The club have decided to charge adult supporters £25 to watch the game, whilst trying to "soften the blow" by offering children a seat for a fiver. Senior Citizens can watch the game for £15.
£25 is far too extortionate for an adult in my opinion and I know I'm just one of many who believe this. To put this price in context, Blackburn don't even charge that much for a Premier League game whilst near-neighbours Wigan are only asking £15 for any top flight match.
With Pompey fans already having to fork out large chunks of cash to pay for a league game (or even a season ticket), I can't see why they'd want to part with £25 for a League Cup tie against Blackburn Rovers.
That's no disrespect to Blackburn at all because if it were anyone bar one of the "big four" clubs, then I'd expect the same reaction. It's nice that children can watch the game for such a low price, but the majority of our fanbase are working-class adults who probably have families to feed and bills to pay.
How can you expect these people who love their club to afford this on top of the money they've put into the club already?
To put another angle on this, who would want to pay £25 for a cup game against opposition we've already played once and are going to play at least one more time again this season?
I'll use myself as an example. I'm eagerly anticipating an excellent computer game coming out at the end of this month that's received rave reviews across the world, and I know I'll be able to purchase a copy for £25.
So I have to think of whether I want to use that money to buy this game that I know I will enjoy for weeks or use it to pay for a football match where our strongest side probably won't be played and knowing there's a fair chance that I could leave Fratton Park very disappointed that Wednesday night.
Great game that'll keep me entertained for weeks, or 90/120 minutes of what might be entertainment, but could also be boring/disappointing. I know what's better value for money there. (Sorry Harry, I'm not going to be your next star player I'm afraid as I'll be too busy playing my X-Box 360!)
£15 would have been a lot more reasonable. Hell, even at £20 I might have considered it but 25 quid is too much and I expect that fans won't attend either out of principle or simply because they can't afford it.
We're not made of money Pompey! Make ticket prices better value and more accessible to the working class fan or risk much lower attendances at Fratton Park. The signs are already there with only 8,502 turning up for the third round tie against Leeds and just over 17,000 less fans turning up to the game against Bolton.
Whilst I know the club will need the revenue to continue the ongoing success on the pitch, it's in danger of alienating the core support by pricing them out of going to the games.
The fans are the most important part of any football club, especially Portsmouth and something needs to be done before Fratton Park starts to become either empty, or a corporate stronghold.