Following part one of a comparison of Philippine Football ticket prices with the rest of Asia, it became clear that during the Challenge Cup Qualifiers, the Philippines was by far the most expensive place to watch a football match. Even the P500 white bleacher ticket were nearly the same price as the most expensive tickets of the other four hosts, Myanmar, Laos, Kyrgyzstan, and Nepal, combined. [Related: Is the price right? Azkals tickets most expensive among Challenge Cup Qualification groups] There are a lot of issues to flesh out in this discussion, the first of which is to see whether or not the Challenge Cup Qualifiers was an isolated case. Comparisons quickly show, however, that it wasn’t. A price comparison of the Suzuki Cup semifinals Of the other semifinalists, Malaysia was the defending champion, while Singapore and Thailand, with three titles each, were battling it out to decide which was the most successful side in Southeast Asia. The Philippines were therefore the underdogs once again, with two semifinal appearances as their best finishes. But in ticket prices, they were the most expensive by far. Despite having a much lower purchasing power than Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, in terms of how expensive the same product is across those countries and currencies, the best seats in the Rizal Memorial Stadium were between five and seven times the price of the most expensive tickets in the other three countries.
| Country | Malaysia | Philippines | Singapore | Thailand |
| Stadium | Bukit Jalil National Stadium | Rizal Memorial Stadium | Jalan Besar Stadium | Supachalasai Stadium |
| Attendance (capacity) | 90,000 (100,000 capacity) | 12,500 (12,500 capacity) | 7,500 (7,500 capacity) | 19,700 (19,700 capacity) |
| Ticket prices | RM 40 (P528) per adult RM 10 (P132) per child | Bleachers: P300 and P400 Grandstand: P1000, P2000 and P3000 | S$10 (P329) and S$18 (P592) | 100 Baht (P139) 200 Baht (P279) 300 Baht (P418) |
With tickets sold out in all four venues for games at the same stage of the same competition, this is the most level comparison of ticket prices possible. And with by far the worst football infrastructure of the four nations, the Philippines’ tickets were by far the most expensive. And this comparison holds for even the Suzuki Cup Final. The most expensive tickets for both legs of the 2012 Suzuki Cup Final were S$22 (P722) and standard tickets were S$12 (P395). The Philippines’ Grandstand tickets for the semifinal, and even the Challenge Cup Qualifiers, were between 1/3 and four times more expensive than Suzuki Cup Final tickets.
Singapore versus Philippines and LA Galaxy price comparisons Another good comparison point is the home-and-away series of friendly matches between the Philippines and Singapore. Singapore hosted the Philippines in the Jurong West Sports Complex on September 7, 2012, before the Philippines hosted Singapore in the Cebu City Sports Complex on November 15 two months later.
| Country | Singapore | Philippines |
| Stadium | Jurong West Sports Complex | Cebu City Sports Complex |
| Attendance (capacity) | 2,956 (3,200) | 7,000 (7,000) |
| Ticket prices | S$10 (P329) for adult S$2 (P66) for a student/senior citizen | P200, P400, P600, P800 and P2,000 VIP ticket |
As shown above, the best view in the Philippines was six times the price of tickets in Singapore. Singapore also included large concessions for students to promote the game among the youth. With capacity crowds, the same national teams involved, and only a two-month gap between the games, there is little difference between the matches. Yet the Philippines charged between three and six times the amount Singapore did for the same tickets to watch the same teams. In a similar comparison, when the Philippines organized an exhibition game with LA Galaxy at the end of 2011, they were looking to raise the profile of football by bringing in superstars like Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, and possibly the most famous footballer in the world, David Beckham, to Manila. It was an admirable move and lots of people worked hard to bring the team over. When ticket prices were released though, there were many complaints as the minimum price of P2,000 and maximum of P15,500 were the highest Southeast Asia may have ever seen. As further comparison, in Indonesia in the same tour, fans could see the LA Galaxy for between $7-$200 (P286-P8,161). In other words, the cheapest ticket in the Philippines was almost ten times more expensive than in Indonesia. With an 88,000 capacity stadium, Indonesia had the infrastructure to charge lower prices. However Indonesia also overpriced their tickets as only 20,000 turned up to watch the Galaxy, a quarter of the capacity of a stadium normally full in games against regional rivals. And for the Philippines, with tickets sales exceptionally slow in the build-up to the game, the PFF reduced ticket prices by 35 percent and were still way short of filling the 12,500 capacity Rizal Memorial Stadium for a match in which P1 million was charged by the Philippine Sports Commission to rent the stadium.
