Southside President Speaks Out About Ticket Prices

I'm posting this for the benefit of those who are browsing our sites, wondering why the Whitecaps pricing is such a hotly-disputed issue for us.

I'll note here that I am speaking for myself - a long-time founding member of our group who has cheered this Club since childhood. I'm not necessarily speaking for the executive board or the membership at large, although I'm sure many would agree with me.

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To all of Vancouver's football fans and supporters:

The Vancouver Southsiders do not claim to be entitled to any discounts, kickbacks, obligations, special favours or prices. Our money is as good as anyone else's when it comes to supporting the Whitecaps. We are not "owed" anything for supporting the Club up to this point, nor are we claiming to be.

The current uproar within our membership is largely due to the Whitecaps' failure to adequately manage the expectations of its new and existing supporters, and rightly so.

The Whitecaps' entire marketing campaign to date has been centred around the $319 price point as the proverbial "cheap seats".

When you look at EVERY team in MLS (and most football leagues in the UK and Europe, for that matter) the cheapest seats are nosebleeds and the seats behind the goal.

It's an obstructed view for most down there, which makes it affordable, and that is why your most active supporters groups tend to congregate there. To those fans it's not about the view, it's about the experience.

It is therefore not at all surprising that members of the Southsiders (and others in Vancouver who are interested in "supporting" as opposed to "watching") arrived at the conclusion that the cheap seats would be behind the net.

However, when taxes and fees are included, seats behind the net are $200 more than what the vast majority were anticipating as result of the marketing campaign. That's quite a shock to the system, let alone the wallet.

Here's the behind the net pricing for the big teams in MLS to illustrate a point:

Whitecaps.........$560
LA Galaxy.........$400
Seattle Sounders..$400
Portland Timbers..$369
Toronto FC........$361
NY Red Bulls......$272

The pricing for Toronto and Seatlle sparked chaos with their supporters this year... and here we are, set to play in a temporary tin-can venue (Empire Field) with no signings, charging $160 more than Seattle and $200 more than TFC.

The Galaxy have Beckham, and their package includes 3 - 5 major friendlies. Last year they hosted Real Madrid and Boca Juniors. We will be paying more than Galaxy fans just to see FC Edmonton and Montreal.

The Red Bulls are in the most expensive and most lucrative market in North America, with the league's arguably highest profile signing in Thierry Henry. Those fans are paying exactly what I paid to stand at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium last year for division two football.

Which brings me to this:

Last year, I paid $270 for the "privilege" of standing on metal bleachers, pissing in port-a-loos, waiting in line at substandard concessions and arriving 2.5 hrs early to ensure I could get a parking space.

Next year I will be at Empire, probably for the entire season. Once again, I will stand on metal bleachers, piss in a port-a-loo, tough it out in long lines for overpriced concessions and pay $30 for parking... and if I want the "privilege" of standing where I have since 1999, I have to pay $300 more more for my ticket than I did last year.

It is absolutely inconceivable that we should be forced to pay the same exorbitant prices for Empire Field as we will at BC Place. There is absolutely no justification for that, not even if we stocked our team with stars in their prime from the likes of Real Madrid.

Speaking of which...

Vancouverites will pay more for their seats behind the net than fans of Real Madrid do. And here's a kick in the ass - we only get two Canadian Championship matches in our package. They pay less than we do, and they get three matches to the UEFA Champions League!

I'm not so daft as not to know that Canada and Spain's economies are apples and oranges. I do however think there is an important lesson there though.

The Whitecaps have a stated goal of becoming a top-25 club on the global stage. Real Madrid has to rank in the top 3 on that list easily.

I would suggest that the Whitecaps should be looking to learn from the best before attempting to climb the ranks on the wallets of the supporters who kept them afloat through the dark days of the 1990s and 2000s.

Hell, they can even look at the bottom feeding dregs of the MLS for some wisdom.

DC United's supporters group, the Screaming Eagles, are paying less than what Vancouverites will to stand behind the net.

In return, their club provides the supporters group with a financial kickback estimated at around $75 per member. This allows the Screaming Eagles to provide their members fans with a free jersey every year, and free beer at tailgate parties before every match.

On a price-per-match analysis, I will concede that the $560 "Aqua" supporters section isn't too high, especially for the Vancouver's vastly overpriced sports market. It certainly pales in comparison to prices for the Canucks.

Unfortunately, Vancouver's fans don't have the option of paying on a price-per-match basis. It's an all or nothing deal, with half due in November, and half due in February.... that's right before Christmas, and right after. The Whitecaps couldn't have dropped this news at a worse time, although I acknowledge that the renovations at BC Place have played a role in this timing.

A more comprehensive and accessible payment plan would do wonders to quell this uproar. Almost every team in MLS has one, save for a few, and none of those exceptions are in markets as pricey as we are.

I also question this:

- Why do end zone seats for BC Lions games at BC Place cost 40% less than the corner seats... but at a Whitecaps match they will cost 55% more than the same corners?

- Why are the sections priced in a way so that two people with an aisle between them have a pricing differential of nearly $100 to $200?

It's a Mickey Mouse pricing plan, plain and simple. The Vancouver Southsiders should have been the Whitecaps' easiest customers to sell this experience to, and now we have several long-time members questioning whether this is a club worth supporting.

And that's why we're pissed off.

Welcome to "modern football" Vancouver!

Sincerely

John Knox
President
Vancouver Southsiders


*** For another personal view of a Board member around the ticket prices, please check out this blog post from yesterday ***