Â鶹Éç

Remember and add in the price of 10 pints before the game....

Could make interesting reading,and will also be interesting to see how the relegated clubs from each division fare

Â鶹Éç meet moneysupermarket. A kid's guide to choosing the best value-for-money club.

As a die hard MUFC fan, I actually think our prices aren't too bad. By taking an official membership for about £35 at the start of the season, you can get tickets pretty much in the Stretford End for about £25, you also have priority over everyone else bar ST holders. For Man Utd, 'the world's most supported team', £25 for a Premier League game at the best end in the league isn't too bad imho.

I'd be more interested to find out what is the "mean" price for each clubs tickets - ie at what price do the majority of tickets get sold. Usually the minimum and maximum will have special attributes that just do not apply to most fans. Also it looks as though this year as last, you are ignoring the most expensive item of a day at the football - travel to and from the game. I cannot think how you can cover this because it varies so much from fan to fan but it does tend to be the most expensive aspect for most of the fans I know and particularly for me.

Yawn! who cares, some earn £150,000 a week and cannot hit the target, it's the rugby season, watch a real man's game, the best earn £150,000 a year!!!!

It's simple - DON'T pay rip-off prices!

I went to Old Trafford for the Olympics and I am proud to say I bought nowt - bar the price of admission.

Also got to bare in mind the quality of the cup of tea or pie. I'd be happier paying 2 quid for a cup of pg tips than 50p for a cup of tea made with value teabags. Same with a pie I'd rather pay more for for one with a good quality meat than cheap for a pie with poor quality cut of meat.

@siralexferguson #4

I am a ST holder at Old Trafford and my ST works out at £28 per game. Non-ST holders pay £5 a ticket more than that, so in fact the minimum price (for a league game) is £33.

I support Spurs. We have a tiny stadium with loads of fans so already the ticket prices are high. For Premier League games, there are hardly any tickets left for general sale after all the season tickets and members get theirs, and the tickets that are left aren't great tickets that are definantly not worth the expensive price.

Thats why I like cup games. Cheaper tickets for example £20 anywhere in the stadium. There is less interest in the games so its easier to get better tickets, and later on in the competitions, season ticket holders no longer get their seats so its even better. And they are mostly evening games which I prefer.

I recently bought 3 tickets right behind the goal for a europa league game for £20 each. Thats brilliant. At the same time, I checked tickets for a premier league games against Wigan and Chelsea. Best tickets available were high up in a corner with some huge posts in the way (damn east stand), and for this privilage, you had to pay £44 for Wigan and £71 for Chelsea. Rediculous.

To help justify prices, Id like the FA to take a leaf out of motorsport's book: have support games. For example: with F1, you go to silverstone to watch it, but beforehand, you get gp2, gp3, and porsche supercup races, making it better value for money. The Premier League and the Reserves league should be syncronised so games are played on the same day. Fans can turn up early to see a reserves game before the main game, providing better value for money as they see 2 games, and it helps the reserves as they are now playing in front of big crowds in main stadiums.

Surely its obvious why the difference in prices, is down to the size of the club and wages that have to paid for vast amounts of staff! Less fans less overheads. just like prices in city centres as opposed to town and country prices

@siralexferguson,@StretfordEnder or any other united supporter,when you apply for the official membership which is £35,you can apply in a ballot for the big games after season ticket holders i.e Arsenal,Liverpool,Chelsea..how often do you get called out of the ballot?

@10

Except very few want to be bored to death for several hours of football - watching the reserves would only appeal to a die hard few.

@10
It would also pose the risk of the pitch being cut up by the reserves just prior to the first team playing. You see the thing is they play on grass not tarmac :)

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Very simple answer to this question, if you want to see the best you pay a price and I do not see empty seats at the best! Nobody forces them to go through the turnstiles, it is nae socialism at work. What I would like to know is why do the Â鶹Éç continually waste money on the obvious and degrade their sporting content to such a degree. The descisions that you make aboot sport and the coverage wether it be TV or web just lately belie beleif. The horrendous re-do of the web structure and your inability to maintain it and give licence fee payers value for money and your intransigence on comment regarding it is arrogant to the core. The move to sport city heaven has been and always will be one of the most outrageous wastse of funding money out there, and in doing so the standard you had has virtually gone and the isolation you have given yourselves is painful. Shame on you investigate who and why made these stupid, degrading ideas and leave the obvious to jealous socialist principles. Disgusting waste..

