The new Premier League season is approaching. It promises to be another exhilarating season, full of twists and surprises. With Chelsea convincingly capturing their fifth Premier League title under Antonio Conte’s first full season in charge, rivals have been actively acquiring new reinforcements throughout the summer to knock them of their perch. Signings such as Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) and Wayne Rooney (Everton) have all been signing of intent by potential title-challengers.
With new signings and an ecstasy of emotions to look forward to, supporters are thrilled by what promises to be an eventful season. Undoubtedly, the most enthusiastic and loyal supporters have already pledged their allegiance to their local Premier League club by attaining a season ticket. A large percentage of these season ticket holders will be local supporters, who passionately embody the spirit and culture of their team.
Ticketgum.com decided to find out how affordable each Premier League clubs season tickets really are for local supporters. To achieve this, we sought to calculate how long residents in each of the twenty different towns and cities where the Premier League clubs are based in would have to work to afford the cheapest single-adult season ticket, based on the average weekly wage for that area.
Methodology
Our first action involved finding out the cheapest season ticket available for a single-adult at each of the twenty different Premier League clubs. It should be noted that the cheapest season ticket identified for every club excluded those discounted for any ‘family seating/enclosure’, ‘early bird’ or similar offers.
The next step involved finding out the weekly wage of those residents local to each of the Premier League clubs. This data was sourced from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), who provided the average (mean) full-time weekly wage of residents in each of the areas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chelsea’s residents had the highest average full-time weekly wage at an astonishing £929.20. On the other hand, Stoke City’s local residents had the lowest average full-time weekly wage at £504.80.
The final stage of the research was to divide residents mean full-time weekly wage by 40 hours to show their income per hour. Thereafter, the season ticket price for each Premier League club was divided by local resident’s earnings per an hour to demonstrate the exact number of hours and minutes they would need to work to pay the full price for the best priced single-adult season ticket.
The Findings
Our analysis revealed that West Ham match tickets are the most affordable season ticket in the Premier League, as it would take a mere 19 hours and 33 minutes to pay for the ‘hammers’ cheapest single-adult season ticket. Close behind in second is newly promoted Huddersfield Town, whose local residents would need to work slightly more at 20 hours and 33 minutes to afford the best priced season ticket. In third position is two-time Premier League champions Manchester City, where residents would have to work 21 hours and 38 minutes to purchase a single-adult season ticket at the Etihad Stadium.
At the bottom of the table, Liverpool has the least affordable season ticket in the Premier League, as residents would have to work 48 hours and 18 minutes for a season ticket at Anfield – the equivalent of 6 working days. Just above Liverpool is Mauricio Pochettino’s ambitious Tottenham Hotspur, whose local residents of Haringey (the London borough the club is based in) would have to work 42 hours and 1 minute to get the most affordable season ticket at White Hart Lane.
Despite having the highest season ticket price in the Premier League at an eye-watering £891.00, Arsenal rank 17. Local residents of Islington, where Arsenal is based, would have to work 40 hours and 3 minutes to gain a single-adult season ticket at the Emirates Stadium.
With regards to local residents weekly wages, Chelsea’s have the highest at £929.20 and rank mid-table (position 10) in the affordability league table, as they would need to work 32 hours and 17 minutes for a season ticket at the residing home of the champions. On the other hand, Stoke City’s local residents have the lowest weekly wages at £504.80 and rank 14 in the affordability league table, as they would need to work for 36 hours and 22 minutes to enjoy Premier League football for the tenth consecutive season ticket at the Bet365 Stadium.
Overall, 65% (13 out of 20) of Premier League teams require local residents in the area they are based in to work more than 30 hours to afford the best priced single-adult season ticket for the upcoming 2017/18 season.
Cheapest vs Most Expensive Season Ticket
Lowest vs Highest Weekly Wage of Local Residents
