Vincent Kompany has called on Premier League clubs to force down the price of match tickets and attract the "right people" back into football.
The Manchester City captain has recently graduated with an MBA [Master of Business Administration] from Manchester Business School and, during his research on maximising revenues from home advantage, he concluded ticket prices should be reduced for business reasons.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live’s Wake Up To Money, Kompany said: “You get better home advantage depending on the atmosphere that you can create within your facilities, and that is linked to the people who enter your stadiums. The Premier League is generating two or three times the revenue of the other top five leagues in Europe, so at what point do you realise that your revenues are that big as a TV product, and the revenue from match-day tickets is only getting smaller?
“At what point do you decide we are actually now going to make sure if it is a TV product, it is the best product in the world? Meaning not just the best players, but the best atmosphere in the stadium; meaning the right people in the right place.”
Kompany, who has been at City since 2008, in which time the club has been transformed into one of the world’s richest, added: “Those that live for the club, are probably more attached to the club than anybody else. But those are probably not always the guys who can afford it.
“We know the Premier League can still grow. The question is at what point do you reach breaking point where you squeezed so much out of your people at home?”
Kompany, 31, who is likely to be part of the Belgium squad that faces England in their World Cup group in Russia this summer, added: “If you assume the Premier League gets bigger and you gain markets in China, India, Africa, America, you could fill the grounds with tourists. You can do it, and make more money. They’d just come and spend £400 a ticket, it’s nothing for them because it is a once in a lifetime experience, like going to an NBA or NFL game. The question is if that affects your product, as the Premier League?
(Guardian service)
