Chelsea have announced a price freeze on all domestic matches at Stamford Bridge next season and a cut in the cost of attending any home games the club play in the Champions League group stage.

Last year the Blues raised season-ticket prices across the board as well as those for individual Premier League games against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, plus FA Cup and Champions League ties.

That followed a four-year freeze and the club's chief executive, Ron Gourlay, has confirmed the decision not to impose another increase was influenced by the country's economic problems.

"The club has taken the decision not to increase prices for the coming season as we deeply appreciate our loyal following at Stamford Bridge and feel this is the right approach to take in the current economic conditions where budgets may be under pressure," he told the club's website.

Should Chelsea qualify for the Champions League, group-stage match tickets will be reduced from £40 to £35 for adults, and from £20 to £17.50 for juniors and seniors.

The Blues' Champions League pricing policy has been a source of some controversy in recent years and supporters were angered by this season's 33% hike. Their opening group game against Bayer Leverkusen drew the lowest Stamford Bridge attendance in the competition since the Rosenborg boycott of 2007.

A Twitter campaign was also launched for a boycott of the second home match against Genk, although this ended up being a virtual sell-out.

The demands of Uefa's financial fair play regulations have forced Chelsea to balance maintaining an expensively assembled squad with keeping supporters happy – all the time playing in a 42,000-capacity stadium dwarfed in terms of matchday incomes by Manchester United's 76,000-seat Old Trafford and Arsenal's 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium.

Meanwhile, Chelsea and Celtic are set to face each other in a pre-season friendly at Yankee Stadium in New York this summer.

Football has not been played at the iconic baseball venue for 36 years.

The date of the game has not been announced but it is understood the English club, who enjoyed a successful tour of the United States in 2009, will also play matches in Philadelphia, Washington DC and Seattle.