Football ticket prices rising by more than double cost of living

The BBC's latest Price of Football study reveals football ticket prices are continuing to spiral.

The price of football tickets has increased at almost double the cost of living, according to new BBC research.

Arsenal has both the most expensive matchday tickets, at £97, and season tickets, at £2,013, although their season tickets do include seven cup games including Champions League games.

Manchester City has the Premier League’s cheapest season ticket at £299. This is cheaper than 15 Championship clubs, 10 League One clubs, four League Two clubs and even FC Halifax Town in the Conference National.

Newcastle has the Premier League’s cheapest matchday ticket at £15.

Keep track of your football spending, and everything else, with our free, secure Track tool

Ticket table

Here’s a rough league table for the Premier League clubs, starting with the most expensive.

Source: BBC

Outside the Premier League

Charlton Athletic has the cheapest season ticket across all the English Premier League and Football League clubs at £150. However, the cheapest season ticket at Barcelona is only £103.38.

Derby and Sheffield Wednesday both have the cheapest matchday tickets across the top four divisions at £10 apiece.

Inflation-busting increases

The average price of the cheapest matchday ticket in England’s top four divisions is now £21.49. It has risen by 13% since 2011, compared to a 6.6% increase in the cost of living.

And it’s up 4.4% on last year, which is more than treble the annual rate of inflation, which is now 1.2%.

Other stats

In the Scottish Premiership the average price of the cheapest matchday ticket, a pie, cup of tie and a programme has increased by only 61p to £26.95. Having said that, Rangers, Hibernian and Hearts are all missing from this year’s Premiership.

Conference National club Kidderminster sells the most expensive pie across all the surveyed clubs at £4.50, but word has it it’s worth every penny.

Spreading the cost of a season ticket

If you want a season ticket but can't afford to pay for it upfront, some clubs offer an instalment plan, although often there will be a fee for this. If you have a decent credit rating, you could pay for it using a 0% purchases credit card, which offers an interest-free period.

Currently the longest available on the market is 20 months from Halifax. If you're a Tesco shopper, the Tesco Clubcard for Purchases card offers 19 months with no interest to pay and pays Clubcard points on your spending.

If you do use a credit card, make sure you have enough money to pay off your spending by the end of the interest-free period, and make sure you make at least the minimum repayment each month.

Keep track of your football spending, and everything else, with our free, secure Track tool

More from lovemoney.com:

FIFA 15: where to buy it cheapest

Sainsbury’s to cut Nectar points for shoppers

Why you must make a financial plan

Aldi lifts ban on credit cards