Upset as matchday parking charges are introduced for disabled City supporters
MANCHESTER City’s decision to charge disabled fans for matchday parking has troubled some of their supporters, including one from Rochdale who says “football is getting stupid”.
The club have a proud record of helping their disabled supporters and have never charged them for parking at the Etihad since the stadium first started hosting football games in 2003.
City insist the change has been made because of the high number of bookings that weren’t being taken up or cancelled, and that all money made from the new charge – around £2,000 per game if all 360 spaces are taken up – will simply go into the costs of running the car park.
However, 96 per cent of the Disabled Supporters Association do not agree with the decision or the timing of it.
A number contacted our sister paper the Manchester Evening News to share their specific complaints and worries about the incoming charges.
Jackie Allen, from Rochdale, is visually impaired and has been going to City for more than 45 years.
She said: “In the dark, I’ve got really bad peripheral vision and I can only see directly in front so imagine me getting out the car on a normal space.
“I’m frightened of banging people’s doors and then I would be in trouble.
The ticket office have been absolutely brilliant with me, it is just the way things are getting run at that club.
“What really upsets me is that we have to pay but the club got this £2m fine [for delaying Premier League kick-offs] and just paid it straightaway. We’re being penalised because they’re saying people who have booked it and don’t even go – I always do that if I can’t make a game.
“It’s £6. If you work that out every game and you’ve got FA Cup and Carabao Cup, Champions League, there’s talk of it going up to £12 next season. Our season ticket is £600 so next season with parking it will be over £1,000. Who
can afford that? I don’t know what I’m going to do.
“If they’d given us two months’ advance notice then it is different, but to let us know two days before a football season is absolutely disgusting.
“They’ve taken the first payment out of my bank and there will be another one coming soon. The week of the 14th of September, we play Brentford, then we could have a home game in the Champions League in midweek and then Arsenal on the Saturday.
“That’s three payments – £18. Two weeks after that, we’ve got Fulham. It’s £24 in the space of a month. Then my season ticket, which is £55. Next month I’m going to be looking at about £80 and I only get £300 a fortnight to live on.
“I won’t buy any food or drink at the ground any more. I’m done. Not a chance they’re getting another penny out of me in that stadium. If they can charge me for disabled parking, why should I go in there and spend £5 on a drink? Football is getting stupid now.
“I’m seriously thinking this will be my last season if they don’t change this car parking. I’m not paying all that money next year. I’ve been going for over 40 years but it’s just how I feel and a lot of my friends do as well.”
‘I’m seriously thinking this will be my last season if they don’t change this car parking. I’m not paying all that money next year. I’ve been going for over 40 years but it’s just how I feel and a lot of my friends do as well.’ JACKIE ALLEN