By ECS Leadership
Traveling to support your club is something supporters do across the globe. It’s an amazing means to show your adoration for the players on the pitch as they play in what is typically hostile territory. It’s tradition. Heck, some might call it an addiction.
Every year, millions of supporters travel miles and miles for the love of their clubs, and that’s made possible by affordable tickets. Typically, supporters’ section tickets (home or away) are the cheapest in the house, or among the cheapest. There are myriad reasons for this, and they go far beyond the fact that supporters aren’t watching most of the game as they chant, dance, wave flags, and do what supporters do. Security concerns aside, clubs love rival and opposing fans making their way into the stands as they create a raucous atmosphere to energize the experience. All that said, tickets should always be affordable to get fans in the house, supporters’ section or not.
Most teams at least pretend to grasp that fairly simple concept.
And then there’s Austin FC.
You see, Austin FC thinks a ticket costing upwards of $70 in the away section for a Thursday night match is acceptable in 2021. They apparently missed the memo from 2014 when San Jose Earthquakes thought that Sounders fans would be excited about being the first event in an NFL stadium and wanted to charge $45 plus $8 in fees, with zero ability to buy as a group.
ECS boycotted that game as a blatant #AwayRobbery. And we’ll be boycotting Austin Away in 2021 as well.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we did the math.
- In 2017, ECS regular season away tickets averaged $28.47 (High: PDX $47)
- In 2018, ECS regular season away tickets averaged $32.13 (High: PDX $48)
- In 2019, ECS regular season away tickets averaged $33.24 (High: PDX $49)
- In 2020, ECS tickets would have averaged $32.78 before pandemic postponements
In 2021 so far, ECS tickets average $43.63. Oh, until you remove Austin, then it’s $32.67. We cannot, in good conscience, charge members a ticket price almost 40% higher than any regular season match in the last five years. Hell, Austin is charging almost $20 more than ECS members paid for the 2019 MLS Cup Final at home.
We know many of you were excited about traveling to Austin. We know this will likely be disappointing to many of you.
We also know that we’ll never stop fighting for affordable ticketing, irrespective of the club you support.
Please help us spread the word by using the #SoccerForAll and #AwayRobbery tags in your social media posts, and we look forward to seeing you on an away trip soon.