The ever-rising price of football – and where fans are turning

The prices we pay to enjoy the “beautiful game” have been released this week in a report titled “The Price of Football” and on the whole it makes for pretty dire reading, with inflation-busting costs everywhere you look.

For some reason, fans find a way to justify the cost of keeping up with football almost not matter what the cost. For example, the most expensive premier league season ticket today is at Arsenal, costing a whopping £2,013! This ticket entitles the holder to attend a minimum of 19 competitive home games throughout the season. Without including the cup ties, this figure is the equivalent to £105 per game. Think of what else you can do with £2,013, many cars cost half that! However, in fairness to Arsenal, this amount is only £7 more than their most expensive game day ticket…. of £97.

To add insult to injury, Barcelona and Bayer Munich, two of the world’s best club sides, charge an affordable £103.38 and £109.65 (nearly the same as one expensive match at Arsenal) for their cheapest season tickets. Whereas Arsenal’s cheapest season tickets steamrolls in at a sizeable £1,014.

Bet let’s face it, we all know a football fan and there is very little chance of their affections or support being diminished by any report on prices. We fork out the money because nothing compares to seeing your team or favourite player.

The experience that live football and other sports offer, is unparalleled. Very rarely do thousands upon thousands of people congregate in one confined space and sing in unison with one common goal. It can be an uplifting and intoxicating experience that offers a thrill like no other.

But are people willing to pay the high fees without question or are changes afoot? If you were to visit the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, Germany, you might begin to wonder….

At any given league game, you can now find around 1,000 English voices in the crowd. That’s right, 1,000 football fans willing to go to Germany to watch a game. Why? Well average match day tickets of £13 might have something to do with it! Many people are finding it as cheap to watch one of the best teams in Germany as they are to watch a team like Arsenal and that’s including return flights.

With 55,000 season ticket holders and a scarcely believable 30,000 more on the waiting list, theirs is a formula that has success written all over it and not at a price too high for the loyal fans.

Businesses should sit up and take notice of this; you can run a successful business AND keep your loyal customers happy at the same time with prices and packages that appeal to all – The two aims are not exclusive. Football is just one example and customer loyalty is not unbreakable, they will go elsewhere if the products on offer are not acceptable and there will always be a competitor ready to snap them up.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to board a flight to Dortmund….