Is Football Too Expensive For Fans?
Nothing beats a full English breakfast and pint before jumping on an overcrowded, and often delayed, train to watch our favourite team win (or lose, if you're a Villa fan like me!) Making new friends, chanting the rudest songs at our opposition fans, eating a pie and chips at half time and hugging every stranger in close proximity when we score... what a life!
However, when I logged into Twitter earlier I found that "£10 adults" was trending. As a sucker for bargains it really peaked my curiosity, so I clicked on it to find out what the buzz was all about. Except for a couple of bonfire advertisements, the whole search was filled with non-league football teams advertising their match day tickets. As you would've guessed, it was only £10 for adults.
When a typical Aston Villa ticket is £40 for an adult in the Holte End, the stand with the best atmosphere, and being asked to go to a Liverpool game with friends with tickets costing £60 for a mid-table Premier League clash, it really got me thinking. With the cost of living crisis and many fans, especially outside of London, living in more deprived areas of the country, are football clubs starting to take the micky with their pricing?
There have been many campaigns, including "twenty's plenty" which are encouraging teams to reduce ticket prices, especially for away fans, to £20 to ease the burden on families. Thankfully away tickets have had a cap of £30 in the Premier League, still over 30% more than the campaign requests but is miles better than the price of home games.
We do of course need to consider the fact that football clubs often have high costs on a match day. After all, they need to pay stewards and other crucial match day staff, the policing on match days which is paid privately by the clubs, the maintenance of the stadium all year-round and the ridiculous salaries of the players and coaching team.
Despite the costs though, surely there are better ways of earning this revenue whilst reducing the cost of tickets to fans, whom themselves are forking out for travel and often spend money within the stadium and at the club store. They have sponsorships, TV money, competition prize money, membership fees for the right to purchase a ticket and retail income which includes match day gambling and hospitality.
Manchester United earn an average of £3.96 million every match day with a net worth of $2.12 billion. Having had a look on their ticketing website, a ticket for the Crystal Palace game starts at £52. In a season of 19 home games, that's £988. Of course there are season tickets available with discounted rates however not every fan has access to this as they are often sold out quickly and not everyone can pay up front. With the cap of £30 for away tickets, this comes to an average of £1,558 across the season for tickets alone. You'll probably spend at least £5 whilst in the stadium which is another £190 on top. That's without the cost of travel!
Do you think it is justified for ticket prices to be so high? Do you agree that it's too expensive and should be reduced? Let me know what you think!
