As the country pulls itself out of a recession, you would have thought that football clubs would have followed suit and helped fans with ticket prices.

Oh how wrong we were.

I have come across a list of season ticket prices for the upcoming 2010/11 Premier League season. Of course you have your Arsenals, Chelseas and Liverpools near the top of the list. However, is it reasonable for relegation threatened Wolves and West Ham to be placed in the top six of cheapest season ticket prices?

Club/Cheapest season ticket/most expensive ticket

Arsenal - £893 - £1,825

Liverpool - £680 - £785

Spurs - £650 - £1,175

West Ham - £585 - £830

Chelsea - £550 - £1,210

Wolves - £522 - £630

Man Utd - £513 - £931

Everton - £443 - £631

Man City - £420 - £515

West Brom - £399 - £499

Stoke City - £399 - £599

Sunderland - £395 - £845

Blackpool - £382 - £440

Bolton - £369 - £399

Fulham - £369 - £899

Birmingham - £360 - £580

Aston Villa - £350 - £550

Newcastle - £330 - £975

Wigan - £250 - £295

Blackburn - £224 - £393

(list provided by www.sportingintelligence.com)

Now, I am unsure how teams such as West Ham can value their football at a higher value than that of Manchester United and Chelsea. OK, Upton Park may not be as big as the other grounds and the availability of tickets is less, encouraging the club to make more of a profit. However, is this unfair on fans?

Look at Blackpool, they have just been promoted and yet they feel it is fair enough to charge their fans more than Villa or Fulham fans to see them participate in their first ever Premier League season.

Clubs will argue that they charge a fair amount and they “freeze” prices every season. After all, football is a business and would be nothing without the money of fans, sponsors and multi-millionaire owners. They need money to pay for players as well as amenities such as stewarding, pitch care and media hospitality.

I discovered this year that even the lower league clubs find it perfectly acceptable to charge fans a lot to watch games. Living in Cheltenham, I take an interest in the local team and went to watch them play once. It cost me £15 to see them draw 1-1 with Oldham....when for the same price I could have watched Wolves play in the Premier League.

Where is the fairness in that?

http://www.youtube.com/v/MxovvSmFwho