The Price of Football: How much does it cost to support your team?
The BBC’s Price of Football is back and the results are in as supporters up and down the land make their annual discovery of just how much they are spending compared to their rivals.
There may be some work left to do, but clubs are slowly beginning to take notice of calls for cheaper tickets, with the Premier League’s average season ticket prices hitting their lowest level since 2013.
In the Championship, season ticket prices are slightly up, but matchday prices down, while replica shirts remain an expensive luxury pretty much everywhere.
How did your club fare? Here are the facts and figures you need to know.
Albion
Albion fans may feel it justified with the football on display at the moment, but a day out at The Hawthorns is among the cheapest in the Premier League.
Adding together the price of the cheapest ticket with the cost of a pie, tea and programme, Baggies fans shell out £34.30, a figure only bettered by Liverpool (£18.40), Tottenham (£30) and Stoke (£34).
The Reds offer 500 tickets at £9 for each match to people with an ‘L’ postcode, while the cheapest tickets at Spurs this season are £20 as they try to fill out Wembley while their new ground is being built.
The dearest day out at The Hawthorns, using the same formula, is the second cheapest in the top flight – only bettered by Premier League newboys Huddersfield Town (£38.70).
Albion fans fork out anywhere between £380 and £499 for a season ticket, but their cheapest season ticket is also their most popular – a claim that can only be matched by Chelsea (£750) and Watford (£403).
Adult (£50) and junior (£40) shirts are marginally below the Premier League average, as are pies (£3.40), but tea (£2.40) and programmes (£3.50) are above the divisional average.
Wolves
Nuno’s international stars at Molineux are flying at the minute, and the survey reveals – in comparison to their Championship rivals – Wolves fans are generally faring well.
The cheapest day out may be £33.30, the fifth worst in the division, but the most expensive day out is the fourth best.
Excluding Birmingham – who did not provide a figure – Wolves’ most popular season ticket (£345) is the eighth best priced in the Championship, although their cheapest is £299 and most expensive £535. They are all below the Championship averages.
Match tickets are priced in a narrow window between £25 and £30.
That is the same level they were 12 months ago, with the cheapest tickets at Leeds and Middlesbrough the only two more expensive than Wolves’ cheapest price, while Molineux’s most expensive matchday seats are only bettered by Burton Albion (£24).
Adult (£45) and junior (£35) shirts come in below average for the division, despite both going up in price from last season. Pies (£3.10) and programmes (£3) come in below the Championship average, but tea is priced just over at £2.20.
Villa
Villa supporters are generally paying less to watch their football this season despite the club’s prices being among the more expensive in the Championship.
The most popular season ticket sold at Villa Park now costs £500 – a reduction of £35 on 12 months ago.
But that still ranks as the second most expensive in that category behind QPR – whose most popular season ticket is priced at £535 – and a long way above the division’s average of £370.89.
Villa’s cheapest season ticket is priced at £322, a reduction on last season and less than the Championship average. The most expensive season ticket, meanwhile, comes in at £627, almost £40 more than the division’s average.
Villa Park remains decent value for those supporters looking to buy single game tickets. The cheapest has remained frozen at £20, while the most expensive is now £37, a reduction of £4 on a year ago.
The price of a pie has risen by 10p to £3.60.
Walsall
The Saddlers have slipped down the League One table this season, but fans are better off in the pocket than most their rivals.
Walsall’s most expensive price (£452) may be the fifth highest in the division, but they sell the majority of their season tickets at their cheapest price (£259) – which is better than the League One average and the ninth cheapest.
The cheapest matchday seats remain below average at £18.50 and the most expensive (£26) just above average for League One.
Fans can kit themselves out for among the cheapest prices in the division though. Adult (£39.99) and junior (£27.99) shirts are both the third cheapest in the division.
