Matt Maher: Chasing success is costly - and don’t the fans know it

It’s a question which came to mind this week when considering the fortunes of Wolves, Villa and Walsall.

The latter caused rather a stir, both locally and across League Two, by announcing a significant increase in season ticket prices.

When the early bird window for discounted sales closes early next month, supporters wishing to buy an adult ticket in the main stand at Bescot will need to fork out £527, an average of nearly £23 per match. That’s only £4 less than the cheapest season ticket at Villa Park this season and nearly £80 more expensive than the cheapest available at Leicester. The most expensive adult ticket at League One Shrewsbury Town will eventually be £550, though not until the end of June after two opportunities to buy at a reduced price.

In Leagues One and Two, of course, gate receipts generally count for a much greater portion of revenue than for Premier League clubs who get the benefit of a colossal cheque from broadcasters.

But that does not mean they are entirely insignificant at the top level, as a comparison between two ambitious clubs like Wolves and Villa and those long part of the Premier League’s elite shows.

Wolves might have got the better of Tottenham on the pitch last weekend but when it comes to generating income, they are almost playing a different sport. The £183.5million commercial revenues Spurs reported for last season, for example, was more than Wolves and Villa’s entire turnover for the year. Gate receipts of £106m, meanwhile, accounted for nearly a quarter of the London club’s turnover. That is in stark contrast to the West Midlands, where ticket sales at Wolves (£14m) and Villa (£16m) did not amount to 10 per cent of total revenue.

The figures are jolting, not just in terms of the disparity but also because this is an era of almost unprecedented demand at Molineux and Villa Park. Never has it been harder to get into either ground, with Villa’s average attendance of 41,670 for the 2021-22 season – their first back in the Premier League where the stadium was fully open throughout – comfortably the highest since the 1950s. And yet still, when it comes to transferring numbers through the turnstiles into cash, they trail the top flight’s Big Six by such a distance.

Tottenham, of course, have the advantage of a larger stadium yet that alone cannot explain the disparity in revenues. The difference – as you’ve probably guessed – is the cost of getting into the place, along with what you pay for food and drink after that. At £807, the cheapest season ticket at Spurs this term is £55 more than the most expensive at Villa. Tottenham’s dearest ticket, meanwhile, comes in at an eye-watering £2,025. It’s a similar story across north London, where the average price of a season ticket at Arsenal is well into four figures.

Wolves and Villa supporters have seen a notable rise in recent years. When Wolves were promoted in 2018, the most expensive ticket at Molineux was £549. The cheapest is now £590. A common argument, which fans may accept to a point, is that building a successful team costs money and pricier tickets are a necessary evil.

Certainly, the rising cost of getting into Molineux and Villa Park has so far had no impact on demand. A waiting list for season tickets at the latter now stands at 28,000. You have to figure for as long as people are prepared to pay, the clubs will keep nudging up the prices.

But there’s always a delicate balance to consider. The cost of living crisis is real and for many households getting worse. If you want fans to keep buying into a dream, at some point you’ve got to deliver on it – or at least threaten to. Arsenal have a recent history of winning trophies and may well win the Premier League this season. Tottenham don’t but are regulars in the Champions League, reaching the final just four years ago. Wolves and Villa, while in far stronger positions than a few years ago, remain a long way from fulfilling their promise.

That is the problem facing Walsall. While the outlook might be considerably brighter since last summer’s takeover by Trivela Group and the purchase of the Bescot freehold, the truth is on the field the Saddlers remain a long way from reaching their first aim of escaping League Two. Selling such a steep rise in prices would be hard enough as it is, without Michael Flynn’s team currently being 11 matches without a win in all competitions.

Tickets in the early bird window will cost more than 10 per cent extra for adults compared to this season, with a further increase of 25 per cent when the discounted offer ends. The increase on senior tickets, in many cases, is even sharper.

It is worth noting the club’s co-chairman, Leigh Pomlett, apologised to fans after putting prices up by five per cent 12 months ago, insisting it was necessary to help the club deal with increasing costs. Walsall went on to enjoy bumper sales.

Pomlett's fellow co-chairman, Ben Boycott, explained the new rise on the same spiralling costs but the initial response from supporters has been notably more negative. Higher prices mean Walsall don’t need to sell so many to make a profit but for a club still in the early stages of rebuild after years of decline the risk of alienating fans, old and new, is considerable.

“We are committed to continuing to take the club onward and upward, on and off the pitch,” said Pomlett's fellow co-chairman Ben Boycott. “Please join us in what we know is going to be a great campaign next year – as something special is happening in Walsall.”

You don’t doubt the honesty, or the commitment. But in asking supporters to dig so much deeper into their pockets, so the pressure to quickly transform ambition into reality gets that much higher.