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Aston Villa have doubled the price of some disabled matchday parking tickets in the latest blow to the pockets of supporters, according to a report.
Villa are preparing to compete in the Champions League for the first time in 41 years in a couple of weeks, but fans have been left frustrated by the cost of tickets for home match days.
Tickets will cost as much as £97 for a home fixture – £82 for season ticket holders – with the cheapest tickets for adults setting back season ticket holders £70.
The decision received backlash from the Aston Villa Supporters Trust, who released a statement asking for costs to be lowered, but another move has left fans fuming for the second time in a matter of days.
And, outside the North Stand at Villa Park, the price of match day parking spaces for disabled supporters has been increased by 100 per cent, with costs reportedly rising from £190 to £380.
Aston Villa have doubled the pricing of car parking tickets for disabled fans for this season
Fans were given little notice of the increase in price from £190 to £380 before deciding if they wanted to keep their spots
Villa supporters have already been left fuming by the price of match day tickets for the Champions League
According to the Birmingham Mail, fans were given no prior warning and were simply asked the week before the first home game of the season to pay double in order to keep their spots.
Supporters were said to have been offered the chance to either keep their spots or buy one on the Yew Tree Community School for £228. That car park, however, does not offer any disabled spots.
Construction work outside Villa Park has reportedly meant that the number of disabled spaces available has recently descreased.
Ultimately, however, the club are planning on creating more, with a software that allows fans to sell on their space also in the works.
‘I didn’t just feel under pressure to pay the increase, I knew I was under pressure because whatever decision I made was likely one which would stick,’ one fan told BirminghamLive. ‘I had absolutely no other option than to pay the £380 if I wanted to continue watching the Villa. It is a fiasco.’
Another said: ‘It was such short notice and while we did expect an increase, not double. How can you find that money in that time? My disabled brother relies on income from benefits and he has to pay for carers for himself. He has to use his money to pay for his carers, so to ask for another £190 to pay in a week is just unacceptable.
‘They didn’t give us six or eight weeks to get the money together, it felt like now or never.’
Aston Villa Supporters Trust called for the club to lower ‘extremely disappointing’ Champions League ticket prices
Fans have also been offered to move their spaces to another location, though it does not have disabled parking spots
For Champions League games, tickets not in wheelchair bays have been split into five pricing categories, ranging from 1888 seating – seats that run alongside the directors box at Villa Park at the top of the Trinity Road Stand – to zone four seats.
The premier seats will cost £97 no matter the punter, and will be £82 for season ticket holders.
The remaining tickets are distributed into zones, with a regular adult ticket costing £94 in zones one and two and £85 in zones three and four.
Away tickets in the Champions League have been capped at just over £50 by UEFA.
Aston Villa were contacted to comment.