@14. The reserves could play afterward the main game? While I accept this might not work well for late/evening games because they would not finish until nearly midnight, it could be done for weekend games that kick off at 3pm. I suppose however we would need to understand if there is much demand to watch the reserves and would people want to spend maybe 5hrs in a stadium on a cold and wet winner afternoon...?

@kc_chiefs To be fair, I think it would benefit families and younger fans who just want to see good level football, I would happily watch two matches

@siralexferguson
Shame they didn't apply those 'not too bad' prices to the recent league cup tie then, they charged Newcastle fans £45 for what was essentially a reserves match!

#7 Manc

"I went to Old Trafford for the Olympics and I am proud to say I bought nowt - bar the price of admission."

Congrats - you really got into the Olympic spirit then?
You must've been laughing all the way home thinking of all those poor fools who went out to enjoy an evening of international football and didn't feel they had to starve and dehydrate themselves for some pathetic principal and a couple of quid. Maybe, one day, we can all be as petty as you and instead of paying for the enjoyment of watching live sport, we'll all just sit at home and listen on the radio to a game played out in silence, in an empty stadium.

This whole discussion seems somewhat pointless. If you don't want to pay - don't go! Don't pay and then complain about it. And if you can't afford the prices, maybe you should consider not going! If the clubs charge too much they'll drive people away - which they're not doing, they're just trying to run their business.

These prices all seem quite reasonable - comparable to normal, high street prices. How much would you pay for a hot drink in Starbucks or Costa, or anywhere for that matter? If you're struggling with the current economic downturn maybe the best thing is to stay at home and leave the seats available for someone who can actually afford to be there and is capable of supporting their club and helping them progress financially.

Oh, that's right - you're a city fan and that's not how your club makes its money. They don't really need the fans - they just get gifted money from abroad! In that case, carry on. Save your pennies. The Sheik don't need them.

#20 Schmeichel's Gooch wrote:

#7 Manc

"I went to Old Trafford for the Olympics and I am proud to say I bought nowt - bar the price of admission."

Congrats - you really got into the Olympic spirit then?
You must've been laughing all the way home thinking of all those poor fools who went out to enjoy an evening of international football and didn't feel they had to starve and dehydrate themselves for some pathetic principal and a couple of quid. Maybe, one day, we can all be as petty as you and instead of paying for the enjoyment of watching live sport, we'll all just sit at home and listen on the radio to a game played out in silence, in an empty stadium.
-----------------------------------------------

Maybe you can explain to us the Olympic Spirit then? Is it one where the spectators MUST (as they're not allowed to bring their own) pay massively inflated prices, just for a mere basic bottle of water? One where rip-off Britain must pay motorway service station prices whilst contained within a sporting arena as they have no other option?
Ironically, it was the footballers within Team GB who massively under performed in comparison to the athletes, rowers and cyclists but then most of us expected nothing less from a bunch of overpaid prima donna's who ordinarily wouldn't be fit to lace Mo Farah's shoes or polish Sir Chris Hoy's bike!

Surely the Â鶹Éç realize that the price of almost everything is dependent on the geographical location of the comparison. After all, they moved from London to Manchester as a cheaper alternative to paying the higher costs in London. We recently returned to the North East of England for a few days and whilst on a night out visited a bar with family and friends and paid just over £12 for a round of nine different drinks including pints of "best", glasses of wine spritzers and shorts. Two weeks ago in an Enfield public bar two half pints of lemonade with a dash of lime cost £5. At neither location were we forced to buy the drinks! And both bars were equally full. Nobody is taken to football matches at gunpoint and made to pay whatever is being charged for entrance or other amenities, so I must assume that whomever came up with this hare-brained study is trying to justify their position within the corporation.

Well done Mr Rowson. This survey can and should do good for the game IF it ultimately delivers financial support to smaller league clubs. As you know, they have the same or proportionately much higher overheads to stage a game (Ambulance, police, stewards etc.) with much fewer returns and cannot overcharge for anything. The bigger clubs should be taxed to support the minnows.

