Forest having to twice slash ticket prices is a wake-up call that fans are more than just customers

On Tuesday morning, the City Ground stadium plan on the ticket sales section of the Nottingham Forest website was a sea of blue dots — each signifying an unsold seat.

With sales that had just breached the 10,000 mark for the Europa League clash with Midtjylland — within a stadium that has regularly held crowds of 30,000-plus recently — the club made the decision to cut prices by £10 ($13).

When swathes of those blue dots remained on Wednesday morning, it prompted more significant action. Prices that had initially been between £50 and £70 for an adult ticket were cut again, to between £15 and £30 for members and season-ticket holders.

With each passing hour, those blue dots increasingly began to disappear. But each one of them that had existed on Tuesday morning conveyed a message. Not that it is possible to put a price on loyalty, exactly. More accurately, it is possible to price fans out of being able to afford to sustain that loyalty.

Forest said that they had listened to fans before making the decision to slash prices down to less than a third of what they had initially been, in the case of those lowest-priced seats. That is, without doubt, entirely true. But it came only after supporters had made their feelings crystal clear in the best way available to them: by declining to buy tickets.

Forest deserve praise for taking the decision to make tickets for the game affordable. They also deserve credit for freezing season ticket prices, which had previously been raised every summer since 2021, as well as bringing back the young adult category, with a discount for those aged 18 to 21.

But when it comes to the cost of European tickets, is it not also reasonable to ask the question of why they had not addressed the issue before?

We now live in a world where it feels as though many clubs view fans as customers who happen to have an emotional connection to the product they are selling. At a time of profitability and sustainability regulations, perhaps that should not be a surprise, with every penny counting and, indeed, counted.

Either way, in this case, it was the prospect of a half-empty City Ground that would have prompted this change more than anything else. And that was surely down to their pricing policy.

This has already been one of the most expensive seasons in the club’s history for Forest fans. Forest have been to Spain to play Real Betis, to Austria to face Sturm Graz, to Utrecht in the Netherlands, Braga in Portugal and Fenerbahce in Turkey. It has been an adventure — and one that supporters had waited 30 years for.

Nottingham Forest players thank their travelling fans in Turkey last month (BSR Agency/Getty Images)

But, along the way, the dynamic of the season has changed, with vitally important Premier League games against Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur taking place this month too.

The subject Vitor Pereira and club captain Ryan Yates were asked about most in their pre-match press conference was on finding the balance between European success and Premier League survival. Because it is a balance that has slowly shifted the closer Forest have moved towards the bottom three.

Against Midtjylland, it is not inconceivable that Pereira opts to rest some of his key figures ahead of the visit of Fulham. It would be understandable if he did. He will want to use players such as Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson, Murillo, Neco Williams and Ola Aina as sparingly as possible.

But regardless of the team selection, behind the scenes, there was a desire to ensure the stadium was full for different reasons, beyond simple gate receipts. For Pereira in particular, a packed City Ground is a far more valuable prospect.

“We need to be ready as a club. Not only the players, but also the supporters. We must be ready for this fight, for this big challenge. Not only in the Europa League but the Premier League,” said Pereira. “We need to be committed; we need the support of our fans. We need to feel the energy and we need to make them proud of our work. This is the connection.”

Pereira is the fourth head coach this season to experience the wall of noise in the moments before kick-off, as the stands echo with the traditional, deafening rendition of Mull of Kintyre. Nuno Espirito Santo would often talk about how valuable the atmosphere was. Before him, Steve Cooper was often visibly impacted by such moments. And Yates says the atmosphere is still vital to the players.

“It is huge. We have spoken a lot about that connection between the supporters at the City Ground when it is rocking: when they are loud, they give us that extra little boost,” he said.

“For the club to recognise that the supporters weren’t happy, that we were not going to sell the stadium out and to try to give more supporters the opportunity… to find that balance and get more supporters in the ground will only help us.”

The City Ground (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

At the end of December 2025, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis wrote a New Year’s message to supporters. Within that note was what now feels like a pertinent line: “The strength of Nottingham Forest has always come from our togetherness. United in purpose and clear in direction, we are focused on the future and firm in the belief that Forest will move forward even stronger.”

It is an entirely worthy notion — and one that has been evident during Forest’s recent rise, which began with promotion in 2022. Togetherness has been at the very heart of their success under numerous different managers. Since promotion, Marinakis has also consistently put his money where his mouth is — most recently by funding another £200million of investment in the transfer market last summer.

But what is also true is that, during this period, season ticket prices have risen every single year.

The fact that the club have taken the step of freezing those prices for the first time since Chris Hughton was in charge is a significant positive.

It is a deserved acknowledgment of the support these fans have given this club. On the pitch, Forest have repaid that with dramatic escapes from relegation under Cooper and Nuno, with FA Cup and Carabao Cup semi-finals — with a flirtation with Champions League qualification last season. And, ultimately, with a return to the European stage.

But while fan loyalty does not generally have a ceiling — ask those who followed the club in League One during the dismal Gary Megson era — their spending power does, at a time when the cost of everything else beyond football seems to be on the rise.

The pricing of Forest’s European tickets was an error, one that has been mitigated by two rounds of price cuts and by the freeze on season ticket prices.

But the club, like many others, must continue to act in a way that recognises that season ticket holders are more than just customers.

If not, there is a danger that those blue dots could become more of a familiar sight.