Tottenham are failing their fans - how have they got it so wrong with season ticket prices at the new stadium?

Tottenham Hotspur have plenty to be cheery about at the moment. From the fact Mauricio Pochettino's squad is their best for decades to the prospect of a brand new stadium with its retractable pitch, glass tunnel and cheese room, this is an exciting time to be involved with the club.

But there is a very real danger of them heading into this new era without many of their most important members: the fans.

Diluted in among promotion of "never-before-seen visuals of the inside of our new home" and reminders that the ground will have "over 60 food and drink outlets" and a "65-metre bar, the longest in the UK", Spurs recently announced season ticket prices for their return to Tottenham after a year at Wembley.

The headlines the club focused on were twice as many season tickets as the old White Hart Lane, the addition of a "young adult" concession category on top of those for seniors and juniors, and a designated family area, with full-priced 19-match season tickets in some sections of the ground from £795 - a figure most supporters who want a season ticket would be willing to pay.

However, these lead numbers tell a hugely misleading story. The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust, a group set up to represent the fans and promote their interests by improving links between the club and its community, last week highlighted some of the facts that the club chose to gloss over.

Tottenham's new stadium in pictures

These are just a few of their findings, and some of the implications:

• There are limited tickets at prices below £995.

• Concessionary prices are only available on tickets priced below £1,125, which make up 44 per cent of the stadium. The latter 'phases' of the application process (of which there are eight, where an applicant's position is determined by the number of continuous years for which they have previously held their season ticket) could feasibly have little concessionary availability.

• Only 2,500 tickets  - or just four per cent of the stadium - are available at the lowest price of £795, and you have to be connected to a junior applicant eligible for this family area to get one.

• Every area of the stadium will see an increase in prices on the old White Hart Lane. Behind the goal will see a hike of a minimum of 25 per cent, while parts of the East Stand will see rises of up to 70 per cent. Tottenham's defence here is that there is "no like-for-like" comparison between the two grounds. But for many football fans, behind the goal at a football match is pretty similar wherever you are.

• Supporters who bought a season ticket at Wembley for as little as £695 on the 'guarantee' of a seat at the new stadium will be allowed to purchase no earlier than phase five (and the majority will be much later). Friends or family who are in earlier phases will be discouraged from waiting for the latter phases to be able to buy seats together for fear of missing out on cheaper tickets.

• The most expensive tickets cost £2,200 (though at this price domestic cup matches are also included) and many will be placed in the centre of the single-tier south stand, which had been billed as Tottenham's answer to Borussia Dortmund's 'yellow wall'. There had previously been no indication that these premium seats would be in the heart of this stand, which many fans hope will provide the best atmosphere in the stadium. At Tottenham, these fans will have access to a private bar where they will receive a "complimentary" beer at half time, so there's every chance at least a few of them will not be in their seats at the start of the second half.

• Spurs had to make some tickets available to local residents. They have done so, but these won't go on sale until after phase eight, by which time there is the possibility that many of the cheapest tickets will have been sold.

These gripes were put to Tottenham, but the responses were, frankly, unsatisfactory.

Asked about the small amount of tickets available at £795, Tottenham simply pointed in the direction of "23,000 in the stadium priced £995 or less - more than the total number of season ticket holders at White Hart Lane". This is all well and good, but there remain a large number of people who are ineligible for the cheap family stand tickets and would consider £995 unaffordable. There are many more who won't even be able get one at that price.

The club does expect seats in the family stand to remain available until the latter phases of the process, meaning everyone (eligible) should have a fair chance at getting their hands on them, but again, that is only a limited number of fans.

Fans were sold an idea that they will not be able to buy into. What they can purchase will cost a whole lot more than they had expected. Clearly, plans for the new stadium have not taken their best interests into account.

Matt Spurr, a lifelong fan who bought a season ticket for the first time when availability increased for the move to Wembley and will join the application process for next season's tickets at phase seven, is dismayed at the way the club lured him into a situation he may have chosen to avoid had Tottenham's intentions been made clear a year ago.

