OSCILLATING WILDLY ROUNDTABLE #1: SEASON TICKET PRICES 2024/25

Never let it be said I don't listen to the public. Well, some of them.

Last week’s horrendous hikes in season ticket prices provoked my ire in not one, but two separate articles. If nothing else, the Liz Truss-style work from Jeff Shi got me writing again. Glory be. As the depth of feeling is so widespread, I opened up the debate to a selection of fans who feel similarly strongly. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll only be using their initials here, though rest assured they are real people. If they weren’t, I’d go to the trouble of making up comedy names for them.

Anyway, away we go…

What was your initial reaction to the news?

SB: Football is about hopes and dreams. The hope your team will score that last minute winner, the dream that the last minute winner is at Wembley and your team lift the FA Cup.

Football fans know that their team isn’t “by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen”, but we hope that one day we might be.

The recent ticket price hikes, to levels comparable, if not more expensive than top 6 clubs alongside the inane ramblings of our chairman:

“If you only pursue trophies or consistent European football, Wolves might not be an ideal choice.”

Left me completely baffled.

So, the chairman of my club wants me to pay a premium price with no hope of pursuing a trophy? I can pay a top 6 price for a ticket but I’m not allowed to dream of playing in Europe (which we actually did in the dim and distant past which was as far back as, checks notes, 2019/20).

Add in that we’ve also decided to hike up prices for the next generation despite our chairman stating “Our financial performance is also strong “. Thereby thwarting the hopes and dreams of those people who have yet to regularly set foot in Molineux. And I won’t even mention the exorbitant price increase for those with a disability.

MD: Who does this man think he is to tell me that MY club is probably not for me because I disagree with financial decisions that he has made. I was supporting Wolves 5 years before he was born and he chooses to patronise me and "legacy fans" like me.

He can claim, rightly, that we have progressed since 2018, but we have massively regressed in the last 3 seasons under HIS watch. Massive price increases, trying to force the average fan out, believing that we will be replaced by hoards of fans from Shanghai, Paris, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, South Korea and from all over the world is pie in the sky! Poor financial decisions, installing a terrible manager with NOTHING on his CV in Bruno Lage and then keeping him employed too long when everyone could see he was out of his depth. Lying to Lopetegui, lying to the fans and then getting lucky that his next managerial choice, another with an extremely thin CV, managed to defy expectation of pundits and fans alike.

He should not underestimate the anger this has caused in the fan base and he may find that the positive support of the remaining fans turns sour very quickly. I'm not sure he has witnessed the feel inside the ground when the fans turn, but it could come very quickly next season.

DS: For the first time I can remember, I'm currently embarrassed by our club (our club Jeff, not yours)

I'm not old enough to remember the situation in the 80s, and while the back to back relegations in 2012 and 2013 was embarrassing, I didn't have this feeling of embarrassment.

I made the decision to not renew my season ticket before the start of the 23/24 campaign. The decision was based solely on commitments I had with my son going forward, the financial increase last summer as annoying as it would have been, wouldn't have stopped me renewing.

As I'm no longer a season ticket holder I don't have the anger of many, as there isn't a decision to make for myself. But I'm embarrassed that the club I love decided to make a decision based purely on greed. The price rises announced this week for adults is horrendous, yet the rises for youngsters can only be described as disgusting. 

ME: Jeff Shi hates me and my family and wants us to stop coming to Molineux.

That makes me profoundly sad. It is, however, the only logical conclusion to his decision to levy a 39% increase on my family season ticket.

Periodically Jeff might cast his eye over the balcony and see my family of four in the family enclosure. If he looks when we're warming up we'll be there, as we like to support the team. If he looks after the match we'll be there too, as we never leave early. If he listens carefully at half time he'll never hear us boo, as we don't accept that as a form of support. Unless he listens when the ref is walking off, then he'll hear my daughter boo alright. He might see us tucking into whatever food my wife has remembered to pack to keep the already high costs manageable. Finally, if he looks down at 22:00 on a weeknight, in a week when we have three matches, he'll still see us, even though my kids will get back to bed around 01:00 and sleep through school the next morning. This speaks of consistency, resilience and steadfastness. We abide. Jeff hates me and my family because he hates those values. He doesn't understand them, and he can't monetise them.

