What the Siya crew has been told…
One of the biggest talking points this season has been the ticket pricing in the DStv Premiership, with supporters complaining about how much they need to fork out to watch the teams they love.
In a country where stadium attendance has been a concern, supporters on various platforms have complained about how much they are having to pay these days to watch a football match, while also factoring the other costs incurred when traveling to the stadium, such as fuel, taxi fare, food and drinks.
When it comes to ticket pricing in the PSL, clubs have been given the right to categorize ticket prices, while raising the fee when they host the bigger sides who attract a lot of supporters, such as Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.
When Cape Town City hosted Kaizer Chiefs at DHL Stadium, ticket prices went as high as R100, something that raised the ire of the Amakhosi faithful, especially with it being a midweek evening game, at ‘that time of the month’ (23 August). Swallows FC did the same when they welcomed the Naturenabased outfit to Dobsonville Stadium for a midweek clash.
For these clubs, hosting a club like Chiefs means that they are likely to spend more than they usually do, which is why ticket prices are used to cover some of the costs they incur such as security, cleaning services and stadium rental, due to the fact that teams in the PSL do not own stadiums as is the case in Europe.
At times, hosting a big game means having to put out more security, as is the rule by the PSL for Category A matches. Tickets go for as low as R40 but can be increased at the discretion of the club.
One of the insiders at a DStv Premiership club explained why it’s sometimes necessary to increase ticket prices for the bigger matches.
“I think what people sometimes don’t understand is that clubs have to recover some of the costs from hosting a match, especially the big ones. It will happen now and again that a club will increase ticket prices,” the informant said.
“There are different opinions when it comes to ticket prices. I think with some supporters, football is not top of mind. It’s only a small percentage who are actually football-loving fans and will go buy tickets or replica jerseys, like how they do it in Europe. These days, you have supporters who would rather stay at home to watch three games on TV, as opposed to going to the stadium to watch the team that they love live. Do you love your team (by doing that)? I don’t think so. Tickets should be at a minimum of R100. It does not matter if you are playing Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns or any other club. It allows you to work on stadium rental fees, the type of marketing and activations for matches and other costs. But at R40? I mean, come on. I am for having tickets at a minimum of R50 for the lower-level games and R100 for your Category A games which need more security. That means security costs are higher,” explained the source.
The Siya crew understands that hosting a PSL match can cost R200 000 or more and there are many times clubs have made a loss, due to the lack of attendance. Even with tickets at R40, clubs have struggled with having big support at the stadium and Soccer Laduma has been made to understand that, at times, clubs are affected by this.
The crew has been reliably informed that ticket prices for cup competitions are decided by the PSL.
This is because the League incurs all the costs for the cup matches played by the clubs, so it’s understood that clubs do not get a percentage of the sales made from these matches.