The Premier League is undisputedly one of the most exhilarating top-flight leagues in the world. This has certainly been true for this season, with Manchester City under the stewardship of Pep Guardiola establishing a dominate lead at the forefront of the league. Dynamic summer recruits such as Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) and Ederson (Manchester City) have also made an impressionable impact.
Each team in the Premier League has a diverse fan-base, with attendance figures continually strong and so football ticket company TicketGum.com decided to focus on local supporters and how much it costs them to experience a full match day experience. To achieve this, TicketGum.com calculated how long supporters in each of the 20 different towns and cities where the Premier League clubs are based would have to work to afford a full match day experience.
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Methodology
Firstly, TicketGum.com identified the individual costs that makes up a match day experience. The criteria for each Premier League club was to identify the lowest possible match day ticket price as well as the cost of a single fixture programme, tea, pie as well as the most popular piece of merchandise, which was an official adult shirt. Once the price was found, ticketgum then added it all together to provide the ‘total cost of a full match day experience’ for every one of the twenty different Premier League clubs.
The next step involved finding out the weekly wage of the local supporters who live in the area the Premier League club is based in. This data was sourced from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chelsea’s residents had the highest average full-time weekly wage at an astonishing £862.40. On the other hand, Burnley’s residents had the lowest average full-time weekly wage at £435.60.
The final stage of the research was to divide residents full-time weekly wage by 40 hours to show their income per hour. Thereafter, the price for each club’s full match day experience was divided by local resident’s earnings per hour to identify an approximate number of hours and minutes they would need to work to enjoy a full match day experience at their respective club.
The Findings
The research revealed that Crystal Palace has the most affordable match day experience in the Premier League, as local supporters would need to work just 4 hours and 22 minutes to attend a game at Selhurst Park. Despite having the most expensive season ticket prices in the country, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal are surprisingly second – as their supporters in Islington need to labour slightly more at 5 hours and 4 minutes to attain a match day experience at the Emirates Stadium.
On the other end of the table, fans in Manchester would have to work the longest amount of time to enjoy a full home match day at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium (8 hours and 41 minutes), followed closely by Manchester United (8 hours and 25 minutes). Coming in third from the bottom of the league table, was Leicester City, the 2015/16 Premier League champions, whose supporters would need to work 7 hours and 51 minutes to take full advantage of a complete match day experience at the King Power Stadium.
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With regards to resident’s weekly wages, those living in Chelsea have the highest at £862.40 and are third in the affordability league table, as they would need to work 5 hours and 17 minutes for a full match day experience at Stamford Bridge. On the other hand, Burnley’s residents have the lowest weekly wage at £435.60 and rank 14th in the match day experience table, as they would need to work for 7 hours and 10 minutes to enjoy a Premier League football match for a fifth consecutive season at Turf Moor.
Overall, 75% (15 out of 20) of Premier Leagues teams require the supporters in the area they are based in to work more than 6 hours to afford a full match day experience at their respective stadium.
