a stadium deal that is where the money is.  The club's everyday operations will make a loss and I imagine it will continue to do so even if the stadium is successful because we will hopefully be operating at a higher level.  Look at what happened at Bolton - local owners, good of the club at heart etc hasn't stopped it all going to hell because basically unless you are a top club you aren't really making money out of the football side of things.

The price of football cannot be defended, our tickets are an absolute ripoff, and so are most others, football is being pushed out out of reach of ordinary working people. Can watch premiership rugby at Bath for a fiver more than 5th division football, surely there's something wrong there when football is so say the working persons game??!!

Henbury - sorry but you didn't listen carefully. Sue said "we are paying the same price for a match ticket as last season (League 2) so you could say it is for an inferior product this season (Conf) " or words to that effect !