50 Wolves fans have their say on season ticket furore

Thousands of fans took to social media to voice their anger, with huge increases across the board.

We asked supporters to get in touch with the Express & Star to give their views on the astronomical increases.

Tom Shepherd

You have embarrassed our club. You've let the fans down and you've let the city down.

The price rise is unjustified and unnecessary.

The money you will receive from parachute payment distribution due will outweigh this increase - but you just couldn't help yourself. It is pure greed.

My dad is 70 and we've been STHs for over 20 years. His 'concession' price is over £500, which is more than a standard ticket price cost just a few years ago.

The price hike for children is absurd, I will never afford to bring my kids now and carry on a family tradition of supporting my club.

It's not too late. Read the room. Take note of the demographic wealth and fix this.

If you don't. This is how you will be remembered.

Matt Caswell

Fans also play an important role. If you only pursue money and consistent price increases Wolves might not be an ideal choice.

If you treat the fans with contempt and put out mental health videos and statements about VAR just to soften the price increases Wolves may not be one either.

Nick Edwards

I have felt so passionately about our club ever since my first game aged five. Now in my late 30’s those feelings have slowly ebbed away over the last three or four years, this price increase almost feels like the final nail in the coffin.

I just feel totally flat and dejected by the whole experience. The club has quickly been taken away from its core working class fans, the fans that have supported the club through thick and thin and make the atmosphere what it usually is.

I’ve got a horrible feeling about this. There is such anger towards the club now and that usually makes its way on to the pitch, it only takes a poor performance or result at home at the start of next season and that anger will turn to the board, performances and results will likely get worse and the atmosphere turns more hostile.

We have finished the season with one win in 10 and have now not just alienated the core fans but insulted them and in a lot of cases made it unaffordable to now go and watch their team.

The club have made their bed and they will now have to lie in it. I believe this will be a point in time that Fosun will look back on with great regret.

Chris Gilbert

As a dedicated supporter of the club, I have been loyal and committed to attending matches both home and away. However, this significant increase in ticket prices has left me feeling disillusioned and disheartened.

It is disconcerting to witness such a substantial financial burden placed upon loyal fans like myself, especially considering the current economic climate.

Moreover, the timing of this increase is particularly insensitive. As we navigate through uncertain times, with many facing financial hardships due to the ongoing economic downturn, it is disheartening to witness the club's management prioritising profit over the well-being and loyalty of its supporters.

Jamie Stainer

I’ve been supporting my club wolves for just under 40 years. I’ve had a season ticket now for the last 10 years and now my son (who is 10) comes with me for the last three years.

He has been on the waiting list for five years but these price increases are making it so I can’t take my son any more. I simply can’t afford it. He loves going and we will miss it.

This decision is Shocking. 17 per cent increase is unbelievable. Inflation isn’t that much. Don’t understand why they've done this ? And to increase kids over 100 per cent is disgusting.

Stu Hall

My first season ticket at Molineux was in August 1995 as an 11 year old boy.

In the 29 years since, I have missed five home games in that time.

The pure greed, opportunism and plain disregard for the good people of Wolverhampton has pushed me close to giving this all up for good.

My mom's concession ticket is now comparable to what it cost as an adult in that very same seat just three years ago, my sister has packed it in, and my brother is reviewing his options.

An entire family's support wiped out in one day and for what?

Pocket money, that doesn't even match the bonus money the club received from the Premier League recently.

Molineux is a dump, the club is dying and it will only get worse.

Jan Evans

I think we Wolves fans now know exactly what we mean to our owners if we didn't before. We are, after all, despite the slogans, just customers. ‘One pack’ is now a strap line that has lost meaning and true colours have been revealed. They have over priced all areas of the ground (especially the family area & Graham Hughes stand.)

The next generation will be denied the right to support their club because of the massive price increases, well above inflation.

The connection between us and the owners who have no real connection whatsoever with the city of Wolverhampton, or the people within it, has been severely damaged. The only one to ‘actually get’ Wolverhampton was Nuno who put his hand in his own pocket to donate £250,000 to the people as a farewell gesture. What a guy!

