Football fans cheered by ticket price deflation – but Arsenal fans pay most for tickets and Chelsea supporters enjoy cheap tea and pies
Most football fans in Britain are paying the same as last season or less for match tickets this term, according to a new study.
The BBC Sport Price of Football study, which collated prices for 700 tickets at 229 clubs across 13 UK leagues, found that the cost of admission had been frozen in 52 per cent of cases and cut in 18 per cent.
Two thirds of Premier League tickets were held or reduced. The average cost of the cheapest seat at a top-flight club has risen beyond £30 for the first time, but the average price of a team’s most expensive ticket has fallen to £56.63.
Tickets
Arsenal offer the Premier League’s most expensive matchday ticket at £97 and Leicester the cheapest at £22.
Chelsea’s cheapest ticket costs £52 – more than its equivalent at any other top English team, and £20 more than the most expensive seat at newly promoted Bournemouth.
The four costliest matchday tickets in the division are at London clubs, who also dominate the most expensive season ticket list.
Both Arsenal’s top end season ticket, which costs £2,013, and entry level season ticket, which costs £1,014, are the most expensive in the top flight, although Gunners fans benefit from seven cup matches as part of that price.
Tottenham (most expensive: £1,895; cheapest: £765), Chelsea (£1250/£750) and West Ham (£955/£617) are also in the top five of both lists.
Stoke offer the Premier League’s cheapest season ticket, at £294, while wealthy Manchester City’s lowest-priced offering is just £5 dearer. No season ticket at West Brom costs more than £509, a divisional low.
Replica shirts
Manchester United charge the most for an adult replica shirt, at £60 – £10 more than the Premier League average of £49.68 and 50 per cent more than the top-flight’s cheapest, Bournemouth’s £40 offering. The average cost across Britain was £42.18.
Teas and pies
Chelsea may be among the most expensive tickets but the champions’ teas and pies are among the most reasonably priced.
There is no cheaper brew in the Premier League than the Blues’ £1 offering, which is only 20p more than English football’s cheapest, at Conference side Braintree.
Despite playing in the Scottish second tier, no club charges more than Rangers’ £2.50 for a cuppa, although Liverpool’s is the same price.
Chelsea also offer the cheapest pie in the top flight, at £2.50.
Non-league Kidderminster Harriers’ £4.50 pie is the costliest in the British game, while Crystal Palace and Manchester City have the most expensive in the top division, at £4.
The BBC study, published last night, includes figures from all clubs apart from Swansea, who declined to take part.