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The Price of Football

markysimmo

Johnny nice-tits
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The average price of the cheapest tickets across English football has risen at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011.

BBC Sport's Price of Football study analysed how much fans are charged at 207 clubs.

The average price of the cheapest match-day ticket from the Premier League to League Two is now £21.49.

It has increased 13% since 2011, compared to a 6.8% rise in the cost of living.

Year-on-year it is up 4.4%, more than treble the 1.2% rate of inflation

Critics of the price hikes said clubs had lost touch with fans and argued that the recent £3.1bn windfall from television rights should have resulted in a drop in ticket prices for supporters.

But some clubs, particularly those in the Premier League, point to packed-out stadiums as proof they have got pricing right.

The Price of Football is in its fourth year and is the largest study of its kind in Britain, covering 176 clubs across 11 division in British football and 31 clubs from 10 different leagues in Europe.

As well as ticket prices, information was gathered about the price of replica shirts, pies, programmes and a cup of tea. For the first time this year Price of Football worked out the cost to supporters for each home goal their team scored.

Here are some key findings:

Arsenal have the most expensive match-day ticket in the Premier League at £97. That's down £29 on last season but still more than double the most expensive match-day ticket at seven other top-flight clubs
The Gunners also have the most expensive season ticket in the top flight at £2,013, although it includes seven credits for cup competitions. Their cheapest season ticket is £1,014, which is more than 17 Premier League clubs charge for their most expensive one.
Emirates Marketing Project have the league's cheapest season ticket at £299. That's cheaper than at 15 Championship clubs, 10 clubs in League One, four in League Two and even one in the Conference.
Charlton's £150 season ticket is the cheapest in England's top four divisions. However, Barcelona charge around £103 for their lowest-priced season ticket.
In Scotland's Premiership the average price for the cheapest day out at Premiership matches, including a match-day ticket, pie, cup of tea and a programme, increased by just 61p to £26.95 from last season.

Premier League transfer spending hit a record £835m during the summer window, up from £630m the previous year, boosted by the bumper television deal, which was 70% higher than the previous package.

This summer financial analysts Deloitte said Premier League clubs now spend 71p on player wages for every £1 generated, the first time the 70p mark had been broken. Match-day revenue increased by 6% in the Premier League last season to £585m.

Yet as well as the cheapest match-day ticket rise, the average price of the cheapest Premier League season ticket has increased 8.7% since 2012, from £467.95 to £508.55.

Shadow sports minister Clive Efford MP said the "inflation-busting" increases "just cannot be acceptable".

"Any business that thinks it can simply rely upon the loyalty of its customers, regardless of how they treat them, in the end will fail. It's an absolute fact," he added.

"Therefore I would be asking clubs, 'are your fans happier today than they were five years ago with the experience that they get, the value for money that they feel they're getting?'"

The Football Supporters' Federation had called for clubs to use the TV deal to cut ticket prices, saying they could knock about £30 off each ticket and still generate the same revenue.

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the group, said there was "no excuse at all" for the continuing rises.

"Three times the rate of inflation is completely unacceptable from an industry that's got megabucks going in at the top," he said.

Despite the ticket price rises, Premier League attendances are on the increase. The average last season was 36,695.

"For the Premier League and our clubs, keeping the grounds as full as possible is our top priority," said Cathy Long, the Premier League's head of supporter services.

"The attendances so far this season are very encouraging, with more than 95% of seats sold and average crowds tracking with last season's, which were the highest in English top-flight football since 1949-50."

BBC Sport asked Arsenal for an interview but they declined. Instead, they sent us a statement that read: "Work is continually undertaken to offer tickets at various prices, with the highest match ticket only applicable for five Premier League fixtures in a season.

"Across the course of a campaign, we offer up to 300,000 reduced price tickets to adult and junior supporters, from £5 and £10."

Queen's Park Rangers chief executive Philip Beard added: "Our pricing structure is very fair and I've never had any significant complaints from any fans."

In the Football League, the average cost of the cheapest match-day ticket increased 31.7% in League One and 19% in League Two. In the Championship, the average price has fell 3.2%.

