What's expensive to some seems cheap to others, particularly when it comes to tickets for sporting events. If the response to the A-League's grand final ticket prices is anything to go by, there is a stark difference of opinion on whether the price befits the event.
The grand final ticket prices were released on Sunday, with a Category A grand final adult ticket setting you back $98, Category B $78 and the cheapest ticket available, Category C, at $53. The Category A ticket cost $48 in the finals series so will jump by $50. Category C tickets were $28 in the major semi-final and increase to $53. During the regular season, platinum tickets cost $38 with the cheapest option at $20.
For some those price hikes are justified for an event with the prestige of a grand final. And compared to the NRL and AFL's showpiece events, the A-League decider is a bargain. An NRL Category 1 grand final adult ticket cost $180 last year, while Category 4 was $60. Category C AFL grand final tickets were $160.
But some feel the A-League price options are too extreme when you consider the increase since the regular season. Since the grand final ticket prices were released, discontent has been growing.
Fox Sports presenter Adam Peacock tweeted: "Just seen ticket prices for grand final. Speechless. @ffa what r u thinking? Fan made? Fan paid. Thru the nostrils..." And that's from someone who doesn't have to pay for a ticket...
FFA media and communications chief Rod Allen told The Courier-Mail: "It's our premium product so you would expect you would have to pay more to see the grand final."
But here lies the problem. It may be considered the "premium product" and therefore worthy of a price hike from the FFA's perspective, but for the casual Australian sporting fan raised on a diet of AFL and/or NRL, the A-League is still seen as an inferior product hidden away on pay-television.
To genuinely appeal and attract these casual supporters, the FFA needs to set ticket prices to their expectations, not follow the inflated examples of the AFL and NRL - and this applies to regular season ticket prices as well as finals.
Remember, fans are already paying for the right to watch the A-League grand final on Foxtel, something they don't have to do for the NRL and AFL deciders, so they can easily justify watching the grand final from home, live, in HD and uninterrupted, as it's what they pay their monthly Foxtel bills for.
The AFL and NRL are rightly seen as our national games; ingrained in Australian culture. Their clubs have hundred year head starts on A-League clubs. The A-League has a way to go, and should instead look at how other developing Australian leagues have attracted crowds with cheaper ticketing options. The KFC Big Bash grand final, for example, cost just $20 for a general admission entry. When a league doesn't have a significant national footprint, this is the best way to entice and grow a supporter base.
After all, what's better for the game, a capacity 52,500 fans at Suncorp with new supporters enjoying their first A-League experience paying regular season/final series prices, or 30,000 A-League diehards paying the current grand final prices?
If the FFA is only interested in making as much profit as it can from the finals series, then inflated ticket prices are probably the way to go. But where is the vision to appreciate its current place in the Australian sporting landscape and adapt its prices accordingly to facilitate further growth?
If the finals series is to showcase the A-League product to a wider audience, the FFA's pricing structure may be severely hindering that mission.