A very sad day for this great football club.

Michael Laba

A week removed from saying VAR isn't worth the marginal gains Jeff Shi and Fosun are increasing season tickets for marginal gains. Days removed from receiving five million pounds for the Leeds/Southampton parachute payments. They give nothing to the pyramid and take everything from their lifeblood. Shameless.

Stuart Newman

At best the decision to increase season ticket prices is clumsy and disconnected, at worst it’s arrogant, exploitative and embarrassing.

Basic economics suggest that selling a lesser product for an increased price is bad business, but of course this isn’t business, it’s football it's different and Wolves have enough loyal supporters who’ll stump up the cash and renew, a lot of us budget for a season ticket like we do the mortgage and council tax. This outpouring of anger from fans won’t ultimately hurt the Wolves ownership on the profit lines - and therein lies the problem.

Wolves are the definition of a mid table feeder club, nowhere near close to upsetting the “Sky 6” and with no obvious likelihood of going down from the poorest officiated league in the world, it promises to be nothing more than another 11th-16th place finish.

Paul Smyth

I am the father of a North Bank disabled wheelchair season ticket holder. My boy was U17 last season, but now has to jump straight up to the U21 price bracket.

The price last season was £211 and this season it’s jumped to £489.

A 131.8 per cent increase for a wheelchair disabled child.

Last summer while he was still U17, the price jumped from £185 to £211, which was a 14.1 per cent increase.

Combine this with the fact that we have a 400 mile round trip on match days, it’s tough to take.

First started going to Molineux in the mid-1980’s in Division four, with my Dad and two brothers, and today is one of the darkest days throughout all of those years.

James Murphy

I cannot get it out of my system. It will not quell. I’m horrified at the total contempt WWFC holds for our loyal supporters.

The only way to really protest is not to renew season tickets. Vote with your feet. Football, at Premier League level , is driving football lovers away; it's becoming unsustainable for a lot of working class supporters. The true fan who would support their club regardless of success or failure. I never thought Wolves would be complicit with that endeavour.

Craig Alcock

I am absolutely disgusted with Fosun, and the way they are treating fans with complete contempt.

I think we were all expecting a small rise, and would happily accept it had there been a commitment to improve stadium facilities, and on pitch investment.

Us fans are the lifeblood of this club, and will be here long after they go, which hopefully now, will be sooner rather than later!

David Presley

The owners have let their "legacy" fans down badly here and I think they may well have lost any goodwill that was remaining towards them.

To ask fans in an area really impacted by financial worries to stump up those prices is sickening.

They have made no investment in the facilities which are dilapidated, and have wasted money on players who were simply never good enough or never wanted to come in the first place and now we are the ones paying for it.

Time to sell up.

Thomas Manley

I am deeply disappointed with the recent season ticket price increase at Wolves. I have a home and away season ticket and I attended every European game home and away. I was one of the 48 fans in Armenia.

In the current climate the sudden price hike has made me reevaluate my support and if it is financially possible, I am now considering following non-league football home and away where ticket prices are more affordable and there is no VAR.

Chris Jones

To say I’m shocked would be an understatement.

Me and my 13 year old sit behind the home dugout in the family enclosure, last season that was £740 total, it’s now £1025, a rise of 39 per cent. When Villa are only asking for 5 per cent for Champions League.

I can’t afford to renew, it’s mental.

This is an attack on children supporting their team. Beyond disgraceful.

Adam Farmer

I am disgusted by the immoral increase in season ticket prices at Wolverhampton Wanderers during a cost of living crisis.

This decision tarnishes the rich history of Wolves and its importance to our working-class community. As a lifelong fan, the emotional impact of not renewing my season ticket is devastating.

It threatens my mental health, and it breaks my heart to think my five-year-old daughter and unborn son might never experience the club as I did.

Our loyalty is being exploited, and the heritage and spirit of Wolves are being forgotten. This must be addressed to preserve our great club.

Matthew Johnson

This extremely steep increase in Season Ticket pricing, is bad timing, to say the least.

