ENGLAND — Nineteen of the 20 Premier League clubs raised season ticket prices this summer, and the Football Supporters' Association has launched a #StopExploitingLoyalty campaign in response. The campaign aims to combat what the association describes as a coordinated attack on match-going fans.

The maximum season ticket price at Tottenham's stadium can reach £2,367. Liverpool's ticket prices have risen by more than 800% since 1990. At Manchester United's Old Trafford, 1,100 supporters are being moved from their longstanding seats near the dugout so those seats can be converted into higher-priced hospitality packages.

Beyond ticket costs, paying for a place on a season ticket waiting list became widespread during the 2010s, as did paying a membership fee to have a chance of attending a match. Matches are also frequently rescheduled for television broadcast times with limited consideration for whether away fans have trains available to return home afterward.

Football reporter Jacob Steinberg said clubs risk damaging the product that draws global audiences by pricing out their core supporters. "Clubs have to be really careful. Part of the Premier League's attraction is the atmosphere of the English crowd, and you risk losing that by chasing the one-match-a-season transactional fan," Steinberg said.

Steinberg described the habits of longstanding supporters whose attendance has shaped matchday culture. "They have their routine: they go to the pub with mates, they go to the game, then they go home," he said.

He contrasted current access costs with the way many fans first encountered the sport decades ago. "If I look back 30 years – and I'm probably showing my age – people's first live football experience was often turning on Channel 4 on a Sunday afternoon for Football Italia. That was a way for people to connect easily without paying," he said.