The Premier League's away ticket price cap of £30 has been a welcome development. But our aim, alongside other fan organisations and the Football Supporters' Federation, has always been to reduce the price of going to the game. And it seems clear there is still work to do in this area. For our opening game against Everton this Saturday, for example, those fans travelling by coach to Goodison Park will see the saving on their away ticket swallowed up by the increase on last season's coach fare.
This is because the Premier League decided to replace the Away Supporters' Initiative, which many clubs used to subsidise coach travel, with the £30 price cap. Each club seems to be taking a different approach now, and THFC has indicated that while it will not be subsidising coach travel as it did last season, it will look at subsidised travel for those games that are impossible to travel to and from using public transport. The Club felt subsidising the relatively low number of fans using the coaches across the board was not fair. We have raised the point that it seemed to consider the move fair for the last three seasons. We have also been in touch with Thomas Cook Sport, who run the coaches our fans use to away games, and are club sponsors.
This is because the Premier League decided to replace the Away Supporters' Initiative, which many clubs used to subsidise coach travel, with the £30 price cap. Each club seems to be taking a different approach now, and THFC has indicated that while it will not be subsidising coach travel as it did last season, it will look at subsidised travel for those games that are impossible to travel to and from using public transport. The Club felt subsidising the relatively low number of fans using the coaches across the board was not fair. We have raised the point that it seemed to consider the move fair for the last three seasons. We have also been in touch with Thomas Cook Sport, who run the coaches our fans use to away games, and are club sponsors.
Our correspondence with TCS is attached in the three pdfs with this post. The letter to Thomas Cook Sport regarding away travel is our original, the reply is clearly labelled, and our response is labelled TC Sport. We're obviously not satisfied with TCS's response, and would advise fans to consider their stance when deciding whether to do business with Thomas Cook in future. The deal announced by Virgin Media yesterday to bring the price of every away ticket at Southampton FC down to £20 shows it is commercially possible for a forward-thinking sponsor to help us achieve our aim of reducing the total cost of going to football.
We will continue to pursue other avenues to achieve this aim for Spurs fans across the board, and to discuss specific travel initiatives for those away games where fans are seriously inconvenienced by the lack of transport options with THFC.
THST Board
10 August 2016
We will continue to pursue other avenues to achieve this aim for Spurs fans across the board, and to discuss specific travel initiatives for those away games where fans are seriously inconvenienced by the lack of transport options with THFC.
THST Board
10 August 2016
| letter_to_thomas_cook_sport_re_away_travel_july_2016.pdf |
| reply_from_tc_sport.pdf |
| tc_sport.pdf |
RSS Feed
