"Outrageous" - Concern raised over Sheffield Wednesday ticket situation | OneFootball

Football League World's Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit labels Owls ticket prices as "outrageous"

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield Wednesday currently sit 15th in the Championship table, having played nine games, and enjoyed a three-game unbeaten run prior to the October international break.

Much to the delight of Wednesday supporters, that unbeaten run included a 3-2 win over promotion candidates West Brom, as well as a 2-1 away win at Coventry City, who were one of last season's FA Cup semi-finalists.

Should Danny Rohl's side continue to produce the goods against strong opposition, then they could be set to enjoy a more comfortable campaign than that of last term.

On Saturday, the Owls host promotion hopefuls Burnley, who will be looking for their third win in five matches following recent victories over Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth.

When Football League World asked our Owls fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, how he rated his club's ticket pricing overall, he said: "In regard to the club pricing of the tickets, it is completely wrong.

"They're far too dear and (it's) essentially tone-deaf, but this has been an issue ever since (Dejphon) Chansiri took over the club.

"The season tickets, for a start, the whole system is wrong.

"The early birds come out, it seems, earlier and earlier each year.

"In January time, they are looking to sell the early birds for next season.

"They're selling these in a month of the year where, traditionally, people have the least amount of money after the expensive Christmas, especially the expensive Christmas for families.

"At this stage, quite often like last season, there's uncertainty as to what division we will be in as well, which will factor in people's thinking in some cases on whether to get them.

"One of the other things about the season tickets is the ridiculous high-pressure sell-on tactic from Chansiri, which he continues to employ.

"Yes, if you get in the first phase of early bird tickets in January, I suppose the tickets are at a decent price.

"But, as I said, at that time of the year, people might not have that amount of money to commit to a season ticket, and there is no reason why they should be penalised for that.

"It doesn't make you a better fan if you buy early, especially these days.

"Money's short, there's a cost-of-living crisis, Sheffield isn't a particularly wealthy city, but we have all these phases.

"It seems to be getting more and more phases each year with shorter time between each, and yet with each window the tickets get dearer, so they can become completely unaffordable a few windows in, and this is just crashing out loyal fans and punishing them for not having money available.

"There is a credit option to spread payment out, but that doesn't suit everybody either, and people maybe don't want to pay for purchases in that fashion.

"It's just completely outrageous, we've consistently had these high season ticket prices.

"The concerns have been raised plenty of times to Chansiri, but he's got such a belligerent attitude towards it that he is right, and he's not going to change it.

"And, of course, if you've got high season ticket prices, then the matchday tickets on the day are going to be dear as well, which they are.

"These can't be simple, you have to install all these categories, and there's no logic to them.

"You're guessing for each match what category it's going to be.

"Take, for instance, this coming weekend, in the north stand a ticket is £45, and in the south stand it's £49.

"So, you're nearly paying £50 for a game of Championship football, which is just utterly outrageous, and as well, along with season tickets, this is a terrible strategy, because people have to pick and choose matches, they have to explain to their kids that, because tickets are so dear they can only go to x and y matches and that is just pricing out future generations of fans, and it's just so short-sighted as an approach.

"As I said, unfortunately, as long as Chansiri is here, it's not going to change."

Wednesday ticket prices are a concern for fans

As mentioned by Patrick, the Owls are charging £49 for tickets to this Saturday's encounter with Burnley.

While the Owls boast a loyal fanbase, and the visit of the Clarets, who were in the Premier League last season, is an exciting fixture, but most Championship fans would agree that tickets to go and watch second tier football should not come close to the £50 mark.

Furthermore, as alluded to by Patrick, and as reported by the Sheffield Star, Wednesday released their early bird season ticket prices for the 2024/25 season last January.

As our fan pundit said, it could be argued that January is not a good month for supporters to commit to a large payment such as that of a season ticket, so soon after the heavy spending of the Christmas period.

The Sheffield Star also revealed that the cheapest non-concession adult season ticket price for the 2024/25 campaign was £460, up from £395 for the 2023/24 season.

The Sheffield Star added that these prices remained in place for just over one week, before the second phase of early bird sales began.

This may have been a tricky situation for Owls supporters, especially given the fact that they did not know if their club would be competing in League One or the Championship this term, as Rohl's men were battling relegation, even on the last day of last season.