If Tottenham Hotspur had set out to create a modern parable showing all that is wrong with football, they could not have done better. Details of the eagerly awaited new stadium were revealed last week, with season ticket price rises of up to 70 percent. The glossy brochure boasting of sumptuous facilities looks decadent now the ticket prices are known. Instead of welcoming an improved new “home”, many fans are saying that European oak finishes and brushed steel on the food court work-surfaces are not the reason they come to the match. And the placing of over 1,000 premium-lite exclusive membership club tickets costing £2,200 across the center of the vaunted single-tier home end looks like a calculated insult. Impervious as ever to fan criticism, the club at first denied there were any complaints, then ludicrously claimed prices had not risen because the product was not comparable. After the Supporters’ Trust dug deep into the figures and highlighted the implications for many fans, the club put out a statement containing the claim that there were more tickets at £995 available than there were season tickets at the old ground. That is supposed to be a good thing. The spirit of Marie Antoinette lives on. Those who would respond that this is the commercial reality of modern football should think again. As should the club. The income from these prices will do very little to boost player wages – something that is in any case less of a priority for a fan base energized by seeing a successful team being coached rather than bought. And in any case there is no commitment from the club to break its wage cap. The stadium is financed, like all major builds, on debt and that must be paid off. The banks have been persuaded by the projected loyalty of the club’s support. Build it and they will come, goes the theory, and when they do they will create an atmosphere that helps sell the product to global TV for high sums. That might be true for one season at a new stadium, or until the team hits a dip in form. But what then? Having priced out some of its most loyal fans and turned one of the most atmospheric crowds in the country into just another set of customers consuming, rather than creating, the product, how valuable will Brand Spurs be? The old saying about knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing is apposite. All fans are passionate about their club, but Spurs fans have maintained a passion that has drawn admiration, if only grudging, from elsewhere through lean times. There have been feelings that the club has lost its way before, but the last few years under Mauricio Pochettino have led to the strengthening of a bond between fans and club and a new feeling of shared identity. The club looked to have recognized that, with its dignified and moving handling of the last months at White Hart Lane and its talk of putting atmosphere and the supporters “front and center” of the new stadium. How foolish we were to believe that. The many hundreds of fans who have contacted the Supporters’ Trust since the price announcement have used words such as disgusted, betrayed, exploited, let down. It seems the measure of our support is the money we are prepared to fork out, nothing else. Some will not renew, not because they do not want to, but because they have been priced out. Many more are saying they will give it a year and see. At these prices there is no room for sentiment. Which is ironic, because sentiment is what makes the business so valuable. The Spurs board can still repair the fractured relationship with its fans. It can rethink the pricing before the May 16 deadline. It can rethink its flawed concessions policy. It can restore cup vouchers to season tickets. It can offer discounts on cup games. It can offer discounts on tickets for future years. It can commit to a price freeze for a set period or it can commit to dropping prices when the debt is paid off. And it can take what a large section of its supporter base is saying seriously, rather than dismissing it. Or it could carry on regardless, changing the nature of the product. Spurs could end up just another high street destination rather than a unique brand with a living history. The current board could be remembered as the visionaries they want to be. Or they could be remembered as the builders of a monument to the folly of modern football.The Guardian Sport