At this time of year as we anticipate the season run in and hopefully eventual glory (or the battle for 4th place as has happened recently!) the Arsenal bean counters start to consider how much more can be extracted from the fans for their seats in the coming season.

Club level renewals for 2008/09 have been sent out with a 4% increase. I fully understand that we have had zero increases in prices for three seasons which is against the philosophy of Arsenal, who see small and regular increases as better than no rise for a time followed by a steep rise.

Having said that the three fold increase in my seat in the Clock End and now the North East corner (blue quadrant if you care) during the Wenger years has been achieved with various annual price increases of 24%, 21%, 18%, 15%, 11%.

From the club's point of view they have a sold out stadium with waiting lists so surely there is excess demand and a price increase can be justified in the mad dash for cash (see the 39th international game wheeze and the £5m per club carrot)

But let’s look at the figures…

Matchday revenue last season was £90m of which about 40% comes from the 9000 premium seats (7000 in Club and 2000 in boxes) - thank you very much! This means about £55m comes from General Admission (GA) punters which works out at about £40 per seat per game on average.

A 4% across the board increase for GA will raise an extra £2.2m which is useful of course and would pay the salary of a £40k a week player and we all want top see the best football from the best players. The genius of Wenger means we see the best, if not the most successful football, from not the best paid players. The beauty of youth!

But to put the potential extra £2.2m GA money into context, Arsenal are getting an extra £17m this season from the new TV deal. And still there is no plan in place to ensure the next generation of Arsenal match attending supporters get as hooked as we are. This might ensure the average age of season ticket holder does not just go up and up from the present age of 45. And we wonder about the lack of atmosphere!

The final decision will no doubt be somewhat dependant on how the season pans out regarding the title and the Cups. If it is old mother hubbard again, then an increase is less likely. But no doubt should the Premier League trophy be on the sideboard come the end of May, most will have to dig deeper.