The Fulham Supporters’ Trust (FST) say they are “extremely disappointed” at the club following the increase in ticket prices for their home fixture against Manchester United.
The west London side has increased the costs of tickets for the clash on November 4 compared to the same fixture last season, which the FST highlight amounts to a price rise of around 18 per cent overall.
The supporters’ trust say that “the prices for the Riverside Stand are the highest we have ever seen for individual matchday sales and are likely to be financially out of reach for many of those who hold club membership”.
They added in a statement: “We continue to have concerns that club members, including concessions, are being priced out of attending games. There seems to be a marked increase in matchday ticket prices across London clubs in particular and we will continue to monitor how Fulham compare against our peers. Matchday ticket pricing will be an agenda item for our October meeting with the club.
“We are also aware that the Manchester United fixture is notorious for non-Fulham supporting fans finding their way in to home supporter areas. We hope the club, in increasing prices as they are, will be making every effort to ensure that this does not happen and that any non-Fulham supporting fans subsequently identified in home areas are removed and prevented from buying tickets in the future. This would ensure that, in paying higher prices, Fulham fans at least enjoy a good match-day experience.”
The highest-priced adult ticket for the United fixture is £160 ($195), for those wanting to sit in the new Riverside Stand – a 60 per cent increase from the same fixture last season. The cheapest adult ticket available, outside of the family area where an adult ticket is £35 ($42), stands at £67 ($81) for a seat in the Hammersmith End.
In 2022-23, the highest-priced ticket for the United match at Craven Cottage stood at £100 ($121), while the cheapest non-family area ticket was £65 ($79).
Fulham have different pricing bands for home tickets depending on which side they face. Their west London derby against Brentford in August was priced as a category B game, with the cheapest adult ticket available at £49 ($59.70). Their fixture with Luton Town last weekend was an entry-level fixture, and the cheapest adult ticket was £35.
The match against United has been classed in the highest category, A+.
Fulham offer discounts of £10 ($12) in the Riverside Stand and £5 ($6) in all other stands through their club membership, which costs £50 ($60) for an adult and £30 ($36) for a junior. They also provide family area tickets for each fixture, including the United match, with tickets in four areas of the Johnny Haynes stand priced at £35 for an adult, £30 for concessions and £24 ($29.25) for a junior.
In April, Fulham announced an 18 per cent ticket price rise on adult season ticket renewals and introduced a new £3,000 ($3730) ticket in the Riverside Stand for the 2023-24 season.
Adult renewal prices went up by an average of 18 per cent for Hammersmith and Putney End season ticket holders, while supporters looking to renew their Johnny Haynes Stand adult season tickets faced a 16 per cent price rise. Fulham sold a record number of season tickets this year, higher than their total that exceeded 15,000 in 2022-23. Craven Cottage’s current capacity, amid the ongoing redevelopment of the Riverside Stand, is around 24,500.
The FST wrote an open letter to owner Shahid Khan, labelling the season-ticket price increase “draconian”. They also launched a campaign, ‘Affordable Fulham’, a campaign for fair pricing.
Fulham are next in action on Wednesday, at home to Norwich City in the Carabao Cup third round.
GO DEEPER
In a post-Mitrovic season, is Jimenez the answer to Fulham’s search for goals?
(Photo: Kieran Cleeves/PA Images via Getty Images)
