Manchester City fans could vote with their feet as PSG tickets hit £60 mark
A well-publicised walkout by Liverpool fans recently forced their club into a climbdown over a planned increase
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City have defended charging a top price of £60 for regular tickets for their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain.
A number of fans have expressed dissatisfaction at the cost of seats for the second leg of the last-eight tie at the Etihad Stadium on 12 April, which for full-paying adults range from £45 to £60.
That represents a considerable rise compared with prices for the previous round against Dynamo Kiev last week, which were £30 to £40, and for the group matches against Juventus, Sevilla and Borussia Mönchengladbach, which varied from £20 to £40.
But the PSG prices do align with those for the visit of Barcelona in the round of 16 last year and the club say levels are set according to various factors.
“Pricing for each match is reviewed on an individual basis, based on factors such as the opposition and stage of competition,” a club statement read. “As this match is the quarter-final of Europe’s biggest cup competition and the first time the club has progressed to this stage, we believe the ticket prices are a fair reflection of the profile of the game.”
Members of City’s Seasoncard and Cityzens schemes are entitled to a £5 discount, meaning some juniors can purchase tickets for as little as £10. Regular prices for under-16s range from £15 to £30, with some seats £10 to £20 less than their equivalents for Barcelona last year. Some adults will also pay no more, or up to £10 less, than for like-for-like tickets at the Barça games in 2014 and 2015.
But for some fans these measures are not enough in a climate in which some supporters’ groups have made headway in protests against ticket prices. A well-publicised walkout by Liverpool fans recently forced their club into a climbdown over a planned increase, while earlier this month all Premier League clubs agreed to cap away ticket prices at £30 from next season.
Kevin Parker, the general secretary of the Manchester City Supporters’ Club, said: “You would expect this game to come with a premium, but I think the premium they have added is just a jump too much.
“The mood of clubs has started to soften on ticket prices. With everything that has been happening, the levels the club have set them at for this game have come as a surprise.
“The club have this very loyal fan base that has followed them to all home and away games, including the Capital One Cup final. They don’t seem to have added a reward factor into those ticket prices and reduced them.”
Parker thinks such prices could affect the attendance for the PSG game. The attitude of City fans towards the Champions League is already generally considered lukewarm and their booing of the competition’s anthem in frustration at the governing body Uefa has become a regular occurrence.
“Fans can’t keep on paying those sorts of prices,” Parker added. “If we want to fill the stadium for the game against PSG, these are not the kind of prices to do that.”
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