On the back of what was ultimately, a good yet frustrating season. The negative VAR decisions, that Wolves have been on the wrong side of, has had many supporters questioning whether to attend games in the future. Therefore this price hike will just push some people over the edge.

Matthew Kirby

Wolves have misread the room, short term I’m sure they’ll be fine, they will sell all available season tickets next season but if the product (ground and team) don’t improve how long will these new fans stick around? And who’s replacing them?

What can we do? Probably not a lot. Cut off our noses and don’t renew? I’ve seen suggestions of boycotting any merchandise and matchday purchases, I think this is a good idea and could hopefully send a message across the season if followed, although they will still get tourist fans buying all three shirts with their nations players name on the back.

Leon Ayre

What an absolutely disgraceful decision by Jeff Shi and his colleagues! This has hit all wolves fans hard.

It’s gone beyond whether you can afford the price. Pricing out hard working families that have been the lifeblood of the club? I remember Chorley! It’s now created a divide with the fans and club.

We are bang average club, punched above our weight this season due to the manager. But these clowns think we’re stupid. Why do this to your own fans? Why? The fans will turn. We’re already having to put up with a crumbling stadium, no centre forward, small depleted squad etc, and no this? I shall be watching from afar next year.

Gurraj Jabbal

I am extremely disappointed with the price increases. I pay for four members of my family (my dad, myself and my boys who are both U14).

I was expecting a small increase in our tickets but the absolute criminal increase in the children’s prices are beyond burglary! My children are football obsessed and to deny them their season tickets would break my heart, so instead I must break my bank balance to ensure they can continue to love Wolves FC.

Mind numbing that the club are pricing children out of watching football effectively destroying the clubs long term future and support. I am aware it’s a case of being held at gunpoint - renew or someone else will have your ticket but this is just so far out of touch with reality!

Leanne Wootton

As a loyal Wolves fan since 1989 I have to tell you I’m absolutely disgusted with the ridiculous increase in season ticket prices.

The stadium has seen no improvements and has been threadbare for years yet you feel an enormous price hike is justified in a working class area in a cost of living crisis?

There is no sign of any significant investment in the team unless we sell our best players. We have wasted millions upon millions on players that are unproven, not good enough or just didn’t want to be here and now are paying the price for this mismanagement.

Mark Read

Like many fans, I expected to see a rise in season ticket prices, but nothing could have prepared me for such a significant rise, 17.5 per cent.

This, along with Jeff Shi’s uninspiring statement, demonstrates to me that there is a complete disconnect between the club and the current economic and social challenges experienced by the vast majority of its loyal fanbase.

I found the statement utterly tone deaf and in places quite condescending, which further emphasised this schism between the clubs ambition and the live fan experience.

Suggesting fans should perhaps look elsewhere if silverware and Europe was their aspiration - like one can just choose to disavow support for their beloved club, shows that the business head of Shi doesn’t speak to the heart of the average fan whose lifelong loyalty and passion cannot be so easily set aside.

Mike Price

I’m 43 and go to watch Wolves with my 14 year old daughter. With her being a typical teenager she’s not too interested in doing many things with her dad, but watching the Wolves is our bonding time (and has been for the last few years). The combined price of our tickets have gone up from £740 to £1,065, a 43.91 per cent increase!

I can’t afford to renew at this price and unfortunately spending this important time and making memories at the Wolves with my daughter will have to end. I would rather be in the championship and be able to afford to take my daughter.

Rob Cartwright

A Wolves season ticket was the first thing I bought when I started working. It cost £25 in the South Bank. I’ve had one ever since (except the desperate years when the club stopped selling them). That’s 44 years now.

My Dad took me to my first game when I was five.

2000 games later I feel more detached than ever from the club.

Is it even “our club” anymore?

We go as a family.

Our North Bank tickets have gone up 29 per cent this year and a staggering 87 per cent over the last three years.

2 adults from £625 to £735

1 child from £105 to £276

I am being asked for an additional £391. Big money for 19 games.

The individual match price is ridiculous now.

