'It's offensive': Manchester United Supporters Trust launches broadside at club over immediate rise in ticket prices

The Manchester United Supporters Trust (Must) is the largest supporters’ trust in the country, with more than 200,000 members. It was originally called Shareholders United, having been set up to counter at first a threatened Rupert Murdoch takeover in 1998, and then re-energised by a fight to prevent the Glazer family from buying the club in 2004.

When American businessman Malcolm Glazer and his family purchased the club and put it into private ownership, it was renamed to Must. The trust has previously given a cautious welcomed to the arrival of Ineos, headed by Jim Ratcliffe, which took a 25 per cent stake in the club almost a year ago and took over the “football” side of the business, but said it regretted that the Glazers were still involved.

But tonight the trust has launched a broadside again the club, after the bombshell news of the ticket price increase was revealed. It has

Manchester United Supporters’ Trust’s statement in full

Tonight the club informed the Fans Forum of changes to certain ticket policies that will take effect immediately. The club has indicated that it will post the details of these changes online but the headline is that, with immediate effect, all Members tickets for the remainder of this season will increase to £66 each, and that this price will apply for kids and over-65s as well as adults.

This means that for an adult member to take their kid to a game in the remainder of this season will cost £132. Well over double the minimum price they could pay to do it today. And this change is happening overnight, immediately.

“The Club claims that 97 per cent of this season's tickets are already sold, so that this will only affect a small number of people, but we believe this stat is misleading, as we will explain below.

The Club has provided zero consultation on the matter, neither with the Forum nor the Fan Advisory Board nor MUST. We were simply informed of the decision that there will be price rises affecting certain fans that are “urgently needed” to address profitability and sustainability concerns.

Suffice it to say, that the idea that the fans must pay their ‘fair share’ for the Club’s excesses and/or mismanagement—and above all, the Glazers lack of investment over two decades - is offensive.

We fans have done everything we have been asked. We have cheered the players on even in the face of substandard performance. We have gone to matches and abided by the new usage rules for tickets. We have taken on a price increase this year. This is in addition to the hundreds, even thousands loyal fans pay to follow United home and away.

There is a risk that this is only the opening salvo of what will surely be massive pressure to implement a significant price rise for next season. Once they have got used to charging £132 for a parent and child to come to OT, will they really go back to the old pricing levels for next season?

We are absolutely in favour of running a sustainable business, but football clubs are hardly ordinary consumer businesses. Ours is clearly in “rebuilding mode”. Moreover, it is not like we have options to take our custom elsewhere: we are not going to “choose another provider” like one might pick a telecoms company.

If the club has a need for short term capital they should issue new shares, as they did when INEOS first arrived, and bring in funding from existing or new shareholders.

We have objected to this action in the strongest possible terms, both for the action itself and the complete lack of consultation, which is a step backward based on the process we had agreed with the Club before INEOS’ arrival.

Over the coming days MUST will be seeking urgent discussions with the Club to get them to listen to fans' concern at this policy. United fans have sucked up a lot. We will not be silent on this and we need to be prepared to resist any attempts to further drive up ticket prices. Many thanks for your continued support