Surely not the hill to die on?

Wolves and the season-ticket price hike

It would be a bizarre hill to die on. For the most successful owners of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the past 40 years to haemorrhage so much goodwill over what amounts to relatively insignificant monies for a Premier League football club, yet huge sums for that club’s lifeblood - its supporters.

Was it really worth it? Perhaps that is a question that does not need asking just yet. Despite the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the raw anger that has shown no sign of abating over the past few days, there can and should be a resolution to the shockingly steep price hike of season-tickets.

Let us begin with something that is special about Wolves and its fans. Molineux is a totemic landmark in a city that - like its football club - has seen some impressive days, and those that would sooner be banished from the memory. It took a long time to get to this point. The one where Wolves are now preparing for a seventh straight campaign in the top division.

Four decades earlier, Wolves were also in the top division. But the 1983/84 season was one to forget. Although not as forgettable as two years later, when 2,205 traipsed through the turnstiles for a 1-1 draw with Bury en route to a relegation down to the Fourth Division. Mad what happens when a fan base is taken for granted isn’t it?

Nothing is terminal, though. And in the DNA of every Wolves fan is the story of that long climb back to the top. Whether lived or not, passed down a generation maybe; the pride and humility that comes with such a tale. Proud of what Wolves has overcome and what it can achieve in the future, yet humble enough never to feel entitled.

Fosun investigated 18 clubs when they made their move into football in 2016. On the other side of that coin, Steve Morgan recorded 86 parties interested in acquiring Wolves when it was put up for sale. Fosun may not have known much about the supporters’ journey but they were shrewd enough to spot a fantastic opportunity. Similarly, Morgan knew he was selling to the real deal: a globally successful investment conglomerate with the ability to create further success.

Fosun’s first season was an unmitigated calamity but in falling at almost every hurdle, the owners recognised their mistakes and atoned for them brilliantly. Chairman Jeff Shi moved to Wolverhampton and placed himself at the heart of the operation. Trust was established between Fosun, unofficial partners Gestifute and head coach Nuno Espírito Santo and his talented coaching staff. It was a glorious journey on the pitch.

One match perhaps encapsulates it all best. 16 March 2019. Wolves 2-1 Manchester United. That Saturday night under the lights at Molineux brought everything into the melting pot. Visceral pride and elation in the stands as if years and years of yearning had been released. A perfect atmosphere, a perfect performance, a perfect night. Everybody wants to rule the world, and for a few moments Wolves fans felt what it was like.

The journey since has not always been smooth. You wait 40 years for a season in Europe, then a global pandemic comes along and that’s the end of that. Fosun have had to navigate troubled waters. Throughout all this they continued to invest in the club, only reining in the spending as recently as last summer when a different strategy began to take its course.

Even at times when ambition was questioned, Shi got a grip on the situation by persuading Julen Lopetegui to come on board. There are different versions of how that chapter played out. What is true is that nobody emerged with reputation intact but, as has happened many times during eight years of ownership, Fosun navigated their way through the challenge.

There is no need to regurgitate the numbers here. It has been done in depth elsewhere, but it is more than just those awful numbers. It is the story behind each person now faced with paying up or packing up. Life is hard. We saw that in the astonishing mental health video Wolves produced recently, viewed almost 10million times on X alone.

It was a reminder of a club whose employees face their community every day. Those in the Foundation who deliver so many projects affecting the lives of thousands, those front-of-house staff and others in the offices who make things work as best as possible. Whether it is a ticket enquiry, or any other request that needs a personal touch. Not everyone goes home happy but it is not for the want of trying. Wolves is there for all that. It is what a club should be there for.

That film cannot just be consigned as tokenism in the wake of what has happened with the season-tickets. Watch it again. It is not merely about the people who stop and chat. It is about the thousands who simply walk on by. As kick-off nears, the scale of the footfall is inspiring. This is not just a price rise in each category of season-ticket. It is thousands and thousands and thousands of price rises.

And yet, it amounts to considerably less than £4million in expected extra revenue for the 2024/25 season. Under half the figure it took to wave cheerio to Lopetegui and his staff. By another comparison, Premier League clubs will each receive more than a £5million bonus in unpaid parachute payments thanks to two of the three relegated clubs returning to the Premier League from the Championship at the first time of asking this season.

There is a problem with season-tickets as far as Premier League clubs are concerned. In an ideal world they would be selling individual tickets for every game, exploring commercial opportunities in the club shop and elsewhere, too. The loyalty of a season-ticket holder does not really work when it comes to maximising revenue. And the lower down the food chain we travel, the more this is an issue. Wolves need revenue.

So, it is not that Wolves fans do not expect price rises. They are all too aware of the uneven playing field that it is the Premier League, where it is increasingly difficult to make a mark when so much is weighted towards those with the greatest commercial clout.

Just a couple of months before the finer details were being finalised on Fosun’s takeover, in 2016, FSG - Liverpool's American owners - acknowledged the voice of the club's fans by shelving plans to increase ticket prices. It took a mass walkout at Anfield to sharpen the focus. Liverpool fans have a canny knack for mobilising, and around 10,000 supporters headed for the exits during the club's 2-2 draw with Sunderland in protest against proposals to introduce a top-price £77 match-ticket. Owner John W Henry, Chairman Tom Werner and President Mike Gordon issued a statement on the club's website apologising for any distress that had been caused. An astute move.

It is always possible to increase prices in a more just and perceptive manner. Fosun have been smart operators to this point. Not every decision has been the right one but seven seasons of Premier League football does not happen by chance.

It began with questions about doing it on cold, rainy nights in Stoke, took in far flung destinations in Europe, emerged from a global pandemic crisis and encountered the odd managerial upheaval or two along the road. And still they are standing. Custodians of a club that has seen more than most during a long and colourful history. So, through it all and through what might yet be achieved, surely there is a better way than dying on this hill?