17 of the 20 Premier League clubs have raised season ticket prices ahead of the 2023/24 season with five of them pushing through double-digit increases: Nottingham Forest 20%, Fulham 18%, Aston Villa 15%, Everton 10% and Bournemouth 10%. As a result of the ticket price increases, this will be the most expensive season ever for match going fans.
Seven clubs charge more than £1,000 for their most expensive
season ticket, though three of them are in a class of their own, led by Fulham,
who charge an almost unbelievable £3,000 for a Platinum ticket in the rebuilt
Riverside Stand. This is around three times as much as fans pay at Anfield, Old
Trafford or the Etihad.
The next highest ticket prices can be found in North London:
£2.025 at Tottenham’s new, state-of-the-art stadium and £1,784 to watch Arsenal
(though that also includes three Champions League games).
However, there is another way of looking at this, which is
that the high prices paid by the “prawn sandwich brigade” sometimes subsidise
cheaper tickets elsewhere in the stadium.
Fans at the recently promoted clubs tend to pay the least:
Burnley £500, Luton Town £510 and Sheffield United £529.
Most clubs have justified their price increases with the
significant increase in their operating costs. For example, Liverpool said that
these had grown by nearly 40%, while their utility costs had doubled in the
last season alone.
Match day revenue
still matters
Although match day revenue has increasingly become the poor
relation in terms of revenue, as broadcasting and commercial have both surged,
it is still important to football clubs. Indeed, the £750m income generated in
2021/22 in the Premier League is the highest ever, £69m (10%) more than the
pre-pandemic £681m peak in 2018/19.
In contrast, Championship match day revenue of £124m was a
fair bit lower than the all-time high of £161m five years ago. This highlights
the importance of the club mix, as England’s second tier included some big
clubs 2016/17 that attracted higher crowds (Aston Villa, Leeds United and
Newcastle United).
Over the last decade the revenue mix at Premier League clubs
has significantly changed with match day reducing from 23% to just 14%. Although match day has a higher share of
total revenue in the Championship than the top flight, it is still the least
significant revenue stream with 18%, having dropped from 29% in the last
decade.
Spurs and United do
well
Among the Premier League’s Big Six clubs, the major winners
in terms of growth of match day income are Tottenham and Liverpool, who have
both benefited from substantial increases. In the last decade, Spurs’ match day
revenue has shot up by £66m (163%) from £40m to £106m, thanks to their new
stadium, while the expansion of Liverpool’s Main Stand at Anfield has resulted
in their income more than doubling from £45m to £95m.
Manchester United still have the highest match day revenue
for the time being with £111m, but the gap to Tottenham has been virtually
eliminated, narrowing from £69m in 2012/13 to just £5m in 2021/22. As Spurs
played in the more lucrative Champions League in 2022/23, as opposed to the
Europa Conference League the previous season, it is likely that they have
overtaken United since then.
Although it may not be a major factor in the Premier League,
match day income is still of particular importance for some clubs. In fact, two
of them generated more than £100m in 2021/22, namely Manchester United £111m
and Tottenham £106m.
As is often the case, there is a sizeable gap between the
Big Six and the rest of the league, though West Ham’s £41m, boosted by the move
to the London Stadium has moved them a little closer.
Two clubs only received £7m (Burnley and Watford), which
means that United, Spurs and Arsenal all earned more in two games than they
managed to generate in an entire season, highlighting the stark disparity
between the big boys and the rest.
Match day revenue is obviously lower in the Championship
with Nottingham Forest leading the way in 2021/22 with £8.7m, followed by
Sheffield United £7.1m, Fulham £6.8m and Middlesbrough £6.4m. Note: Derby
County have not published accounts since 2017/18, when they reported £9.1m, one
of the highest in the division.
Six Premier League clubs get more than £1,000 a season from
each fan on average. The highest amounts are earned by Tottenham £1,878 and
Chelsea £1,835, which is partly due to the London premium, whereby clubs can
charge more due to the higher income levels in the capital.
The impact of Arsenal not qualifying for Europe in 2021/22
can be clearly seen, as their £79m match day income that season was their
lowest for some time. They would normally generate around £100m, so they
dropped £21m.
Attendances hit a high
More people in the stadium means more money, so its good
news for Premier League clubs that attendances are at their highest ever level.
They averaged around 36,000 in the five seasons between 2012/13 and 2016/17,
then rose to over 39,000 in 2021/22 before breaking through the 40,000 barrier
for the first time in 2022/23.
This means that Premier League clubs feel emboldened to
raise ticket prices, as not only have attendances held up during the financial
crisis, but they have actually increased, despite the number of televised games
never being higher.
More people in the stadium means more money, so its good
news for Premier League clubs that attendances are at their highest ever level.
They averaged around 36,000 in the five seasons between 2012/13 and 2016/17,
then rose to over 39,000 in 2021/22 before breaking through the 40,000 barrier
for the first time in 2022/23.
This means that Premier League clubs feel emboldened to
raise ticket prices, as not only have attendances held up during the financial
crisis, but they have actually increased, despite the number of televised games
never being higher.
Attendances in the Championship are also seriously
impressive with seven clubs averaging more than 20,000, led by Sunderland’s
incredible 38,480, which was nearly 10,000 more than Sheffield United 28,746,
followed by Norwich City 26,069 and Middlesbrough 26,012.
Football’s huge popularity can be seen by the fact that
stadiums are rarely far off capacity, especially in the Premier League. All but
one club filled more than 90% of available seats in 2022/23 with three above
99%: West ham 99.9%, Arsenal 99.7% and Brentford 99.0%.
Although match day revenue is clearly not as important to
football clubs as broadcasting and commercial, it can still make a difference,
so it is understandable that clubs will try to maximise their money here. That said, whether the blunt instrument of
raising ticket prices is the best approach is more debatable, both from a
financial and moral perspective.
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