"They have got us over a barrel at the moment," he told Telegraph Sport. "There was no indication that prices would be increased like this. If anything it was inferred prices might be along a similar line [to the Wembley pricing]." Tottenham responded that "Wembley was priced to reflect the fact that our fans had to travel to a different stadium", but fans were not told this when deciding whether to purchase a season ticket last season.

Like many others, Spurr will soon be making a decision as to how much he is willing to pay to follow his team to the new stadium. The fact he has already paid nearly £700 to jump the queue for a season ticket will make it even harder to say no, forcing him into a difficult financial decision.

THST are holding ongoing talks with the club to improve the situation for fans, and they have had some success already. Katrina Law, the trust's co-chair, insists the club has little reason to ask fans for so much money.

"Season ticket revenue accounted for just over 10 per cent of Tottenham's income according to the latest set of published accounts," she said.

"In this era of unprecedented broadcast deals, lucrative sponsorships and partnerships, the significance of gate money is reduced. The scale of these rises are unpalatable and unjustified."

Season ticket prices (latest announced)

Martin Cloake, Law's co-chair, believes there are plenty of other ways Spurs can "start to repair the goodwill it has thrown away" in the last few weeks, stretching well beyond reducing ticket prices.

"They could increase the number of seats at lower price points, restore cup voucher credits to season tickets, commit to price freezes in future years and commit to low pricing inside the stadium. The brochure showing beer at £6 a pint has not gone down well," Cloake told Telegraph Sport. "This isn't an exhaustive list but would be a start."

Across north London, Arsenal are the only Premier League club at which the cheapest season ticket is more expensive than Tottenham's. However, they also include the first seven home matches in the FA Cup and European competition in the price of their season tickets.

The latest figures released by each club show fans can buy a season ticket at Crystal Palace for as little as £420, at West Ham for £289, at Manchester United for £532 and Manchester City for £299. Liverpool's cheapest season ticket costs £685, but their most expensive is only £869, while at Chelsea, prices range from £750 to £1,250. Tottenham's prices have no justification.

Tottenham fans now have a petition against the pricing which has already garnered nearly 6,000 signatures, while David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, says action must be taken.

"I am raising this issue with Spurs," Lammy told Telegraph Sport. "As part of the conditions and agreement for building the new White Hart Lane stadium my constituents were promised discounted tickets. It would be quite wrong and extremely counter-productive to build a stadium that becomes an ivory tower inaccessible to the very people who have helped to make the club what it is today."

According to a recent government survey, Tottenham's borough, Haringey, is the sixth most deprived local authority in London.  Spurs maintain local residents will have plenty of choice when their turn to choose their seats comes around, with "40,000 renewing season ticket holders and 50,000 seats available", but the likelihood is that local residents will have no access to the cheaper or concessionary tickets.

These prices will just drive local residents away from the ground. Aren't local, young fans exactly the kind of people the club should be targeting and prioritising?

Those willing to travel from further afield and pay such extortionate prices to see this brilliant team which boasts Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christan Eriksen might not be so keen if their current success on the field proves short-lived. If that happens and prices stay the same, Tottenham could end up playing in front of half-filled stands. How many supporters would pay this much to see Ramon Vega, Johnnie Jackson and Jason Dozzell back in Spurs lilywhite?

The stadium can be as state-of-the-art as you like, but it's the fans that make a ground a home, and the Premier League's brand is significantly weaker with empty seats seen on televisions all over the world. A fall in broadcast revenue could prove far more costly than any amount Spurs could lose out on in ticket sales.

On the page for the new stadium on Tottenham official website, a quote from chairman Daniel Levy is displayed proudly: "It will be our new home for generations to come and we want it to be exceptional". Exceptional the new stadium may be, but the number of future generations able to afford tickets at these prices is another matter entirely, and that should be a significant concern.