View: Aston Villa training kit pricing plays into a larger issue
Aston Villa’s new training kit was revealed on Monday with yet another price hike, leaving fans furious.
Villa have already increased their season ticket prices by 10% on average for next season, though some seats went up by considerably more.
The prices of the club’s new training kit was revealed to be £35 for shorts, £42 for a vest, £48 for a shirt, £60 for joggers and an eye-watering £80 for a hooded jacket.
Next season will see Villa change kit manufacturers, switching to Castore after three years with Kappa who were already drawing criticism for their quality.
However, this has been coupled with a significant price increase that has left fans rightly fuming.
Villa’s pricing is out of touch
Not only is Villa’s new training range a huge increase on last season’s kit, but it is also significantly more expensive than other Castore-sponsored clubs.
Fellow Midlands club Wolves have their training kit priced more reasonably, with everything apart from sweatshirts being priced at £35 or below.
However, Rangers have the exact same pricing policy as Villa with massively increased prices compared to Wolves.
The one thing that links Villa and Rangers is their partnership with Fanatics, who also run sites such as Kitbag.
Kitbag compiles the products of all clubs partnered with Fanatics and puts them all in one place, giving customers a wide choice of kits to choose from.
However, this is now leading to massive price hikes in said kits, leaving fans feeling exploited in already difficult times.
Even if Villa did not set these prices themselves, they still signed up to the partnership which plays into a larger issue at the club.
The way Villa went about increasing the season ticket prices this summer saw the most expensive seats increase by 10%, but the cheapest increased by a staggering 43%.
Villa’s 2021/22 season tickets saw the cheapest adult ticket priced at £370, which increased to £531 for 2022/23, representing a massive and unfair hike.
Yes, it is a difficult financial situation, but the fans are feeling that more than anyone and the club should be more considerate of this.
In other Aston Villa news, fans should be excited about links with Otavio.