Fans fear empty seats at Old Trafford

Manchester United are in danger of playing to empty seats in two years’ time as supporters come to terms with a £4m (€5.8m) increase in season ticket prices.

While fans are sympathetic to the position of Red Devils chief executive David Gill staving off the threat of Malcolm Glazer’s takeover, they believe individual price increases of up to 24% raises the prospect of Old Trafford not being full when the stadium in expanded to a 76,000 capacity for the 2006-07 campaign.

“The club say demand for tickets outstrips supply and that is a difficult statement to argue against,” said Jules Spencer, chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters’ Association.

“But by the time the ground development is finished, apart from the odd one or two big games, I believe we are reaching saturation point.

“We all recognise the pressure being put on David Gill by outside forces but we do not believe the match-going supporters should have to pay the price for money being lost elsewhere in the business.”

United have cited a £14m (€20.4m) drop in media revenues as the major reason behind the increases, which average out at 10% across the whole stadium.

This will not be much comfort to the 11% of supporters now being asked to pay an extra £133 (€194) for a 19-game league campaign.