I'm not saying all prices are fair. Players needn't be paid quite such outrageous salaries and savings could, in theory, be passed onto us idiots who perhaps naively prop up the clubs we love each year, but i'm not sure Premier League football is as unaffordable as people might make out. Statistics will tell you that after tax and other deductions the average UK male takes home around £390 each week, or just over £20k annually. Those figures seem a little high but i'm sure the ASHE would know better than me. My point is that with the average price of a Premier League club's cheapest adult season-ticket being around £448 (just over 2% of the average take-home salary) there might be a certain amount of hyperbole at play.
It should be pointed out for example that it costs £20 or less on average per game to watch nearly half of the clubs in the Premier League. For a similar amount you could watch teams in the Championship, Leagues One or Two, or in the case of Blackburn's £199 season-tickets (£10 a game), or Wigan's at £250 (£13), even games in the non-leagues. Fans do, or should at least, want to support their club irrespective of division, my point is merely to compare prices throughout the leagues. There are only three clubs in the Premier League whose season-tickets work out at more than £30 per game, Spurs, Liverpool, and Arsenal, the latter of whose pricing does admittedly seem extremely extortionate, their CHEAPEST season-ticket still working out just short of £50 a match.
I appreciate that the price you pay to gain entry to the stadium isn't the full story. Most of us will need some sort of transport to and from the game, a bus or train perhaps, or petrol and parking if driving. Any expenditure beyond that, though, is purely down to the individual. I've often heard people say 'by the time i've sorted my beers out and a bit of grub in the ground it can cost me the best part of £100 a time', well, that's your call. We all know how excessively priced the catering on offer at football grounds is. No-one's putting a knife to anyone's throat and making them sit in a pub pre-game, have a couple of scoops at half-time, fill their faces with steak & kidney pies or buy a couple of programmes. Such expenditure fills the club's coffers, of course, but it's not a supporter's duty to spend money they've not got on such things.
As for the Premier League itself, well, there are four clubs whose cheapest season-tickets work out at £15 per game or less, Blackburn, Wigan, Fulham and Bolton, and a further two, Birmingham, and surprisingly Aston Villa, short of £20. Surprisingly, Chelsea and United's cheapest are less expensive than those at Portsmouth, West Ham, or even promoted Wolves. We, mirroring our league showings, are mid-table, £22 a game, only a couple of quid more expensive than Stoke, Hull, Sunderland or several other grounds you might wish to avoid in the search for anything remotely resembling decent football.
* all prices correct at present, clubs may have offered 'earlybird' prices.
| Club | Cheapest/Most Expensive ST | Per Game Price |
| Arsenal | £925-£1825 | £49-£96 |
| Liverpool | £682-£731 | £36-£38 |
| Spurs | £635-£1675 | £33-£88 |
| West Ham | £570-£810 | £30-£43 |
| Portsmouth | £550-£710 | £29-£37 |
| Wolves | £522-£630 | £27-£33 |
| Chelsea | £520-£1125 | £27-£59 |
| Man Utd | £513-£931 | £27-£49 |
| Everton | £443-£586 | £23-£31 |
| Man City | £419-£576 | £22-£30 |
| Stoke | £399-£599 | £21-£32 |
| Hull | £385-£450 | £20-£24 |
| Sunderland | £380-£495 | £20-£26 |
| Burnley | £378-£462 | £20-£24 |
| Birmingham | £314-£587 | £17-£31 |
| Aston Villa | £305-£520 | £16-£27 |
| Bolton | £285-£369 | £15-£19 |
| Fulham | £285-£799 | £15-£42 |
| Wigan | £250-£295 | £13-£16 |
| Blackburn | £199-£349 | £10-£18 |
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