The summer transfer window is the most highly awaited time of year for football fans; and clubs alike. It’s the opportunity to sign top-quality players and heighten the club’s chances of finishing at the top of the table and even securing a Champions League spot.
With Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur leading the title race so far, this season, football clubs were pulling out all the stops to be crowned the champions of the league by signing reputable and sought-after players in this year’s summer transfer window.
Tickegum.com sought to find out how much of the money each team spent in this summer’s transfer window, and how many tickets would need to be sold for each club to earn back their costs.
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During this season’s Premier League transfer window, clubs spent a record amount of money on new players. Figures show that Premier League teams spent a staggering £1.413 billion on players during the 2017/18 summer transfer window, which began on July 1st and closed on August 31st. This figure includes an unprecedented £210 million spent on transfer deadline day, resulting in a record breaking year for the sixth consecutive year.
Last year, Premier League clubs spent £1.194 billion during the summer transfer window; smashing the £1 billion mark for the first time in football history. This is a marked rise from the 2014 and 2015 summer transfer windows, where spending reached just £809.6 million and £858.6 million respectively.
The Premier League found through their own analysis that the average net spend per club was £33.25 million, equivalent to 14.73% of total club revenue, compared to 14.35% last summer – a rise of £293 million. The net spend – in which the amount raised through sales is subtracted from purchases – also continued to rise to a total of £665 million, having been £635.6 million in 2016, £432.6 million in 2015 and £386.5 million in 2014.
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Of all 20 clubs in the Premier League this 2017/18 season, a staggering thirteen clubs broke their transfer records. The Premier League’s highest spending clubs this summer was Manchester City (£220.5m), Chelsea (£187.5m), Manchester United (£146m) and Everton (£145m). On the other end of the scale, the Premier League’s lowest spending clubs, paying less than £30 million was Stoke City (£24.9m), Newcastle United (£27m) and Bournemouth (£29.2m).
In a BBC study from the 2016/17 season, the average cost of the cheapest adult home matchday ticket in the Premier League was priced at £30.95 by the Premier League, and £29.05 by the BBC. Ticketgum found the median total in between these two prices – £30*.
Bearing this in mind, at Ticketgum.com we found that Manchester City must sell the most amount of tickets to earn their money back from their transfer expenditure in this season’s summer window. Manchester City FC spent an astonishing £220.9 million, which means the club must sell 7,363,333 £30 tickets to pay for the players they bought this summer. Effectively, using data by the Football Ground Guide**, the Etihad Stadium would need to be ‘sold out’ 133.64 times.
Manchester City were followed by Chelsea – the second highest spending club in the Premier League this season (£197.8m). The London club would have to sell 6,260,000 tickets to get their money back. Approximately, the club would need to sell out Stamford Bridge a staggering 150.39 times to reach this number of tickets.
Another Mancunian club followed Chelsea; Manchester United would need to sell 5,000,000 tickets to earn back the £150 million spent on players this summer. This means that Old Trafford would have to be completely sold out 68.20 times to get their money back.
On the other end of the scale were Stoke City, Newcastle United and AFC Bournemouth. In this summer’s Premier League transfer window, Stoke City spent the least amount of money on players – just £24.9 million. As a result, Stoke City must sell 830,000 tickets – almost nine times less than Manchester City. The bet365 Stadium would need to be sold out 27.49 times to achieve the £24.9 million back.
Newcastle United also spent a ‘small’ amount (in football terms) on player’s this summer, spending just £27 million. Ticketgum found that the inhabitants of St James’ Park would need to sell 900,000 tickets to get their money back. AFC Bournemouth also spent significantly less than most clubs in the transfer window, spending just over £29 million (£29.2). This means the club would have to sell 973,333 £30 tickets to earn their money back – or in other words, would have to sell out Dean Court 84.90 times.
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*It is worth noting that although this is the average price of last year’s cheapest matchday ticket, it is likely that there will only a miniscule difference in price this season, as according to the BBC, the ticket prices decrease by 6% year-on-year.
**This was calculated using the Football Ground Guide, estimating that each ticket would cost the average (£30), the stadium would have to be sold out ‘X’ amount of times, as an approximation.
