You pays your money and makes your choice: season tickets

Prices for season tickets have increased markedly since the resumption of matches after the Covid-19 pandemic. This season, there has been a change in attitude, with seven clubs freezing prices for attending their 19 home league matches.

However, all but one club — Crystal Palace — raised prices last term. Still, attending football remains an expensive hobby, with nine clubs charging more than £1,000 for their most expensive offerings and several others coming close to that mark.

Clubs had previously expressed sympathy with fans and referenced the cost-of-living crisis while simultaneously increasing prices. This year, those reasons are less prominent, with the latest argument being that the increased cost of national insurance employer contributions has necessitated an increase in prices.

Ten Premier League clubs have some form of minimum usage policy. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur require a certain number of games to either be attended, the ticket to be resold via a ticket exchange, or it be transferred. West Ham United monitor non-attendance.

At Fulham, where season tickets have reached general sale and there remains availability, the most expensive season ticket will set you back £3,084 in the Riverside Stand — an increase of £84 from last year. Arsenal (£1,726), Bournemouth (£1,164), Brighton (£1,035), Chelsea (£1,095), Tottenham (£2,223), and West Ham (£1,720) all significantly breach the £1,000 mark.

Manchester City have a premium, but not hospitality, option at £1,600 in their 93:20 area, similar to Brentford, whose Dugout seating comes in at £815, more than elsewhere in the ground but still general admission.

Chelsea’s Westview prices come under their ‘Club Chelsea’ hospitality banner, but are similar to Fulham’s Riverside in that it offers the best views and access to superior facilities. These are priced between £1,745 and £4,300 and are only available on a waiting list system.

Fulham, again in the Riverside Stand, charge £2,570 for juniors, although their lowest-priced under-18 ticket in the stadium is £154. West Ham’s £1,720 junior ticket is also eye-watering, but they have a much cheaper option at £109.

Burnley’s prices are notable and they have been frozen. Their most expensive adult season ticket costs £525, £70 less than Ipswich Town’s equivalent last season. The under-22 age band has been changed to under-21 at Turf Moor, though.

Brentford have frozen their prices and outside of their slightly more premium offering of the Dugout, which provides a padded seat and access to a bar and concourse, their highest-priced adult ticket is £605. The Dugout pricing is £815.

Newly promoted Sunderland, who have sold all of their season tickets, top out at £780 for their priciest adult ticket, although they have increased prices for renewals by 9.5 per cent.

For the cheapest adult tickets, West Ham charge £345, slightly below Burnley (£352), Newcastle United (£362) and Bournemouth (£423).

Brentford offer the lowest-priced junior ticket at just £80, Newcastle provide £81 tickets for juniors, and Bournemouth’s cheapest comes in at £86. Some clubs have restrictions on where juniors can sit and use a ratio of adults to juniors in their family stands.

Last season, Palace were the only club to freeze their prices, but for the new campaign, seven clubs — Brentford, Burnley, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, West Ham and Wolverhampton Wanderers — have done so.

At Everton, supporters have seen prices increase by up to 21 per cent, the highest increase, but with the club moving out of Goodison Park and into the Hill Dickinson Stadium, a rise in costs for supporters was to be expected.

Outside of the top Premier League clubs, the total income from gate receipts is relatively small when compared with overall turnover.  Excluding the promoted clubs, Arsenal’s takings from ticketing account for the highest proportion of income at 21.4 per cent. Manchester United are second with 20.7 per cent, Tottenham’s is 20.4 per cent, and Chelsea’s is 17.1 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, clubs with smaller stadiums have a lower proportion of their overall income made up by ticket sales. Bournemouth’s is just four per cent, Brentford 6.8 per cent, Palace 7.2 per cent, Forest 7.6 per cent, while Wolves (9.1 per cent) are the final non-newly promoted club whose matchday income accounts for less than 10 per cent of their overall turnover.

The direction of travel with season tickets is clear. Clubs continue to find ways to maximise revenue at the cost of matchgoing supporters.

Changes to pricing structures this year have been minimal and far less controversial, but more clubs have introduced minimum attendance rules and sought to make their offerings more attractive without pricing supporters out completely. For a small but important section of season ticket holders, digital ticketing is a major concern.

Supporters will question whether there is a genuine need to increase prices, but clubs seem destined to keep finding ways to raise more income from match-going supporters.  The concern is that younger people and the less well off are frozen out as revenues are maxinised.  

By way of comparison, my Step 2 non-league season ticket costs me £206 (concession) and includes a half time lounge (ok, portakabin) with tea and biscuits.