The cost of watching football has remained the same at most clubs across the UK’s 13 professional leagues – but fans of top flight teams still pay more than any other European fans for match day experiences.
According to the BBC’s annual
The Price of Football study, 70 per cent of British clubs introduced a price freeze or reduction in ticket prices for the 2015-16 season.
Despite to a small overall fall, however, the average cost for the cheapest match-day tickets in the English Premier League (EPL) surged above £30 for the first time – a result of 11 EPL clubs hiking up the price for their cheapest tickets.
There are also stark differences between the top four English divisions (EPL, The Championship and Leagues One and Two) and other professional leagues around the British Isles.
The cheapest ticket to watch Scotland’s top tier, the Scottish Premiership, now costs £20.17 on average – less than those for England's third tier, League One.
In the Welsh Premier League and Irish Premiership, fans pay less than £10 per match, while tickets in the Women's Super League in England cost less than £5.
The cheapest season ticket in the EPL can be found at Stoke City (£294), while the most expensive is offered by Arsenal (£2,013).
Arsenal – which only recently broke an eight-year trophyless spell – is the most expensive club to watch in Europe, as even the cheapest season ticket costs an eye-watering £1,014.
English clubs come off even less favourably when compared to European leagues.
The cheapest season ticket across England’s top five divisions, at £120, can be found at lowly Eastleigh, playing only its second season in the Conference Premier – English footballs fifth tier.
That is more than the £104.48 which fans of five-time European champions Bayern Munich pay to secure a season-long spot to watch the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, Thomas Müller and Franck Ribery.
Single tickets for top-flight Bundesliga games – including those at leading clubs Bayern and Borussia Dortmund – cost less than £12.
Cheapest tickets for other top-flight European leagues also come in at well below the EPL averages, with Italian Serie A (£14), Spanish La Liga (£15) and French Ligue 1 (£17) being available for nearly half the price of those in the EPL.
Despite the high cost, the hunger for EPL tickets continues unabated. Figures over the past two seasons show that occupancy levels at EPL clubs are at 96 per cent.
• Now in its seventh year, the BBC study is the largest of its type in Europe and looks at costs at 227 British clubs in 13 UK leagues.
To download the full BBC report on prices,
click here.
