Family Fortunes

We are just cashing in because we can.

Said no sports club or venue. Ever.

But maybe they should.

The announcement of the ticket prices for the Ashes, and in particular the test at Edgbaston, has not gone down too well.

Former England captain, and the one that turned the Ashes ship around in 2005, Michael Vaughan was the loudest voice. And he put it rather well. Hot on the heels of criticism for the cost of the tickets at the World Cup, and then the European Athletics Championship (also in Birmingham), the theme isn’t new. But the venues don’t seem to care.

And whether they do or they don’t, they should stop treating fans like idiots.

The typical line trotted out is that they are ‘broadly’ in line with other events and venues, which already starts to sound like a cartel. The reality is they are not really. And ‘broadly’ can cover a multitude of sins. Anything can be broadly in line with anything if we want it to be, but it’s not even true.

Edgbaston’s under-fire spokesperson said it was broadly in line with inflation in the period since the last Ashes test there in 2023. The reality is the tickets have gone up by 43% (something Vaughan described as “really poor”) while inflation has slowed heavily over the same period, even falling as low as the BoE’s 2% target in 2024. Blaming inflation for massive price hikes is as lazy – but also as easy - as putting price increases down to the war in Ukraine with a ‘what can we do?’ shrug.

Vaughan’s issue – like mine and most rational minds – is what it does to the game rather than the simple economics. He thinks the ECB could be ‘in for a shock’ when the impact of this get rich quick policy is felt, which of course will be further down the line and long after the profits are banked.

But we only have to look back a month or so to see how getting greedy can have a severe impact on governing bodies and the people at the top.

Non-member tickets are £115 (plus a £2.50 booking fee) per day at the test, and £165 (up from £125 in 2023) in the famous Hollies Stand, with the figures even higher for London-based tests at Lords and The Oval. If that’s added to the other costs like travel, refreshments and maybe merchandise, then the numbers really begin to stack up.

Wish You Were Here

A family of four, especially with older kids, are looking at a total cost in the region of a grand for a day at the cricket. That’s family holiday territory. And hardly a way to encourage the next generation and make cricket more inclusive, as the ECB claim they want to happen. It’s worth noting too that these tickets come with no guarantee of good weather (unlike a week on the Costa Del Sol), or even a full day’s play. There could be as few as thirty overs, so will real fans will risk paying £165 each of their hard-earned cash for that?

And if The Hundred was supposed to bring more money in to help venues pay for improvements, then why are fans having to pay such as high price as well?

The Ashes as a contest does hold a special place in English cricket, obviously, but does that make it okay to use ticket prices as a weapon against the ordinary fan? Despite construction reducing the capacity at Edgbaston for this summer, tickets for the test versus Pakistan have not sold out even though they are priced in a much lower range of £57-£87, so should venues treat fans as cash cows so readily, when they need them so badly at other times?

Knowing demand will grow simply because it’s The Ashes, the stadium have opted to virtually double the price of a non-Ashes test. It’s understandable on one level, the venue is trying to make money like everyone else, but it’s doing so by pricing people – and probably the people it really needs – out of the game.

Test cricket, and The Ashes, is a potentially amazing experience; one that might turn younger fans into cricket lovers for life. But they, and lots of other ordinary folk, will miss out. It’s short-term gain at the expense of building the game’s future.

And let’s face it. They are simply cashing in. And fans would probably appreciate the transparency instead of some lame-arsed attempts to justify the increases such as inflation, increased costs and so on.

The spokesperson also tried to drag Silverstone and Wimbledon into the argument, claiming that the test match prices are broadly (that word again) in line with host venues and major sporting events like them.

That’s just not comparing apples with apples. The F1 weekend at Silverstone, for instance, is a once-a-year event. The day’s test match is one day of five, so you most likely won’t see the conclusion of it, and there are five matches over the summer. It simply isn’t the same thing.

And the comparison with Wimbledon is even less accurate. The cricket seats are just ordinary ones. General admission tickets cost less than £40 to watch whole days play while you need to spend that day on Centre Court to even get close to these Edgbaston prices. And most unbiased sports fans would say a day on that court is a little bit more special than an uncovered plastic seat in Birmingham.

The Price Is Not Right

Yes, I get that these Ashes tests come around quite infrequently, so they are simply filling their boots while they can. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that from a business perspective; supply and demand, market forces etc. But at least have the decency to say it how it is and not try to hide behind other venues all the time with endless whataboutery.

But does this damage cricket beyond a few bad headlines? I’d say it does.

The crowds will be made up by lots of people who have plenty of disposable income and fancy a boozy day out with a few like-minded, and like-pocketed, others.

A family, or other ordinary fans who just want to watch their beloved sport, won’t get a look in. But who’s more likely to be there watching again when it’s a weather-threatened Wednesday in Worcestershire? Or even a Friday night for The Hundred? Some of the well-heeled fans in the Hollies Stand probably won’t go to another game all summer.

But those genuine fans, especially the younger ones and their parents who are trying to get them to love the sport, arethe future. And cricket isn’t that well attended that it doesn’t need to attract and retain new generations.

The last word should probably go to those fans.

George Hainz, a father of two, and exactly the kind of fan cricket wants, said families were being "squeezed out of the top end of the game". He would love to take his family to the venue next year and introduce his son to the game in what would be his first test match.

"It is such a shame, I have friends who won't even try to get tickets because they cannot afford it. Ordinary fans are being priced out. It is making it inaccessible for people, it annoys me and makes me angry."

Alex Fletcher, on Facebook, totted up the Ashes Test prices for a family at £1,300, once tickets, travel, food and drink were added. "Can someone tell me how that is remotely value for money or indeed an acceptable price point?" he asked.

Horrendous was another word used. And these are coming from the mouths of people who love cricket and follow it throughout the summer.

But it’s OK. Let the well-off fans go to The Ashes. I’ll catch the highlights on TV and come back to watch when it’s not The Ashes and you’re desperate to sell tickets at a fraction of the price.

Said no potential new long-term fan of cricket.

Ever.