Portsmouth's message to fans in face of season ticket increases

The Blues last week reported more than 5,000 fans had snapped up seats for the 2023-24 campaign at Fratton Park.

It’s a strong start to purchases following a first increase in prices for four years - a development broadly acknowledged as necessary in the face of rising costs.

Pompey also introduced a tiered pricing strategy, with Fratton Park redevelopment work nearing completion.

Chief executive, Andy Cullen, was pleased with how things have gone so far - and was appreciative of fans’ continuing loyalty.

Cullen said: ‘I think the first thing I have to say is how grateful we are - we’ve had a terrific response.

‘We launched the premium credit facility and we’ve had a terrific response not just from renewals, but new people as well taking seats.

‘The reason we are even more grateful than usual is we acknowledge we’ve raised prices for the first time in a few years.

‘We’ve tried to keep those below the rate of inflation at launch, so everything is below 10 per cent.

‘We’ve introduced differential pricing as well. We are the last club in League One and the Championship to have flat pricing across the ground before now.

‘That was as a consequence of the inadequacies of some seats and some stands being closed off.

‘So it’s been a really good start and we’re particularly encouraged by the new people coming in, really pleasing.’

Last year it took around a month to sell 9,000 tickets, with it a fortnight to shift 5,000 tickets 12 months on.

That represents a strong pace being set once again, but Cullen explained it wouldn’t be fair to make a like-for-like comparison.

He added: ‘I tried to do a comparison with last year, but at the moment it’s unfair to do one.

‘We could say we’re well up on last year, but last year we were selling tickets in staggered ways.

‘We were just selling to renewals in the South Stand because of all the seat moves and things like that. We will get to that situation, however, as we go into June.’