I hate Jeff Shi and Fosun but I love Wolves more. Thank god only one of them will still be around in a few years. Then my kids can take it out on the next half-arsed owner!

RH: They were literally awarded a surprise £5m windfall last week when Leicester and Southampton won promotion. I can't believe nobody looked at that and thought "actually, why don't we take some of this unexpected money, and use it to offset against these price rises". Like they've seen the stick they get when the increases are 5-8%, and it's generally 50/50 between the pissed off and the supportive. The fact they held off on the announcement until after the season proves that they knew for a fact there would be heavy pushback. It just seems like the easiest thing in the world to do, and they could even spin it. "We were going to increase by x, but we're using this money that's come in and wasn't budgeted for to offset most of that".

Thick as fucking shit.

And for the sake of what, £3m? That makes no difference. It won't make the difference between signing a player or not. Or investing in infrastructure or maintenance of the stadium. Even over the course of three years, that £9m will not be the difference between a 'pass/fail' on PSR. It will achieve nothing. Nothing except making your customer base implacably angry at best, or lose - forever - a massive chunk of them at worst..

They've hung their hat on two things.

a - the historic renewal rate, despite an unjustified run of consecutive increases
b - the misplaced belief that members = season ticket waiting list.

Our renewal rate is historically mid 90s%, regardless of price increase and reduction in quality on the pitch and ambition off it. They believe that their customers love their club so much that there is nothing Fosun can (or won't) do that will change that. I believe we'll be looking at a renewal rate in the 70s this Summer. We'll never know, because they'll never publish an embarrassing figure like that. But we'll know. We'll know because of the pre-match drink groups that go from 12 to 8. We'll know because we'll see how many new faces there are around those of us that do renew. We'll know how far season ticket offers go down the 'waiting list'. We'll know because we'll read and hear of the heartbreak of fans who are forced to give something up that they've been part of for years. We'll know of the conversations that our friends have to have with their children, because unfortunately season tickets just aren't viable any more.

And we'll know that it was all so unnecessary. It didn't need to happen. It achieved nothing positive. It didn't help the club survive. It didn't make the club competitive. It didn't help us sign a player that would've been otherwise unattainable. It didn't make the difference between a points deduction or not.

Three million fucking pounds. "Ah, but it's repeat revenue", Jeff will think. "It's £3m a year, in perpetuity". Well, you fucking cretin. You want to know what else lasts forever? Absence. Once people stop going, they stop going forever. They might make a handful of games, especially if a mate lends them a season ticket or what have you, but you've lost that customer. They're still a fan, they're still a supporter, they still love the club and share the highs and lows and excitement and frustration. They're still a fan, and they know more about this football club, and care more about this football club than you ever will. Fuck, we probably spend more time a week thinking about this football club than you do, and it's your full time fucking job.

I mean, his arguments don’t stack up, do they. If we can see it…

MD: When a working class city and club prices its hardcore fan base out of attendance, they are destined for a half empty stadium and a dead atmosphere. To put prices up by almost 8 times the rate of inflation is mind-boggling, short sighted and, frankly, a disgrace. I've not even mentioned the 113% increase for children or the pathetic rise in the price for wheelchair fans. He states that we have seen some wonderful results against Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool but they have been matched by awful performances against average Premier League teams and Coventry in the FA Cup. We should not expect European qualifications yet he set our prices against teams that either HAVE qualified or are based in London. We are more Bournemouth, Leicester and Brentford level of fighting to survive in the Premier League and nowhere near a squad able to challenge higher. The teams I have listed are our peers, not Villa, Spurs, Chelsea and the like.

DS: They are driving people away from attending games, and using 'benchmarking' as the reason. I have two major issues with this.

1. I am self-employed, and I benchmark my prices against competitors. I need to ensure I'm not too cheap and giving my services away cheaply, while making sure I'm not overpriced and losing custom. This is a necessity in my industry, as people can and do shop around. Football fans are not looking at what other clubs are charging, and then deciding where they will attend games that season. It's nonsense thinking.

2. Jeff mentions our need to have the turnover to compete with other clubs. So is he going to 'benchmark' our transfer dealings and net spend with other clubs? I highly doubt it. 

