By Mark Baber
October 16 – According to a BBC study of 207 clubs, the average price of the cheapest tickets across English football has risen at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011 with the average price of the cheapest match-day ticket from the Premier League to League Two now at £21.49, up 4.4% since last year, over treble the 1.2% rate of inflation.
The study, now in its fourth year, includes 176 clubs across 11 divisions in British football and 31 clubs from 10 different leagues in Europe and the results show that despite a massive increase in television income, and the implementation of the Financial Fair Play regime, supporters are being charged more for tickets as well as other match day items such as replica shirts, programmes, cups of tea and pies.
Key findings of the BBC survey include:
Arsenal still have the Premier League’s most expensive match-day ticket at £97, although that is £29 cheaper than it was last year.
Arsenal have the most expensive season ticket in the top flight at £2,013 (although it does include seven credits for cup competitions).
Arsenal’s cheapest season ticket is £1,014, more than 17 Premier League clubs charge for their most expensive one.
Barcelona charge around £103 for their lowest-priced season ticket.
Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke – all charge less than £13 for their cheapest match-day ticket.
Charlton’s £150 season ticket is the cheapest in England’s top four divisions.
Manchester City have the league’s cheapest season ticket at £299 which is cheaper than that of 15 Championship clubs, 10 in League One, four in League Two and one in the Conference.
The figures from the BBC underline the fact that Premier League clubs are spending their increased revenues on more expensive players with financial analysts Deloitte having confirmed that they now spend a record 71p on wages for every £1 of income generated.
Leading the opposition to the ticket price rises has been The Football Supporters’ Federation whose chairman Malcolm Clarke, who said, “Three times the rate of inflation is completely unacceptable from an industry that’s got megabucks going in at the top.”
Political opposition also came from Shadow sports minister Clive Efford MP who said the “inflation-busting” increases “just cannot be acceptable.”
However, despite moaning from the sidelines about price rises, Premier League attendances were the highest in English top-flight football since 1949-50 with supporters clearly voting with their feet in recognition of a superior product.
As for Arsenal ticket prices, the club made clear the highest prices quoted were only for five games this season and the club sells up to 300,000 tickets to adults and juniors for just £5-£10 each.
The BBC sports editor, Dan Roan, continued the middle-class media tradition of slamming football for becoming a “middle-class pursuit”, pointing to the fans march on the Premier League’s HQ in protest at rising ticket prices. Nevertheless, as long as the number of fans demonstrating continues to be dwarfed by those marching through the turnstiles, club executives will continue to think they have got the pricing structure about right.
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