The continuous increase in Premier League tickets has been both widely criticised and painfully absorbed by fans across the division. West Ham have their own unique challenges at London Stadium but the rise of so-called ‘tourist fans’ is blamed for the lack of passion and fan engagement following year after year of price hikes.
Club-supporting fans can no longer afford to attend games where class A tickets can hit eighty pounds a time, meaning that often the ground has large numbers of neutrals – tourist fans – who come late, leave early and spend half the time more focussed on selfies than events on the pitch.
In a radical new step, it seems Manchester City are grasping the nettle in a way which we hope will set the tone for the Premier League. Reported on footballinsider247.com, City have :
“Just made an amazing U turn on ticket prices: Man City have responded to fan criticism by announcing a huge ticket price cut ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. City are reducing the cost of their lowest-price matchday tickets by up to 43%, having already frozen season ticket prices.”
“Man City have long faced criticism from rival fans and even manager Pep Guardiola for the atmosphere at home games, while the club’s faithful support have criticised the numbers of “tourist” fans in attendance.”
Which will be both a worrying precedent for the West Ham board who will not want to be dragged into cutting prices: But for the West Ham fans long in dispute with the club over prices and atmosphere, this may well be a huge shot in the arm to try and use as leverage. After all, if the multiple League and Champions League winners can drop prices, can the rest not follow suit?
I don’t understand the animosity towards “tourist” fans. Haven’t we all been tourists on occasions ? My grandsos are both Barcelona crazy and we’ve taken them to the Camp Nou to see a game or two which makes us tourists, does it not ? And surely most “tourists” on a visit to London would prefer to visit one of the so called glamour clubs if they wanted to take in a game of football. I suspect a lot of the “tourists” at the LS are West Ham fans going to a match as a treat for themselves or the kids. The lack of atmosphere can be put down to the fairly abject performances the team has offered in home games all last season and most of the one before. If there is nothing happening on the pitch to generate excitement among the fans it’s ridiculous to expect there to be a vibrant atmosphere inb the stands. Or am I missing something ?
You can’t forget us international fans. I’ve followed Westham for 30+ years.
If you want to stay London only, then good luck, the TV money will disappear and the prestige gone.
I’ll still follow and only hope one day I can see them live in the UK(PS I served in the RAN for 22 years) under Your Queen and King
The atmosphere at the London stadium is poor because the football served up by the last 5 managers has been dreadful.
There no longer appears to be a waiting list for season tickets judging by the number of emails I get offering me additional tickets.
I renewed my ticket early this year as I wanted to move my seats . I was shocked to see how many seats were available.
I fear we are in for a relegation struggle this season. I am now starting to think there are so many things wrong that a spell in the championship might be the only way to get the changes required
That will keep Sullivan awake at night cut ticket prices would mean less money for him these clowns that are running our club need kicking out we need owners with ambition and prepared to back it up things are very bad at the club Sullivan and co need to go we should never be in this situation of having to sell before we buy but the worst thing is that they are prepared to sell our top players apart from Bowen but that is just bull because if Sullivan gets a huge offer for Bowen believe me he will sell him how can you run a club by selling your best players it’s crazy the ones that are not up to the job should be the ones that leave not our best players
Reduce ticket prices! That’s not the West Ham way
Even worse when it’s away fans like we see in the home ends against the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd or Liverpool.
Unless the Board get a grip on the pricing and allocation of tickets, the atmosphere will remain like a library. We all know the stadium has the ability to be noisy if we are served good football and tourist fans to a very very minimum. I’ve had them around me in their part of the package scarves leaving at half time!!