Teams

Man City Blinks: Fan Pressure Halts Ticket Increases in Rare Move

In many sports, a defending four-time league champion often has wide latitude to do what it wants with ticket prices. Not so in the Premier League.

By Eric Fisher

Apr 09, 2025 | 11:57 am

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The power of fandom in English men’s pro soccer has brought even the four-time defending Premier League champions to heel.

Manchester City, for years one of the world’s most dominant clubs, said Wednesday it will freeze general admission and single-match ticket prices for the upcoming 2025–2026 season—a move made after a series of increasingly strident fan protests.

Already, ticket prices across the Premier League have been a highly sensitive topic given that 19 of 20 clubs upped their prices for the current season, and those increases arrived amid fast-rising energy and food costs in the U.K. In recent months, several clubs, including current standings leader Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Everton, have been the target of public protests related to ticketing.

For Manchester City, that fan outcry became even more pointed after the club struck a ticket resale deal with Viagogo—also the parent company of U.S.-based secondary marketplace StubHub. Last week, Manchester City fans boycotted the opening of a Premier League match against Leicester City, with thousands of fans remaining in the Etihad Stadium concourses. Just a week after that event, the ticket announcement for next season arrived.

The decision “reflects the positive and constructive dialogue that has taken place [with local fan groups] over recent weeks,” the club said.

Compared to most U.S. pro sports, fan groups in English pro soccer can often hold sizable influence on actual business operations—driven in part by a long-held notion of each club being deeply intertwined with that local community.

The latest announcement, however, does not solve a series of other financial issues surrounding Manchester City and the Premier League. The club, currently sixth in the Premier League, is still awaiting a ruling on alleged breaches of financial fair play rules. Other clubs, such as former league power Manchester United, meanwhile, are grappling with their own revenue challenges.