The upcoming away match for Stoke City against Queens Park Rangers will require fans to pay up to £40 for a ticket, reflecting the ongoing trend of rising ticket prices in the Championship. For the game at Loftus Road on November 28, Stoke has allocated 1,313 tickets, with adult upper tier gold tickets priced at £37 plus a £1 booking fee and an additional £2 transaction fee for postal delivery. Upper tier silver tickets cost £31 plus a £1 booking fee and a £2 postal fee. Supporters who collect their tickets from the bet365 Stadium will not incur a transaction fee.
This pricing is consistent with recent matches, such as the one against Coventry City, where Stoke paid £35 plus extra charges. Despite attracting over 2,500 fans to the CBS Arena, concerns are arising that these elevated rates are becoming the norm. As of now, a Stoke fan attending all nine away games in the 2023/24 season would have spent at least £307, with projections indicating a total cost exceeding £800 for the entire season.
Critics, including dedicated Stoke supporter Robin Evans, find the £38 ticket for the QPR away match on a Tuesday night to be exorbitant and unjustifiable. Fans continue to emphasize the £30 cap for away tickets in the Premier League, pointing out the stark contrast in incomes between the top two divisions.
The current situation highlights the disparity where the price of a single adult match ticket in the Championship surpasses the cost of a junior season ticket at Stoke. Calls for a comprehensive solution within football as a whole are being echoed, and supporters hope for a resolution to address the financial gap and subsequent ticket price issues.
While Stoke supporters can benefit from free coach travel for league matches provided by the club, concerns about overall affordability persist. EFL chairman Rick Parry argues against the feasibility of relying on well-intentioned local billionaires to take over all 72 clubs under his watch.
There is optimism, as expressed by Malcolm Clarke, the Stoke-supporting chairman of the Football Supporters’ Association, regarding the potential introduction of an independent football regulator. This could potentially address the financial disparity and, subsequently, impact ticket prices. The extent of the reaction to this proposed change remains uncertain, but it is acknowledged that the fans, particularly the highly passionate ones, are the ones whose opinions matter the most.
The table at the end of the article provides a summary of away ticket prices for Stoke in the 2023/24 season across various matches, with additional charges specified for each.
