Leeds have announced the new prices for season tickets today, and it’s not good news if you’re family is on a restricted budget.

Credit Crunch? What Credit Crunch?  News of the UK’s present economic difficulties has obviously not reached the luxury apartments of Monte Carlo, as Pappa Smurf has seen fit to announce yet another steep rise in season ticket prices for next season.

If you were a season ticket holder last season and haven’t yet renewed, you’ve missed your chance to buy a season ticket at the lower advance rate.  The club will be processing the ‘late renewals’ from Monday onwards, along with any new applications from any nouveau riche who didn’t have season tickets in 2008/9, and the most expensive ticket will now be a massive £646 in the East and West stands.

An adult season ticket in the Don Revie stand will now set you back £475, and even that works out at over £20 per game.  These prices are among the highest in the Football League, and Elland Road will even be more expensive than a number of Premiership stadia next season.  The club have yet to announce the prices for individual match tickets, but we can bet they can’t be cheap.

So it seems that Ken hasn’t learned the lesson of our final two seasons in the Championship, when the gates regularly dropped below 20,000 in the wake of exorbitant ticket prices. 2005/6 was a relatively successful season, yet our attendances were only the ninth best in the division , despite Leeds having the biggest fanbase in the Football League.

Before the play-off game with Millwall, we did of course put together a record run of eleven consecutive wins at home. Isn’t that proof of the value of having a packed Elland Road to cheer the team on every other week? Despite the need to get the results on the pitch to get out of League One this season, Ken would rather rake in the cash.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters