GRIMSBY Town will increase ticket prices for the forthcoming season – the first rise of its kind for nearly a decade.
The club have announced that there will be a basic increase of £1 in the Pontoon and Lower Findus and £2 on adult ticket prices in the Upper Findus.
However, there will be no change in the adult price of a seat in the Main Stand.
It is the first time the Mariners have increased ticket prices since the 2005/06 League Two season – when the average price per head went up from £8.92 to £9.42.
As a result of the changes for the upcoming season, senior citizens and young adults (aged 15-18) will see an increase of £2 on the price of a ticket in the Upper Findus, but prices will remain the same in all other stands.
Tickets for unaccompanied juniors (aged one to 14) will be increased by a £1 but those juniors who attend with a responsible paying adult, will gain entry for £1 less than last season.
Today, club bosses have defended the move, describing it as necessary in order for the club to remain competitive.
Chief executive Ian Fleming, pictured, pointed to the fact that prices had not been increased for almost 10 years – and had been reduced for the 2009/10 season, remaining at those levels for the last four years.
He said: "At Grimsby Town, we haven't had a price increase in almost ten years. We actually decreased prices four years ago and we've tried to maintain and absorb the increased costs that we've had to incur over that period.
"But we are now at a time where we have to slightly increase our prices in order to remain competitive.
"The prices that we're proposing are not unrealistic – it's a £1 increase in some areas.
"We've tried to restructure to be fair to everybody."
He continued: "Over the last number of years we've had a hike in almost every area of running the club, whether it's out utility bills or the VAT increase – which we absorbed as a club in the hope that the government would return to 17.5 per cent, which hasn't happened.
"We've done competitor analysis and looked at the pricing structure of other teams in the league and in terms of the facilities that we have compared to them, it's far better value for money.
"Some clubs, who have open terracing behind the goals, are charging in excess of what we are proposing. We're confident that we've got the right things in place to take the next step into the Football League, we just need the fans behind us again."
The changes have also had an impact on season ticket prices with the 'Early Bird' price of an adult season ticket in the Pontoon and Lower Findus going up by £19 and £20 in the Upper Findus.
However, in the Main Stand, the price of a season ticket has actually come down by £14.
The price of an accompanied junior season ticket has gone up from £20 to £50 in all stands with the unaccompanied Junior increasing from £70 to £80. The price of an OAP and Young Adult season ticket remains the same in the Main, Pontoon & Lower Findus.
Accounts manager, Steve Wraith added: "There's not one person out there who can say that, over the last ten years, the cost of everything has gone up.
"Despite that, we've maintained our prices for so long, so we hope that, now that we've come to a point where we have to make a nominal increase, that our fans will accept it.
"Our supporters are really important to us. Over ten years, we've not put our prices up because we cherish every supporter and we want them here at Blundell Park next season."
