Football's relationship with money

Prices Go Up As Our Money Goes Down

As the country tightens its belt and many industries are on the verge of collapsing one seems to be largely unaffected, football. The English Premiership is the most profitable league in the world, far greater than that of La Liga in Spain or Seria A in Italy.

English clubs are becoming more dominant across Europe; this is evident in the major European club competition, The UEFA Champions League. There have been five English clubs in the final of the competition in the last four years; with the most recent final being an all English contest. This dominance is due to the strengths of the club’s squads, made possible as the English game gets richer and richer.

One of the main reasons for the increase of money in the English game is the vast amounts being received from TV revenue. For the football season of 2006/07 Premiership clubs received £464m in TV revenue. However, after this season a three year deal was signed with the Premier League to increase the amount received by 63% to £758m. At the end of the 2006/07 season Manchester United topped the table earning themselves around £32m in TV revenue. This is a stark contrast to the 2007/08 season where Bolton earned £32m in TV revenue despite finishing quite far down the table in 16th position.

This point is further backed up as the team that finished bottom of the table in the 2007/08, Derby County, earned more than the team that finished 4th in the previous season. Even suffering relegation is made slightly easier from this new TV deal as the parachute payments given to relegated clubs increased from £6.5m to over £11m.

The TV coverage of English football is getting better each season, more games than ever are being broadcast for the nation to enjoy. Every team is watched live on TV multiple times over the season, some more than others; the more successful a team is, the more chance their games will be shown live. The success of this coverage is unrivalled, with millions paying for the privilege to watch the best that the English game has to offer every year.

As it has been mentioned the UEFA Champions League is the biggest club competition in Europe and some may argue the world. Due to the size and importance of the competition, the TV coverage is extensive and so the revenue generated is large for all the teams that are involved. Every game is shown live throughout the competition, through interactive on Sky Sports and ITV, which means the further a club reaches the, more TV revenue they receive. Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are the only English teams to be involved in the Champions League in recent seasons, and so are the only ones to benefit from the large TV revenue.

Due to the large increase in the amount of TV revenue received, all of the clubs in the top flight of English football now make enough to comfortably cover the costs of lowering season ticket prices. This is the real issue that the clubs must now face up to. Football is fast becoming only readily accessible to the wealthier people among us as research shows that there is an increasing percentage in the number of middle and upper class supporters. Around 40% of the nation’s fans that regularly go to matches earn over £30,000 and London club’s fans earn over £40,000 a year. This shows the growing costs that are now involved with following the top division teams in England and how much you may have to earn to follow your team.

Season Ticket prices have always grown over the years but the prices they are reaching are forcing supporters to abandon following their teams. This season’s season ticket prices have risen by an average of 8% this is despite inflation being at 3% at the time these prices were released. This means that clubs are raising the prices 5% more than they need to.

Each club has given its own explanation for the increase in their prices, Sunderland have announced that the small increase was acceptable due to consecutive years of freezing their season ticket prices. Tottenham Hotspur were quite upfront with their reasons, commenting that prices need to be increased to help move the club forward both on and off the pitch.

The average cost of a mid price season ticket is now estimated at £590, this however is nothing compared to the side with the most expensive, cheapest season ticket, Arsenal. The London based club’s cheapest season ticket has risen from £885 to £925 this is £275 more expensive than the next highest club. Arsenal director Danny Fizman has defended the 4.5% increase this season explaining that this price has cup and Champions League games built into it, something most clubs do not do. He also pointed out that Arsenal had not increased their season ticket prices over the previous four years and due to inflation had to increase them at some point.
Those reasons are acceptable for someone who does not know how profitable Arsenal football club are both on a match day and throughout the year. In the last six months of 2007 Arsenal’s end of year profits rose by 54% and they made a pre tax profit of £20m. Also due to their new stadium they made a match day income of £41m.

So with Arsenal becoming richer and richer the question still remains that even with inflation surely they can afford to repay their fans with cheaper season tickets. Can’t they?

One of the most exposed groups of the social pyramid are students. Football clubs are obviously not aware that students have a limited amount of money and therefore can’t afford to pay these prices to see their teams during the season. It has been found that only a third of clubs offer some kind of discount, this however is only available to students aged 16 to 19 years old. Most clubs however do not any discount to anybody over the age of 16, these include Arsenal and Manchester United, despite their large profits each club makes. Chelsea, although considered to be one of the most expensive clubs to follow, does offer a discount exclusively to students. Blackburn doesn’t offer any discounts to students but charge cheaper prices to young adults up to 21, of which they include students.

A study has shown that only 8% of fans that attend games are aged between 16 and 24, this is a reason that clubs like Charlton and Queens Park Rangers do not feel it is worthwhile to offer any discounts to students. However, Championship side Preston North End offer a large discount to students over the normal adult season ticket price, with students saving £180.

When compared to football, rugby is a far cheaper option to watch. Leeds Rhinos last season not only became rugby league world champions but back to back super league (top division) champions and their season ticket prices are over £50 cheaper than the third division football club in the same city, Leeds United. Both clubs do offer discounts on season tickets to students with Leeds Rhinos offering a saving of £100.

Furthermore on the comparison between rugby and football, Wigan Warriors (Rugby) and Wigan Athletic (Football) are both in the top divisions of their sports but again it is the rugby club that offers the cheaper prices.

From an outside point of view the cost of tickets to watch the football each week might not seem that bad but the spending does not just stop with the tickets. Firstly there is the cost of fuel if you are travelling by car, this depends on how far you live from your team’s stadium and the fuel prices at the time. There are other travel costs too, like train and bus journeys; over the season these costs can build up greatly. Food and drink at a football stadium are extremely over priced with drinks costing sometimes 50% more than they would in a shop and food is a similar percentage.

Fans wanting to show their support by wearing their team’s colours and replica kits have to pay over £40 for the top team’s shirts. These shirts don’t last for four or five years either, most clubs change their kits every two years, some even change it in consecutive years.
Some football fans can be accused of being too passionate about something that’s been called ‘just a game’ but for the money they spend to follow their teams, don’t you think they have the right to become heavily involved and voice their opinions?

English football clubs are spending millions in the transfer windows every year and give outrageous wages to players who don’t really care about the club they’re playing for. Surely it’s now time for someone to stand up and stop these rising ticket prices before the real driving force of the clubs, the fans, are driven away for good.