Sunderland have announced that they are reducing their average season ticket price by around £30. Sounds small beer, but when the ticket only cost around £250 in the first place, it’s a big saving. Also an under 16 attending with an adult will get a full season ticket for £19! That’s a pound a game. Some tickets at Ashburton will cost you over a pound a minute.

£19 will almost get you a Arsenal away shirt from the Armoury, and that’s with 50% off! Ok, so sunderland aren’t Barca or Brazil in the entertainment steaks, but at least the club is helping out their supporters as best they can in these credit crunching times.

This season has seen the first evidence of this effecting Ashburton. Several home games have been far from ‘sold out’ as the club so often claim. Red members have been able to get tickets for every game bar the Spuds game. And the ticket exchange (when it works) had dozens of tickets left for the West Ham game. But most of those were well over £70, some of them in prawn sandwich level were £115 each. That’s over £1.20per minute. Come on, I love Arsenal, but we all have bills to pay.

Disappearing supporters or simply the credit crunch? Who knows, but it’s time the club considered a 10% ticket price reduction. This in turn would then ensure Ashburton is always full to the brim. And as for the food prices, come on Arsenal, £1.75 for a coffee. Are we sponsored by Starbucks now? (I only brought that at the West Ham game because it was so bloody cold). It will be my last refreshment purchase at Ashburton until the prices are reduced.

Long gone are the days when a score would get you in, feed yourself, and get you a few pints too. I know that times have moved on, but a matchday now can cost an average supporter £100 a pop.

Still, at least our high prices are paying off the stadium loan, instead of paying off big name/over-rated managers!