Earlier in the season we had a row with Huddersfield Town, but eventually came to an agreement over ticket prices. But a similar discussion has now broken out, this time with Coventry City, and this one isn’t going to be resolved.
It seems that the crux of the matter is that we will only reduce our ticket prices if the other club offers our fans some sort of reduction when we go to their place. We don’t agree to allow away fans to pay the price their own club usually charge, even when the other clubs standard price is lower than ours.
Coventry have rejected this approach, and issued this statement on their official website. "Coventry City have been unable to come to an agreement with Leeds United regarding ticket pricing for away fans for our league games this season. While advertised as being a ‘reciprocal offer’ to Clubs, Leeds’ proposal would result in their fans visiting the Coventry Building Society Arena paying less for the game than Sky Blues supporters.”
"Leeds United proposed us changing the game from Category A to Category B for Leeds United supporters only. In return they would drop their £45 price to £30 for adult Sky Blues fans visiting Elland Road in December. Leeds were not willing to negotiate or change their offer. We believe it is not for opposition Clubs to dictate pricing or price categories to other Clubs. Using high prices at their own Club as a negotiating tool to adjust prices at other Clubs should not be the case.”
"While we appreciate the cost to an individual supporter of this, the cost of a price reduction such as this for Leeds fans would be around £30,000 to Coventry City – based on Leeds bringing roughly 4,500 supporters. We would also be subject to increased police and stewarding costs for this game. We felt it was important for us to be clear with our supporters over this process and why we came to this decision.”
This means that we will pay £37 at the Coventry Building Society Arena, which is the usual Category A Adult away supporter price. And Coventry will be giving their fans who come to Leeds a retail voucher to compensate them for having to pay the full £45. Which is nice, as this will cost them money while Leeds get the extra revenue from selling the tickets at the higher price.
This will inevitably mean that Coventry won’t take up their full allocation, and on at least one of their forums there are plenty of fans saying they will now be giving this game a miss. So the lower section at the end of the John Charles stand will now be made available to our own fans who are willing to pay the full price and would be unable to get tickets otherwise, so it’s a bit of a win/win for us.
And some of their fans think they should retaliate by reducing our allocation for the game at the Building Society Arena, which is a sure-fire way of encouraging Leeds fans to get tickets in the home stands. Then they would complain about that. Thankfully, there is no suggestion that we won’t be getting the full 4,500 tickets, with the size of our fanbase helping to meet those police and stewarding costs they’re so worried about.
The Leeds United Supporters Club has issued their own statement, saying "We urge Coventry City to reconsider their position”, but this time it’s not going to happen.