Spurs supporters have accused the club of “extorting their fans for a sub-par product” after a glut of tickets for this weekend’s Premier League game against Fulham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were put up for resale.
As things stand, Thomas Frank’s team can expect to be greeted by hudreds of empty seats on Saturday night. While tickets for Fulham’s visit are not available on general sale, images posted on social media three days before the game showed a glut of tickets have been made available to members of Tottenham’s ticket exchange scheme.
Fans on Reddit floated a number of possibilities as to why that might be, with theories ranging from expensive ticket prices and the team’s abysmal home form to the scheduled 8pm kick-off time and an unpromising weather forecast.
Tottenham’s poor home form
Tottenham have won just three of the 20 league games they have contested at their north London home this year, a run of results that predates Frank’s summer arrival from Brentford. A mirror image of Newcastle, who have relied on good home form to compensate for their shortcomings on the road, Tottenham have won all but five of their 18 league points this term away from home.
Since starting the campaign with a 3-0 victory over newly-promoted Burnley, Spurs have nothing more to show for their endeavours at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium than the solitary point earned earlier this month against Manchester United.
Bournemouth, Wolves, Aston Villa and Chelsea have all left north London with maximum points and, in a league table composed solely of home results, Spurs would be in the bottom three. If only away points counted, however, Frank’s men would be joint top with Chelsea.
A widespread perception among fans that the Dane’s risk-averse methods are out of kilter with Tottenham’s attacking traditions has done little to quieten the prevailing mood of disquiet. In the circumstances, the prospect of forking out up to £96 for a ticket – the maximum price for what is classed by the club as a Category B game – has left supporters underwhelmed.
What Spurs fans have said about the availability of resale tickets for the Fulham game
“It looks like Tottenham’s tradition of extorting their fans for a sub-par product is finally catching up to them now that we don’t have thousands of Koreans queuing up to see Sonny play every week,” wrote one Reddit user, referencing the decision of club legend Son Heung-min to call time on his decade-long Tottenham career this summer.
Another posted alluded to the club’s struggle to fill their 62,850-seat stadium for the Champions League visit of Copenhagen earlier this month, when the official attendance was just 49,565, a notable drop even compared with September’s game against Villarreal, which had a below-par attendance of 54,755.
“The prices the club charges are a joke and I don’t think any level of footballing ability can really justify the levels they’re getting to,” wrote the user. “A 4-0 Champions League win with 10k+ empty seats hopefully tells the powers that be a fair bit.”
“Should be mentioned that it’s 8pm on a Saturday, which is a nightmare for a lot of travelling home fans (thanks Premier League),” added another fan. “But I suspect a lot on the fence would be more motivated to go if they weren’t convinced they were going to be bored and lose.”
That view drew broad agreement, with one supporter observing: “Current home form is absolute sh*te and it’s a November game with an 8pm kick-off on a Saturday and it’s supposed to piss it down. Even if the form wasn’t sh*t it’s not worth it to begin with, since the prices are ludicrous.”
How ticket prices and poor form have affected Tottenham’s attendance figures
Despite fans’ concerns, however, attendance figures at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have held up well in the Premier League.
The lull noted for European games has not been reflected in the league, where the only gate below 61,000 came against Wolves in September, when 60,537 supporters attended.
The lowest attendance of the campaign came in the League Cup against Doncaster Rovers two months ago, when only 42,473 fans were on hand to witness a 3-0 win.
The figures are largely in line with last season, when average league attendance was 61,127 despite Tottenham’s underwhelming showing over the course of a campaign that saw them finish 17th.
What supporters groups have said about Tottenham’s ticket prices
Earlier this month, the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) issued a statement blaming expensive ticket prices for a deterioration in the atmosphere at home games.
“Over the past couple of seasons, it’s undeniable that the atmosphere has declined at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,” said the THST. “The reasons are simple – too many empty seats and too many supporters, particularly young supporters, priced out of attending. Thin the crowd and you thin the noise.
“Europa League nights last season, with sensibly priced tickets, proved the point: fair ticket pricing fills the ground, often with the next generation of Spurs fans. And the noise follows.
“The Champions League – our flagship nights – has seen thousands of empty seats, in our view due to unrealistic and unaffordable match pricing. Even big Premier League games have shown gaps we’ve never known at Tottenham. A world-class stadium without a full house is only half a home.”
The THST and Tottenham Hotspur have been approached for comment.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen how many supporters will show up to watch their team take on Fulham on Saturday night.