Not really taken into the account two of the highest costs at a football match, travel and beer. As a northern Spurs member it cost sixty quid before we get into WHL, add on the ticket price and some days that can cost over hundred quid. Obviously I can't do that every week so unless Spurs move up north just for my convenience, money is pricing me out of the game.

I paid £10 to see Alex Zanardi win Gold at Brands Hatch in the Paralympics. Now there is a real man. If you gave me £100 I wouldn't go to a "professional" game of football. I'm afraid footballers believe their own publicity and think they are worth their wages! Sorry, but I'd like to see how John Terry, Ashley Cole, etc, would cope without their legs. They'd probably stay in bed and cry till "the Sun" went down. Soon, hopefully.

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

In some cases the cost of single tickets to every game appears to be cheaper than a cheap season ticket. See Glasgow Rangers for example. Others, say Liverpool, you only have to miss one home game and again it is cheaper to buy single tickets. I'm sure this is not correct, it makes no sense. Therefore it puts the whole exercise into doubt. Situations like these examples need explaining.

Do fans really expect quality fare or value for money inside the grounds?
I’d advise them to shop elsewhere.
My team has a KFC and a McDonalds in its car-park - I wouldn't recommend those either!

Fair play to Newcastle. cheapest matchday tickets and cheapest day out at a quality stadium

what i would like to know is if Arsenal who have suggested that to watch a cup game is the same entertainment as a premier league game and so get the same entertainment factor per match , when we all know that as with most of the top clubs use the cup competitions to bleed new and just returned from injury players also gives there younger players the experiences in English football
so in essence we pay for what we get
£10 for cup games - no stars
£35 for prem games- overpaid supper stars
as was stated most cup games are well supported so when you see matches on TV with a stadium half full dose it make better echonomicle sense to say
£10 for prem full grounds
and as a thank you cup games 'free'

WHY IS EVERYONE FORGETTING THE LITTLE MAN?!

I'm just not buying the puritan capitalist arguments that are being made for high prices. Sure supply and demand rules the roost when it comes to business (and i acknowledge and accept these clubs are ran as businesses and need to make money), but where does the humanity of these clubs take precedent???
...after all - and without meaning to get all teary eyed about the past - football was the working mans sport; played by the masses; watched by the masses and enjoyed by the masses.

I fear with the rising prices large sections of society, which these clubs' foundations are built on, are being gradually priced out. This will only make for souless multi-national corporations that have no ties with the communities which they once represented. Maybe we're already at that stage and I'd be better off waving flags of Microsoft and Nike who have helped me type this and put shoes on my feet.

Anyway I think the premier league has begun to miss the point. Sport is meant to cross all divides and bring people together, acting as the glue to our society. Pricing people out and just throwing comments around like: 'well you dont have to go, no one is making you', as reason, doesn't wash.

These clubs need to take into account their communities as much as their shareholders and strike a better balance than what is the current state.

Perhaps take a leaf from the Bundesliga who have seen a resurgence of attendance and integration with communities; clubs having a much broader scale of pricing and more competitive deals on amenities than I could ever hope to find in the Premier league.

Re: No 27, "Glasgow Rangers" no longer exist so your point has no relevance. At Motherwell you can get an early adult season ticket for £280 and you get 2 under 16 season tickets included, i think that's good value. Also a pie & bovril is £3.20 so not too bad either. I think in england , particularly at top end , it will end up being roy keane's "prawn sandwich brigade", as prices will continue to soar, as players get greedier. Look at the Bundesliga for a good model. Grounds always pretty much full, cheap entry to all games, travel for away fans and highest season ticketed club in europe. All leagues shouls copy that model but in the UK there is no patience for such things.

I'm a Charlton Athletic supporter. I paid £24 for a ticket away to Blackpool. I chose not to buy a pie (what is it about this recurring 'pie' theme). The half-time tea was welcome and not too pricey as I seem to recollect.
Perhaps the Â鶹Éç would care to look into and overhaul their abysmal coverage of Premier League football via the cringeworthy MOTD teams (1&2). The Football League extra show fares better - yes, I understand the cost limitations of the show - hence Steve Claridge.