Crowds in the Football League increased by 136,000 last season. The Championship had a total audience of more than 9.1m fans, at an average of over 16,500 per match. Only the Premier League (13.9m), Germany's Bundesliga (13.1m) and Spain's La Liga (10m) can boast more fans through the turnstiles in Europe.

Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said: "Season ticket holders are making up an ever greater proportion of the supporter base and account for 10 million of the 15 million admissions to Football League matches each season.

"As the study also suggests, a consequence of providing greater value to the majority of fans at one end of the spectrum is that those fans at the other end of the spectrum, those adults paying on the day for a single match, may now find themselves paying a bit more at some clubs."

BBC Sport contacted clubs in 10 other European countries to find out how prices in Britain compare with those in the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.

While some of those clubs sell very cheap match-day tickets, with French side Lille offering one for only £5.87, many charge more than £100 for their most expensive.

It is a similar story for season tickets, with AC Milan charging about £163 for their cheapest but almost £3,600 for their most expensive.

The Serie A side also have a match ticket that costs about £298.

The Bundesliga is often held up as a league that puts fans first by keeping ticket prices low.

The four clubs we contacted - Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke - all charge less than £13 for their cheapest match-day ticket.

Dortmund's commercial director said Arsenal's match-day revenues were impressive but insisted his club would not entertain the idea of charging such large amounts for tickets.

"If we were to ask for prices like this, we would lose the people," Carsten Cramer told BBC Sport. "The people are one of the most important assets for our club. We have to care for them."

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As always at this time of year the BBC look into the price of football, yes its bloody exspensive but its this short video about the German league that caught my eye the most.

[video]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29618299[/video]
 
Arsenal declined for an interview. ****ers. It's prices like this for tickets and wages that these idiots are on, that will be the reason why I probably give up my season ticket in a year or two. We are paying for these people that don't really give a **** about our club to become millionaires. I sometimes wish I could have grown up in the 50s and 60s when the stars were on little or nothing. I would have had far more respect for footballers than I do nowadays.
 
At the start of the season I thought I'd look into going to a London ground every other week or so. Millwall, Charlton, Orient etc...

How naive of me to think I'd get a ticket for around a tenner! Millwall standard ticket is around £25!! **** that.
 
i'm fed up with this, it costs what it costs, if you think its too expensive don't go, if gates reduce enough ticket prices will follow
 
i'm fed up with this, it costs what it costs, if you think its too expensive don't go, if gates reduce enough ticket prices will follow

I bet they wouldnt

Take our cup pricing, £20 last year and we'd get fairly decent crowds, £25 this year and the crowds I bet you will be a lot down, why change it in the 1st place, why not make it £15 and sell out and make up any differences through merchandising and food/beverages
 
As always at this time of year the BBC look into the price of football, yes its bloody exspensive but its this short video about the German league that caught my eye the most.

[video]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29618299[/video]


Amazing, isn't it?
Dortmund, my favourite other club for multiple reasons.

Here's another beeb article on it...
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29624410
"We make a weekend of it. With tickets, accommodation, transport, this trip will cost £65. When you think it cost me £51 to see the Arsenal game last season, you can see the benefits."
 
I bet they wouldnt

Take our cup pricing, £20 last year and we'd get fairly decent crowds, £25 this year and the crowds I bet you will be a lot down, why change it in the 1st place, why not make it £15 and sell out and make up any differences through merchandising and food/beverages

i'm sure the club have worked out the best rates to maximise income, if PL gates went through the floor (25% of current rates for example) teams would have no choice but to reduce prices
 
Here's another beeb article on it...
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29624410
"We make a weekend of it. With tickets, accommodation, transport, this trip will cost £65. When you think it cost me £51 to see the Arsenal game last season, you can see the benefits."

Shows that no-one is loyal in football. Not even the fans. They are just as easily swayed by a good deal as players are. Highlights the hypocrisy of fans when they moan at players leaving for money.
 
There are so many of these surveys and none do it properly. What is the point about average highest prices and average lowest prices? Spurs and Arsenal have a few of those really expensive tickets, City have a few really cheap ones, but the vast majority of tickets fall inbetween and those are in no way representative.