We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and areas like Wolverhampton are seriously feeling this. The rises they've announced completely ignore what is happening to the regular fan, and smacks of short-term thinking. 

ME: Every now and again Jeff will see some other people down near us. Print out ticket, half and half scarf, buried under bags from the club shop. If he looks when the opposition have a free kick near our box he'll note they are filming it on their phone, hoping it goes in so 'something happened' that they can share. He doesn't care. They can't tell the difference between a Raul and a Che Adams. Jeff likes that. Their values are transience, profligacy and celebrity. Jeff loves these people because he shares those values. Values he can value. I don't mind these guys. I like seeing new people enjoying Molineux, it makes me proud. However, Jeff feels a bit more strongly about these people than I do. He wants them in my place and to do that he wants to get rid of me. He doesn't want an extra £570, he wants me gone. Strange thing is, there are nowhere near the number of these people willing to come to Wolverhampton to underpin any credible P&L. That's before we're trying to persuade them to come and watch Oxford, Preston and Millwall. They won't abide.

RH: We are still fans. But you've lost a customer forever. You've lost somebody that was happy to pay a thousand pounds a year on a ticket and a pint and a shirt, because you wanted an extra couple of hundred quid off them. You've not just lost them forever, you've lost their children too. You've literally alienated generations of customers, because you wanted to rinse the one that was spending a larger chunk of their disposable income than any other fans from any other time in history.

This isn’t a storm in a teacup, it’s going to have more than a lingering effect.

SB: A wise man once said “dreaming is for free”, unfortunately loyal fans who wish to dream at Molineux are no longer welcome, and Jeff finally achieves his dream of pricing out "legacy fans". 

MD: You should never out-price your fan base and you should NEVER dismiss them.

DS: The club are a million miles away from where we were when Fosun took over in 2016, and I'll forever be grateful for the experiences I've had over the last few years. Mainly the first 3 years of Nuno's reign, I never thought I'd experience what we did during that time. But this week they have broken me, I'm embarrassed by them now. 

As the saying goes, all good things come to an end. And that time has now arrived.

ME: My Granny Kath was a formidable Black Country woman, and she used to regularly say of my Grandad that "he's wasted all our money on the Wolves and the Methodist Church" (the human race was still evolving this punchline until George Best perfected it later). However, Grandad was a builder and he didn't just build houses on the Parkfield Road and the church at the Fighting Cocks. He built four generations of Wolves fans, with more to come. He'd have been surprised to learn from Jeff that Wolves were not the club for him, as at various times he did hope for European glory. He saw it too. He also managed to do that while supporting Wolves, come what may, just because they were his local team. Silly man. If I had one wish it would be that, despite her position on the domestic budget, Jeff Shi had to answer to my Granny Kath about how much money he expects the fans of Wolverhampton to waste on covering up his mistakes. Then he'd be out of Wolverhampton even quicker than the brief stay we have to tolerate, nursing the kicked arse he deserves, while we abide - come what may.

RH: You've absolutely fucked this, Jeff Shi. I genuinely hope that renewal take up is around 50%. I hope the 'waiting list' tells you to fuck off. I hope you're forced to put season tickets on general sale - could there be a more embarrassing thing for a football club that's spent the last few years fellating itself over its renewals and waiting lists? I hope that, come the first game of the season, there's fewer than 25,000 people in that stadium. I hope the atmosphere is poisonous, and there's a protest, and a walk out, and that you lose your job. I hope that whichever clueless Fosun drone that gets parachuted in replace you undoes this madness, partially refunds those that renewed, and reaches out to those that you have hurt with an offer enticing enough to get them back before it's too late. Because once you've lost the people of this City, you're absolutely fucked. That would do irreparable, permanent damage to this club, to the community.

Thanks to all my contributors; if it were possible, anger wouldn’t just drip off this page, it’d teem down off it like rain off the roof at Old Trafford.

Over the course of the season, I’ll be offering further opportunities to contribute to similar pieces, so if you’re interested, drop me a line at danlavelle1981@gmail.com or keep an eye on my social media channels for when there’s one opening up.

Oh, and I’ll try to write about something positive soon. I might have to dig into the archives, but I will. It gets wearing being this furious all the time…