I think that the survey is laudable, however, to me has one large omission. That being the cheapest type of ticket available to visiting fans. More often than not - this is not the same as the cheapest for home supporters, and is invariably a lot more expensive. Which seems to me to be penalising travelling supporters for coming to your club.

I can't believe JYS-GOAT's comment about over paid footballers. A professional footballer is worth whatever his club is prepared to pay him. Do you you think anyone would say "don't pay me that much". Football must be the only entertainment industry that has this resentment of players wages. Nobody complains about the money Shirley Bassey for example earns. As for the fatuous remark about John Terry And Ashley Cole. If they had no legs they wouldn't be footballers in the first place.

Scotland isn't a football club. Is it 50p for a cuppa in every single football club in Scotland? Don't want to be pedantic but the Â鶹Éç does this sort of thing all the time and it really gets up the nationalist nose.

Why don't we have a debate on the Â鶹Éç license fee whilst we are at it?

£275 for 19 league matches at MCFC under £15 per game - an absolute bargain to watch the Champions play.

To TPL, your comments about Liverpool ticket prices v ST prices are daft. It is not just an economic equation comparing a ST price divided by No of games v buying one ticket. Liverpool is generally sold out. Having a ST makes certain you are going to the game. It is not necessarily cheaper! - I am old enough to remember going to Maine Road circa 1970. To compare that with the Etihad today is stupid. The facilities are excellent, including the WC, the quality of refreshments very good and whilst it is not cheap..a) all the bars and food areas are full, inside and outside the stadium and b) generally you have ONE(1) item of each so its tolerable. May I also make the point that whilst Sheik Mansour is investing in MCFC (for the ultimate good of Abu Dhabi) the prices at City are fantastic in the context of the facilities, the team, the level etc. AND a massive amount of money is being invested in the local and near community. Ask the locals, Blue or Red, what they think of what is happening in East manchester; it will change many lives for the better.

31.At 12:19 18th Oct 2012, GsuZonAciD wrote:
WHY IS EVERYONE FORGETTING THE LITTLE MAN?!

I'm just not buying the puritan capitalist arguments that are being made for high prices. Sure supply and demand rules the roost when it comes to business (and i acknowledge and accept these clubs are ran as businesses and need to make money), but where does the humanity of these clubs take precedent???
...after all - and without meaning to get all teary eyed about the past - football was the working mans sport; played by the masses; watched by the masses and enjoyed by the masses.

I fear with the rising prices large sections of society, which these clubs' foundations are built on, are being gradually priced out. This will only make for souless multi-national corporations that have no ties with the communities which they once represented. Maybe we're already at that stage and I'd be better off waving flags of Microsoft and Nike who have helped me type this and put shoes on my feet.

Anyway I think the premier league has begun to miss the point. Sport is meant to cross all divides and bring people together, acting as the glue to our society. Pricing people out and just throwing comments around like: 'well you dont have to go, no one is making you', as reason, doesn't wash.

These clubs need to take into account their communities as much as their shareholders and strike a better balance than what is the current state.

Perhaps take a leaf from the Bundesliga who have seen a resurgence of attendance and integration with communities; clubs having a much broader scale of pricing and more competitive deals on amenities than I could ever hope to find in the Premier league.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

All well and good but at the end of the day while theres so much demand prices will not fall. Look at all the big clubs who have the highest prices, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Spurs, Liverpool, all these clubs have long waiting lists for season tickets, until that waiting list dissapears and empty seats start appearing round the big grounds then prices will keep rising.

I fear that demand will always be there its just it will be wealthier and wealthier people occupying seats at stadiums around the country as football is taken away from the ordinary working man and becomes a sport only for the rich and priviledged.

Got to laugh at people saying 'if you cant afford it dont go'. I'll bight my tongue on that one for now

The gaps are ridiculous. You could easily go on to the Hibs website and find the prices and when your touchline commentators and reporters are there send them for a pie and programme.

Or is 'no response' what Â鶹Éç Sports journalism is nowadays. They won't tell us so we can't be bothered finding out. Sounds like what you did with Rangers.

Fact: The match-day experience has become more sanitised and corporate since the rather inglorious but occasionally thrilling terrace experiences of the 1980's. There is a new generation of football fans who are used to safe grounds, catering franchises paying minimum wage and average players who command huge salaries. A nostalgic look back at what it used to be is not always pleasant reading either.

