Listed

17/03/2025

United ticket pricing announcement

This is the email sent to members earlier today 17/03/2025:

Manchester United has today announced its decision to raise ticket prices for next season.

We’re asking for your immediate views here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Utd2025

While the Club asked the Fan Advisory Board (FAB) for feedback on a menu of proposed possible changes (aimed at increasing match-day revenue), these decisions are, as always, ultimately the Club’s. To be clear, the FAB advised the Club that this was not the time for either price rises or policy changes.

In case you haven’t seen, the key changes to ticketing announced by the Club include:

A 5% price increase for the vast majority of season tickets
A new match categorisation model for member tickets
Reduction of legacy 50% senior discount to 25%
Over 65 discount moved to over 66
Relocating fans behind the dugouts to sell these seats at premium prices
Increasing the season ticket holder minimum usage requirement to 16/19 league games
A £10 charge for selling your ticket back to the club less than two weeks before the game
A 15% increase in car parking charges

If you haven’t yet read the statement issued by the FAB included in the Club’s news story https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/statement-man-utd-announce-season-ticket-prices-for-2526-season, you should. The FAB is, by design, a confidential group. Strict confidentiality is the only way to have full and transparent conversations on strategic and sensitive matters. That the FAB released a public statement—the first in its history—is a reflection of how important we felt it was to share our views on the process and outcome.

As MUST stated publicly prior to our FAB meetings, we have been and remain opposed to price increases. In fact, “we” in this case means you, our members. For it is not the Board or the Committee’s views we are representing, but yours, views that we gather through regular consultations online and in person. Though we have always been vigilant on matters related to ticketing, current circumstances make a price rise even harder to stomach. The team languishes in 13th place. United face financial problems arising from neglected investment, ruinous debt, and gross mismanagement—all of which we predicted prior to the takeover. Many called us scaremongers at the time, but how many would argue with that view now? All of this can be laid at the Glazers' feet.

There will be people who read these statements and think “you fans are never happy, stop complaining and trust in the process.” They will condescendingly “fansplain” as if we knuckle-dragging fans don’t understand finance. Inherent in their words is a blind belief in billionaires, as if making money in one sector makes them experts in football. Nonsense. United fans know the truth, namely that our club has been financially pillaged by the Glazer family for two decades. We acknowledge that Jim Ratcliffe has, as a major shareholder, for the first time in a generation, put money into the club, while also meeting with fan representatives and speaking publicly to supporters. But while he is right that the Club is in terrible shape on and off the pitch, the idea that United must get its financial house in order essentially overnight is a choice. The Club’s finances are a matter of public record. Moreover, our views are informed by two advisors who are some of the most knowledgeable people in the world of football finance and happen to both be United fans, one of whom sits on the MUST Board. Our owners—and here we are looking squarely at the Glazers—put us in this position, and it is they who should be putting their hands in their pockets to help get us out of it.

For all these reasons, the idea that fans should pay for the Glazers ownership and errors on top of the thousands that we already pay to loyally follow the team is frankly offensive. We argued United should implement a price freeze not just because of this, but for business reasons too. We were convinced that a freeze, accompanied by a rallying call showing we’re all in this together, could be a galvanising force to lift spirits and propel the team forward, and that the money “lost” from not increasing prices would be more than compensated for by the greater revenue from a higher finish in the table. We never wavered from this position, either. We referenced it publicly in our Open Letter to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and our op-ed piece published in The Telegraph. We stood our ground, not least because the moment you start talking about what level of increase might be acceptable, you end up negotiating against yourself.

It’s not just pricing that we need to remain vigilant about, however. The club uses many elements of ticketing policy to generate revenue as well. As the FAB message implies, there were options under consideration (we can’t disclose what they were obviously) that we would have never envisaged being tabled by the previous regime because they would have known our response. Our view is that these options were considered partly because of our dire financial straits, but also because the faces around the table have changed. One of the great challenges of this past year has been the almost-complete turnover in United’s senior management. Years of working together with the previous leadership team had allowed us to build trust and develop a shared understanding on a number of issues. While we aim to do that again with the new management, it takes time, so we need to be persistent. We needed no further proof of this than the club’s disregard of the consultation policy we (MUST, the FAB, and Forum) had agreed not even one year ago, when it announced the mid-season price rise to £66.

In this same vein, there will be major concerns around the new match categorisation model for Members’ tickets. Whilst Season Ticket holders have been protected from the worst of the rises, Members risk being hit hard by this model depending on how it is implemented. Needless to say, we believe the numbers of games in the higher categories should be limited, with the majority of games remaining at the Category C base price. This should be a matter for consultation with the Fans Forum.

There will be some who, seeing the changes the Club has announced, will call for fan reps to walk away. Yet that would leave fans with no voice at all at the highest levels of the club where decisions are made. We made that mistake in 2005 and vowed not to commit the same error again. We can be sure that no dialogue will lead to even worse outcomes for fans. If there is at least one good outcome from this year’s discussions, it is that United have recommitted to proper consultation on future policy changes, which MUST will support and facilitate. If they live up to that commitment, we hope to be in a better position to influence decisions when we engage in the same process next year.

There is a straight line that runs from loyal match-going supporters to United’s football and commercial success. The phrase “football is nothing without fans” is meaningless if fans aren’t consulted, respected, and protected. MUST has fought for this for more than a quarter of a century and we will never stop doing so.

Below is the statement we have just issued to the media, for your information.

Duncan Drasdo, Chief Executive
JD Deitch, Chair

Please share your views on the ticketing announcement here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Utd2025

Press statement: Manchester United fans disappointed by ticket price rises as Club ignore price freeze call
Manchester United fans have expressed their disappointment that the Club has ignored the widespread call for a ticket price freeze, announcing a 5% average increase for next season despite the Club languishing in the bottom half of the table, whilst also introducing a new match categorisation model for members tickets which will see prices rise for higher demand games.

The key changes to ticketing announced by the Club include:

A 5% price increase for the vast majority of season tickets
A new member match categorisation model
Over 65 discount moved to over 66
Reduction of legacy 50% senior discount to 25%
Relocating fans behind the dugouts to sell these seats at premium prices
Increasing the season ticket holder minimum usage requirement to 16/19 league games
A £10 charge for selling your ticket back to the club less than two weeks before the game
A 15% increase in car parking charges

The Manchester United Supporters Trust has released the following statement:
“For several months we have argued long and hard that the Club need to look at the big picture and freeze ticket prices for next season. Other Clubs have done that already and at United it would have sent a powerful message about the need for everyone to pull together to get the Club out of the very difficult position it finds itself in.

“We do note that the scale of the headline increase is less than many feared and we believe the enormous amounts of dialogue that fans groups have had with the Club, alongside the public pressure exerted through the media and various protests, helped restrain the increase.

“However the new match categorisation model for non season ticket holders is a source of major concern with fans facing additional price increases for higher-demand games. We call for a strict cap on the number of games that will be placed in the higher price categories“

"We also need to work to understand the detailed impacts of the seat moves and terms and conditions changes being made. In particular, we fail to see any justification for the increase in season ticket holder minimum usage requirement. The devil is so often in the detail, and any changes of this kind should always be carried out with full consultation with those affected.”

To gauge fans' views on the ticket price increases and other changes announced by United today, MUST has launched an immediate fans survey open for the next 48 hours.

All fans should go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Utd2025 to complete the survey and share their views, which can then be used in MUST’s ongoing discussions with the Club about the implementation of these changes.

If you have a query which requires a response please log in to your account and submit a ticket via the website help desk.

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