I think this increase is double what is reasonable. Shame on you Jeff Shi.

Poor from Wolves.

Hayden

Season ticket holder since 08/09 season and this is the first summer I will have to really consider renewing.

Expected a small increase but not a £110 increase, to stand in the same stand which hasn’t been improved, neither has the overall supporter experience. Really want to support O’Neil as I think he could do well for us, although if he’s treated like Shi has treated the fans this summer then it will be just aiming to survive again.

Ricky Brookes

A lot of fans had already given up or were at least close to having had enough of Jeff Shi but this really will be the final nail in that coffin.

Wolverhampton is a working class city and they’re simply ripping the heart out of the club by pricing out the fans. The atmosphere was pretty flat and poor for the majority of last season and this will only get worse as the ones who make the noise usually will be the ones who feel it most.

The club clearly wants to lower the amount of season ticket holders in order to increase the amount of ‘one match fans’ that they can charge more for an individual ticket. However with a poor atmosphere these one match fans will soon stop and they’ll be empty seats which in the long run will lose more money then it would have made from a cheaper season ticket.

To increase prices to such an extent with the stadium in the state it’s in snd a lack of investment in the playing staffing shows nothing but disdain for the fans. We should be on a par with the likes of Forest and Leicester.

Stacey Hitchins

One of our biggest rivals Aston Villa have just made Champions League football and only put a 5 per cent increase on their tickets. How is it fair that us watching a 14th place team only going backwards is worth a 17 per cent increase?

It's sickening I've supported this club through everything relegated to League One promoted again and now I can't even afford to go even though I graft five days a week and so does my other half to still not be able to afford to support my team.

I know it's a business to you but there's a massive difference between a business and just pure greed from a billionaire company!

Matthew Nutting

2023/24 destroyed my enjoyment of football through VAR.

The club has now ruined my 2024/25 for me and the connection with a team that GON built before it’s even started.

First time in 16 years of owning a season ticket I’m now considering whether I should renew or not.

How can the club preach spending no money and being ‘self sustainable’ and then do this to us?

I’m not sure it’s my club anymore.

Jake Foley

I see today as a dark day for Wolves. After years of selling us ambitions and dreams of Europe and trophies today it 100 per cent died.

We now know what the owners are really worried about and that is money. Of course we are a business but we are a football club first. A club that has been around a lot longer than Fosun has.

Pricing out the fans that have supported the club through thick and thin is abhorrent, those prices are immoral and today I feel a disconnect with my football club that I've never felt before, I like many, out of pure love for the club will be renewing but it hurts to say that really on a moral basis I shouldn't be. Even if we achieve European football next season (not likely with the almost guaranteed lack of investment) those prices would still be utterly ridiculous.

I hope that one day we can look at the ownership of our club and back the decision making, but for now it's frankly unforgivable. I don't know how anyone can defend Fosun and Shi on this topic.

Ian Groom

I just feel Wolves have misread the room - we were all expecting an increase perhaps in line with the cost of living plus a few per cent.

Do the Wolves hierarchy ever just drive around Wolverhampton to see what is happening to normal folks pushed to pay their gas bills - I guess not.

For me and my two teenagers a game will cost around £80 for tickets so around £100 after parking and a cup of tea or three … I have to ask, is that good value for money? Probably not!

Jamie Evans

Most under 18 kids are being paid for by their parents, many of these families will not be able to afford these increases. Sadly pricing our future generation of fans out of supporting the club they love.

This has created a backlash across social media, and I wonder whether there is enough awareness within the club on the pressures and sensitivity of this price increase, and all for an additional circa £2m of income.

The club has got this one badly wrong, and I hope they have a Plan B because once fans are lost they very rarely come back.

We do not want to backfill working class die hard fans with tourists or middle class part time supporters.

Simon Garner

For all the good work the team did on the pitch for the majority of last season, Jeff Shi is doing his utmost to bring a divide between the club and the fans.

It’s as if Fosun don’t want the season ticket holders to renew and to simply turn the club into a “day out” for tourists, who will spend a fortune on kits, programmes and food in the ground.