Yeah, I think it is an expensive hobby - but on the whole - if you can't pay some of the extortionate ticket prices muted by the likes of Arsenal et al - drop down a division or two (perhaps to somewhere more local) and the costs come down to a reasonably affordable day out (as the survey broadly confirms).

And I had a rather lovely day out at Blackpool the other week for my 24 quid (fine) thank you very much. This of course helps when you are a struggling side and chalk up an away win.

Pies at Accrington Stanley I don't think so! All I could see were Hamburgers and Burgers & Chips. All I wanted was a pie so I asked and was told they don't serve pies !! Don't serve pies in deepest Lancashire!

The report is rubbish. The supposed cheapest adult season ticket offered by my club is recorded in the report as costing £100 more than I actually paid.

I won 2 tickets to watch Man U v Newcastle in the cup game a few weeks ago and for £6 you could get a Pie, a Beer and Chocolate bar,Which i thought was a bargain for being at Old Trafford, its the travel costs that are crippling!

I want to complain that I don't have a 'complain about this comment' comment beneath my comment. It's my birthday today so please include this comment - although if you would like to 'complain about my comment' please do complain by selecting the 'complain about my comment' link. I'm off for a nice curry with the girlfriend now.

No pies in Accrington and two free tickets to The Theatre of Dreams - and change from a tenner. Happy days.

#reclaimthegame #gawa Really lookin fw to tonights show have tweeted faceyed etc this is the issue we need to address, Wolves FC Far Left - "One out All Out Moxey Out" @

simple case of supply & demand........as long as fans keep buying the tickets prices will continue to increase

DON'T PAY!!!

Honestly, if people voted with their feet the prices would soon fall. Bit like when Sky took something that was once free and sold it to the working man, tipping the proceeds into Murdoch's filthy pockets, yet people stumped up the cash.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the British working class are thick. They pay for something that was free, they vote Tory, they hate people on benefits despite only ever being one step away themselves. Dummies the lot of them.

The sense of entitlement is shocking.
Why do people feel like big clubs like United/Arsenal need to have cheap enough prices for all of their poorest "working class" fans to afford..

If you really want to go..Work hard. Save your money and go. OR watch on TV or go to a pub. Dont dramatise the situation by saying you are being priced out of the game and will not be able to watch football..

Most people on this forum can presumably afford a computer/laptop + internet. Going to a football match maybe once a month should be affordable..You do not need to go every week..


And enough of this stupid "Overpaid footballers " bla bla

Basketball/baseball/golf/IPL/Tennis or Actors/Comedians etc all get paid MORE or the equivalent for performing for a similar base of people

My season ticket at safc, averages at £21 per game, which is not bad for premiership football, but the prices in the bars and kiosks in the ground are ridiculous therefore i do not spend any money in the ground, why when you can get a pint for £2 outside compared to £3.50 inside, they are cutting there own throats.

How to make football more open, give an extra point for scoring 3 goals, 2 points for 4 goals etc, therefore if you get beat 4-3 you still get a point or draw 3-3 both sides get 2 points.

The prices will never decrease as long as people pay the prices. Complaining then buying anyway will never have an impact. Ultimately football is a business. The problem is we are all hooked on football like a drug so it is not easy to simply boycott the games or the TV subscriptions. How many people in these times of austerity have cancelled their sports packages or season tickets? Not enough to reduce prices...

Including a pie, a cup of tea and a programme - all non-essentials but directly comparable in price - strikes me as an attempt to cloud the fact that the main expenditure, on a ticket, cannot be validly compared because so many variables govern it. There are no "equivalents" in this market, so the survey was a fool's errand from the outset. Apart from each club having a unique heritage and location, business models differ. You highlight the fact that a season ticket at Newport can cost more than the cheapest at Man City, but a less dishonest way of reporting it would have been to point out that a) the most expensive seat at Newport costs the same as the cheapest, and b) if Man City ran to tbe same business plan of trying to break even, rather than being able to convert hundreds of millions of owner debt into equity, their season tickets would cost thousands.

Incidentally, would it not be more courteous to say that among the Conference clubs Braintree Town "declined" to take part in your survey, rather than "refused"? They would have been under no obligation.

Need a special award for Sir Henry Cecil.