IS WATCHING professional football in this country a rip-off?

The average cost of buying a ticket for a League One game has risen by more than 30 per cent in the last three years.

In that same period, watching football in the UK in general has gone up by more than treble the rate of inflation. That is depressing.

Town chairman Lee Power recently said he did not know of any other team in the same position as Swindon Town cutting their ticket prices.

Perhaps when your team is near the top of the league, playing entertaining football, winning games and people are still not coming, it is indicative of a larger problem.

Is that Power’s fault?

Yes, because along with every other owner in English football he has overseen this overall rise in prices.

Is he the only one to blame? No.

Players and especially their agents are a nice, easy target for fans to shout ‘greed’ loudly at.

They certainly exacerbate the problem, but are there many of us who, when given the opportunity to make more money on a regular basis, would turn it down? I doubt it.

The media bears responsibility for fanning the flames of football on an ever-increasing scale of hyperbole, Sky and the Premier League for empowering the biggest clubs financially to the point where the level of disregard for their fans is sickening.

Together these different elements have combined to create this false bubble of a business that does not live in the real world – even at the lower levels.

A simple example. The BBC’s survey shows the cheapest price of a cup of tea in League One is a £1, the profit margin on that cup of tea is still going to be more than 50 per cent – a hideous mark-up.

Power made the point that clubs have to run as a business – a reasonable statement.

But it also demonstrates who are among the biggest culprits in helping to create this bubble.

Us, the fans.

At the County Ground, with the pleasant distraction of good football, the gripe – until recently addressed by a new ticket initiative – had been prices.

Elsewhere, it is about the same things and more.

It is the running of the club, the feeling of constantly being fleeced and watching ambitionless football, with the sole purpose of maintaining the status quo for the money men (yes, I mean you Mike Ashley).

If any other businesses put up their prices by 31.7 per cent in three years, votes would be made with the feet.

In football, fans accept the rhetoric that the team needs them to show up, needs them to buy the shirt, needs them to ‘enjoy the matchday experience’.

Is that true?

Are you ‘less loyal’ simply if you choose to take a stand?

What’s the simple answer to bringing down the price of football?

Marches, demonstrations and scarf campaigns are all admirable but do they work?

Do they bring about change?

No. If feelings really do run that strong over prices, surely the answer has to be don’t go, don’t give the clubs your money, go on strike against football if you will.

Surely then the thinking would have to change, even for the super-rich Premier League clubs?

Sky would quiver – watching football on TV is a lesser product without fans in the stadium.

As for the clubs, Arsenal are the case-in-point for a club who were unable to compete because they couldn’t generate matchday revenue.

Take it away and prove to clubs they need their supporters.

Imagine billionaires handwringing and the unfathomable – something actually being done about it.

Will it happen? Unlikely.

Would it effect a change? Almost certainly.