Shi has got this wrong, very wrong.

Jonathon Giddings

They talk of slow growth for the club yet where is the slow rise in season tickets?

To hide the price increase deep in an article is embarrassing and shows they know it wasn’t going to go down well. Even now there is still no announcement from the club social media channels that you can renew and there is only one reason they are not promoting it.

Matt Whitten

I was expecting a price increase but really don't understand the excessive prices for the youngsters, it feels like they are happy pricing out the next generation of fans in the hope either fans from the waiting list take up the seats or overseas fans fill the stadium.

The owners have done a lot of good for the club but today is a sad day for the club, they really have shown their contempt for hard working loyal fans.

Curt Lycett

I was introduced to wolves in the mid 90s due to the kids for a quid scheme. That’s how I became a Wolves fan, 25 years on I’ve been a season ticket holder for years, following the club across the country and luckily in Europe.

That’s how you build a fan base of the future. The narrow mindedness of Jeff and the club is shocking. Sad day for the present wolves and potentially the future wolves.

Mitchell Haldron

Sad day for the club , the owners and Jeff are completely out of touch with both the fans and the city. The timing of it is cowardly, announced after the season ended to avoid any toxicity in the stadium.

The increase is now pricing out the true wolves fans who are the lifeblood of the club. How dare Jeff tell the fans the club may not be for them because they want to see us progress and be a competitive team in the premier league, rather than battling to avoid relegation and being happy with 17th because that is where this is heading with no investment.

Joey Poole

I live completely on my own now away from my Dad who is 2+ hours away - I’m afraid we won’t be able to afford our season tickets for next year, meaning not only would I have to give up what is my favourite weekend hobby, I’m more frightened I won’t be able to see my aging Dad at all anymore with our busy work schedules.

With so many constantly growing outgoings year on year, a rise this large for the same or decreasing level of product is terrible value to renew, leading to local fans being priced out & inevitable mental health declines - something the club was focused on improving just two weeks ago.

Adam Parkes

One dad, two sons' passion passed down generations but only one thought from those in charge. Annoyed and confused as to how this is happening as in football terms little gain but massive loss to a family.

Adrian Breakwell

Season ticket price increase is scandalous. To me it shows how out of touch Fosun are with the fans which is really concerning. It’s going to be a difficult process to rebuild trust between the two parties from here.

David Purcell

I’m fortunate enough that I can probably pay the increase, I’m an adult in Steve Bull upper and have been for years enjoying the rise from league 1 and not so much the plummet to it.

Whilst I could afford the rise, I’m querying whether I actually want to pay it. Year on year increases is hard to stomach, and the with the cost of getting to the game - and so on - it stacks up.

Especially so, when the games have been far from enjoyable due to the team not being to compete and the facilities in the stand being awful, from food and beverage offering through to access and toilets.

Max Wright

We expected and accepted a series of price rises across the board, but to such extent and announced in a way which left a lot unanswered and much to be desired. My friend said, it’s honestly one of my saddest days as a Wolverhampton Wanderers support, I too who have spent much time defending Fosun too its critics have lost any will to do so today.

Have they benchmarked against teams in the South or affluent parts of the North? London where they have London waiting? I’d like to know.

Many feel they simply want the tourist, one of the things I love about the club is the quality of it’s fans, the passion and atmosphere and that is at great risk of being changed, to the soulless vibes I’ve encountered at other premiership clubs, the one thing no matter what we could hold our heads up high about, will it be “football in a library” I know friends who will struggle to pay, some simply can’t, others just won’t buy food, drinks or merchandise.

Mike Murphy

Above all remember this is the wonderful city of Wolverhampton with the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the country not a suburb of Chelsea.

Glenn Aston

Message to Jeff Shi

This is OUR club and you are just a custodian, who will eventually (hopefully very soon) be gone, but WE WILL STILL BE HERE!

Your patronising comments just about sums up your total lack of understanding and appreciation of what being a football supporter truly is!

If you actually believe your comments to be true, Wolves might not be an ideal choice!!!

So go quickly PLEASE!