Everton are set to announce an expected rise in season ticket prices and have explained why the reveal has been delayed up to this point.
Speaking to supporters in October last year, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale revealed that season ticket prices for the remaining years at Goodison Park had to reflect the financial situation the club finds itself in.
This will be the first time in seven years that Everton 's prices in that regard have risen and, speaking to the club's website on Monday evening, Richard Kenyon believes that the new structure will be a fair one.
The Blues' Director of Communications, Revenue and International Growth also explained the reason behind the delay of this announcement, which was originally due towards the beginning of 2022.
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He said: "We were originally planning to do this around the turn of the year but then, with the Omicron variant, we elected to put that back a little bit until there was greater certainty about the games for the rest of this season and obviously into next season.
"Announcing now also means we can keep in line with the deadlines for the 12-month direct debit scheme. We really appreciate fans’ patience and their ongoing support.
"We’re set to announce the pricing in the coming days and there will be an increase this year on season ticket prices, the first in a very long time - but we think it’s a fair increase and, taken on a game-by-game basis, represents a relatively small increase of a couple of pounds per game."
Kenyon also went on to describe why the club came to the decision to increase season ticket prices for the 2022/23 campaign.
The club is looking to maximise their revenue in all areas, and he knows that the Blues need to be open with supporters in their aims to achieve just that.
He added: "Across the whole club, we’re looking at areas where we can generate more income, and I think that’s really, really important for the club to say that, and we shouldn’t be reticent about that in any way.
"We need to be bringing more revenue into the football club so we can compete with the clubs at the very top end of the division.
"We have a greater focus on maximising commercial revenue - and matchday income is part of that. Again, we want to make sure we’re pricing in a way where we’re making more revenue but keeping true to those values about affordable football at Goodison.
"I think the pricing we’re going to present in the next few days does that. It does give us some increase in our income but I think also it retains us at a level where we’ll benchmark really well in terms of our pricing across the Premier League.
"But it’s not just matchday income that we’re looking at – it’s revenue right across the board, across everything that the football club does.
"We’re looking to maximise the revenue in all areas."
