Paul Wilson in The Observer:
People have been saying for years that the Premiership's bubble would burst if clubs continued to charge absurdly inflated admission prices, and signs of strain are becoming evident beyond falling gates at unfashionable clubs in the north. Ultra-chic Chelsea are feeling the pinch too. Despite a billionaire owner, upmarket address and a first title in 50 years, the champions were reduced to taking out ads in the Evening Standard last week to bulk up the crowd for the visit of West Brom.
Admittedly it was a second home game in four days, we are still in the summer holiday period and West Brom are not the sexiest of opponents, but it must say something when the new champions have seats to spare a fortnight into the season. What it almost certainly says is that season-ticket sales are not all they could be and that fans have started picking their matches on the level of entertainment they think might be on offer. On offer from the visitors, that is. There is no evidence at this stage that Chelsea fans agree with Arsene Wenger that Jose Mourinho's teams are over-cautious and boring, but it is something else for the club to worry about.
Fans voting with their feet might be a legitimate response to high prices, while clubs are only operating in the same way as theatres or exclusive restaurants, but this is not the way we have traditionally watched football. For well over a century football has been inclusive, not exclusive. Prices were set at a level ordinary people could reasonably afford, with the happy result that most games at most grounds in most seasons (at the top end, at any rate) were well attended.
One only has to travel abroad to see that this still happens in other countries. In Germany, where the average Bundesliga crowd is more than 3,000 up on the Premiership and ticket prices start at under a tenner, you see the full age spectrum at a match in a way you no longer do in this country. In Copenhagen the other week the number of families walking to the England game was striking, as was the number of unaccompanied teenagers cycling to the stadium. (Memo to Multiplex: the new Wembley will have a bike rack, won't it?) This was the audience that stayed on after the game to applaud the Danish players, who in turn stayed out on the pitch chatting and signing autographs. There ain't half a lot these so-called lesser leagues could teach the mother country.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,4284,1557912,00.html