What can fans get for the price of a Challenge Cup Qualifying ticket? As a comparison, the P2,500 some fans paid for tickets to the Rizal Memorial Stadium for Challenge Cup Qualifiers could have gotten them into matches between Japan and Australia, as the best teams in the AFC, and even into the Bernabeu Stadium to see the most-watched match in world football, el Classico. Japan and Australia are well ahead of most of Asia on the football field, sitting at the top of the Asian Football Confederation in first and second respectively. Drawn in the same group for the fourth round of World Cup Qualifiers, two stages ahead of the furthest point the Philippines has ever reached in the world’s most prestigious international tournament, it presents an interesting clash between Japan, currently 26th in the world, and Australia, 39th. The ticket prices for the 1-1 draw in Australia last June were set at AUS$40 for Category C tickets (P1,697), AUS$65 (P2,758) for Category B, and AUS$95 (P4,031) for Category A tickets, with half-price tickets for students and senior citizens. In fact fans could have watched Australia versus Japan and bought the most expensive ticket in the other four Challenge Cup Qualification groups for the same price as the Philippines’ lower center Grandstand tickets against Turkmenistan, and still have P290 left over for dinner. Meanwhile the el Classico, the Real Madrid versus Barcelona clash, is arguably the best football match in the world, which sees the best two footballers in the world go head-to-head, in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ticket prices began at 20 Euros (P1049) for members and 40 Euros (P2098) for non-members, while the Philippines charged P1,000 and P2,000-2,500 for Grandstand tickets in the Challenge Cup Qualifiers.
The Philippines losing money on international matches Some in the Azkals’ management are doing the best they can with what they have. In the previous article, manager Dan Palami was quoted as saying that on average the Philippines loses around P3 million when hosting international games. That’s a huge amount of money and given that hosts are supposed to make money back from ticket revenue, the Philippines clearly have costs the other countries don’t. One of the reasons is that starting with just two players based in the United Football League in their starting eleven, the Philippines flew over ten players from Europe for the squad. Flights add up, and it’s far from likely those players were flying economy. In addition, there are fees to clubs to release players and the salaries and substantial bonuses of players from the contracts revealed during the Younghusband saga from the Peace Cup. Ultimately, the management refused the Younghusbands’ financial demands but it does reveal that the Azkals are getting paid to play for the country, and getting paid well. The Philippines’ expenditure for games runs well above other nations’ costs before hosting other teams. By comparison, seven of the 19 countries who participated in the Challenge Cup had no players based outside their domestic leagues competing, while most of the rest had a handful of players based within their region. Turkmenistan, for example, brought in four players from other countries in the Middle East. Only Afghanistan had more foreign-based players than the Azkals, and they’re abroad more for security than anything else, but their fourteen players from different countries, including five from Germany, are all based in the lower tiers. The foreign-based Azkals are in the top leagues abroad meanwhile, and with the higher quality comes a higher cost of bringing the players over.
Fans paying for the lack of infrastructure Extremely impressive progress on the pitch has been made under manager Dan Palami and coach Michael Weiss’ watch. However the off-the-pitch management seems to be expecting the fans to pay top-rate for tickets to see a team which isn't yet the best in Southeast Asia yet, let alone further afield. More respectable ticket prices will of course see higher attendance numbers for the Azkals’ matches, and there is the potential for large attendances in the Philippines. After the team’s revival in 2010, full-capacity crowds against Mongolia in Bacolod, and Sri Lanka and Kuwait in Manila, for the first three home games of 2011, partly attest to that. But to get back to those crowds and continue expanding, the infrastructure must come first, because if Philippine tickets remain far out of proportion with the rest of the region, attendance will continue to fall. Financial sustainability is possible for Philippine football should these, and similar problems in the infrastructure, be ironed out. And the future of football in this country could be very bright given results on the pitch. Yet, ticket prices for the Philippines reflect similar prices fans pay to see the best in Asia, sometimes the best in the world, and that’s something that must change for the Azkals to progress sustainably.
- AMD, GMA News 
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