It's easy to contact the clubs and ask for highest and lowest prices, but why don't they do the job properly. Inquire about season tickets in all areas of the ground and work out the mean, median , etc. Then produce a decent report. Or a least try and estimate the average from the gate receipt figures in the accounts.
 
Shows that no-one is loyal in football. Not even the fans. They are just as easily swayed by a good deal as players are. Highlights the hypocrisy of fans when they moan at players leaving for money.
Is that really what is happening here or just a few fans making a trip to see an exciting team in an exciting stadium as a once off? I wouldn't mind this trip myself to be honest.
 
Prices go up for everything, I can live with that. But it's a bit hard to stomach when it's going up more than the cost of living each season. I think eventually it will reach a breaking point and attendances will drop, which will force the clubs hands to lower prices, might not be for while though.
 
i'm fed up with this, it costs what it costs, if you think its too expensive don't go, if gates reduce enough ticket prices will follow

Like most on here I'm sure it's not that I can't afford it. I do think it's too high. It's disgusting. We're mugs for paying it too.
 
i'm fed up with this, it costs what it costs, if you think its too expensive don't go, if gates reduce enough ticket prices will follow
It's not like buying your lunch from a different shop though is it, your emotional attachment to Spurs will keep you paying and they know it.

What I don't get is how the German sides do it, how they still compete on the field?
 
German clubs tend to have much large commercial sponsorships.

I read recently something saying the new PL seal could be worth £7m per game. Matchday is about £3m for United and Arsenal get, £2m Chelsea, £1.5m for Liverpool and Spurs. Perhaps if TV and commercial money continues to grow the incentive to squeeze ever penny from the stadium might be reduced. On the other hand, every little helps. and there is little sign that fans are less demanding in requiring new signings.
 
It's not like buying your lunch from a different shop though is it, your emotional attachment to Spurs will keep you paying and they know it.

What I don't get is how the German sides do it, how they still compete on the field?

I think English clubs pay much higher wages than they really need to. There are so many average players making superstar money. More clubs should follow Villa's example.

I read that Blackett kid at ManU was going to be offered a new deal now that he has broken into the first team, which is only natural, but to move him from 2K a week to 50K is just ridiculous.
 
I think English clubs pay much higher wages than they really need to. There are so many average players making superstar money. More clubs should follow Villa's example.

I read that Blackett kid at ManU was going to be offered a new deal now that he has broken into the first team, which is only natural, but to move him from 2K a week to 50K is just ridiculous.

Look at what some of the **** at AFC gets paid
 
It's not like buying your lunch from a different shop though is it, your emotional attachment to Spurs will keep you paying and they know it.

What I don't get is how the German sides do it, how they still compete on the field?

I used to think that its not like "buying your lunch from a different shop" too. but i dont actually think that anymore.

Why are there suddenly more Emirates Marketing Project fans domestically and abroad since they started winning things? and why did Leeds Utd start getting less fans through their gates when they were getting relegated? This applies for almost all relegated clubs too. And when teams get promoted, they invariably get more fans.

The fact is, no-one is really that loyal in football. Fans are no different. We crave success, and evidently if the club don't provide it (to a satisfactory level), we stop attending.

And regarding the German sides, they still have less income than English sides. A small part of which is down to recieving less income from ticket sales. And therefore, they are comparatively slightly weaker than the english sides on the whole.
 
I think English clubs pay much higher wages than they really need to. There are so many average players making superstar money. More clubs should follow Villa's example.

I read that Blackett kid at ManU was going to be offered a new deal now that he has broken into the first team, which is only natural, but to move him from 2K a week to 50K is just ridiculous.

"Average players" is relative. I would argue that those players you are labelling as "average" are football geniuses. ie. Someone like Lee Cattermole would have been the best player in his district, which would have contained thousands of kids. He only looks relatively average because he is being pitted against the best kids from London, Paris, Buenos Aries, Madrid, Tokyo etc. If he was an academic, he woulde be one of the smartest kids in Cambridge.

And more clubs could follow Villa's example. But like Villa, they will be flirting with relegation every year until the inevitable happens (which btw, is not neccessarily a bad thing)

If the market decides that blackett is worth 50k pw, then thats his value. Man Utd can either pay him that, or allow him to leave.
 
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