Determining the price of football: an analysis of matchday ticket prices in the English Premier League

Figures & data

Figure 1. Evolution of revenues in the English Premier League.

Notes: Own figure based on Deloitte (1998, 2013, 2016, 2019 , 2021). The figure displays the evaluation of total revenues for the three main revenue sources in the English Premier League from the season 2005/06 up to season 2019/20 in addition to total revenues in the founding season of the EPL 1991/92. The three major revenue sources are match day revenue, broadcasting revenue and commercial revenue.

Figure 2. Match day revenues as a percentage of total revenues by club, 2018/19.

Notes: Own figure based on Quansah et al. (2021). The figure displays match day revenues as a percentage of total revenues for each club that played in the English Premier League in the season 2018/19.

Table 1. EPL ticket price range for the 2018/19 season (in £).

	Lowest ticket price	Highest ticket price
Arsenal	27	97
Chelsea	52	87
West Ham United	30	80
Tottenham	20	75
Fulham	25	75
Brighton	30	65
Liverpool	37	59
AFC Bournemouth	32	55
Manchester United	31	53
Crystal Palace	38	53
Southampton	33	52
Newcastle United	34	50
Leicester City	26	50
Cardiff City	27	42
Watford	36	42
Wolverhampton Wanderers	22	40
Burnley	30	40
Huddersfield	30	30

Table 2. Summary Statistics for continuous and dummy variables (n = 1,520).

Variable	Mean	Standard deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Ticket price low (in £)	35.039	9.164	9.000	65.500
Ticket price high (in £)	48.295	14.376	25.000	97.000
Relative mean weekly workplace earnings	0.997	0.192	0.747	1.283
Capacity utilisation from previous season	0.656	0.438	0	1.000
Derby matches	0.057	0.231	0	1.000
Adjusted total labour costs (2015 prices in millions)	162.638	100.714	39.756	490.810
Previous season’s home performance (league position)	11.388	6.723	1.000	25.000
Previous season’s away performance (league position)	10.970	6.557	1.000	25.000
Away team is Manchester United	0.049
Away team is Liverpool	0.049
Away team is Arsenal	0.049
Away team is Chelsea	0.049
Away team is Manchester City	0.053
Away team is Tottenham Hotspur	0.049
Away team is Everton	0.053
Weekend	0.794
Public holiday	0.037

Notes: The variable ‘capacity utilisation from previous season’ includes 0s for promoted club in which there are no matching matches from the previous seasons.

Table 3. Correlation matrix for independent variables (n = 1,520).

		Variable number
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
1	Relative average weekly workplace earnings	1.000
2	Capacity utilisation from previous season	0.105	1.000
3	Home promoted	−0.135	−0.689	1.000
4	Big Six team at home	0.460	0.229	−0.311	1.000
5	Derby matches	0.130	0.118	−0.083	0.277	1.000
6	ln(adjusted total labour costs)	0.301	0.217	−0.280	0.782	0.240	1.000
7	Away team is Manchester United	0.007	0.065	0.007	−0.023	0.076	−0.028	1.000
8	Away team is Manchester City	0.000	0.067	0.000	0.000	0.006	0.000	−0.054	1.000
9	Away team is Liverpool	0.007	0.069	0.007	−0.023	0.076	−0.019	−0.052	−0.054	1.000
10	Away team is Tottenham Hotspur	−0.022	0.059	0.007	−0.023	0.076	0.000	−0.052	−0.054	−0.052	1.000
11	Away team is Chelsea	−0.022	0.061	0.007	−0.023	0.168	−0.022	−0.052	−0.054	−0.052	−0.052	1.000
12	Away team is Arsenal	−0.022	0.060	0.007	−0.023	0.141	−0.019	−0.052	−0.054	−0.052	−0.052	−0.052	1.000
13	Away team is Everton	0.000	0.068	0.000	0.000	0.006	0.000	−0.054	−0.056	−0.054	−0.054	−0.054	−0.054	1.000
14	Previous season’s home performance	−0.330	−0.526	0.742	−0.713	−0.182	−0.620	0.015	0.000	0.015	0.017	0.017	0.017	0.000	1.000
15	Previous season’s away performance	0.018	−0.457	−0.040	0.038	−0.171	0.034	−0.216	−0.315	−0.214	−0.252	−0.241	−0.240	−0.093	−0.054	1.000
16	Weekend	−0.016	−0.015	0.016	−0.039	0.005	−0.039	0.011	−0.033	−0.034	−0.004	−0.034	0.018	−0.004	0.022	0.032	1.000
17	Public holiday	0.011	0.008	−0.004	0.025	−0.041	0.025	−0.020	0.014	−0.020	−0.020	−0.020	−0.001	0.014	−0.026	0.028	−0.252	1.000

Table 4. Regression results: dependent variable is ln(ticket prices).

	(1)		(2)		(3)		(4)
	Cheapest		Most expensive		Cheapest		Most expensive
	Coefficient	t	Coefficient	t	Coefficient	t	Coefficient	t
Relative average weekly workplace earnings	0.438***	(15.115)	0.393***	(15.481)
Capacity utilisation from previous season	−0.864***	(7.314)	−0.250**	(2.418)	0.047	(0.418)	0.006	(0.062)
Capacity utilisation from previous season squared	0.928***	(7.946)	0.289***	(2.829)	−0.038	(0.330)	0.019	(0.179)
Home promoted	0.001	(0.040)	0.165***	(6.572)
Big Six team at home	0.032	(1.427)	0.080***	(4.108)
Derby matches	0.105***	(4.490)	0.115***	(5.649)	0.084***	(5.979)	0.108***	(8.433)
ln(adjusted total labour costs)	0.057***	(3.469)	0.158***	(11.035)
Away team is Manchester United	0.149***	(5.647)	0.146***	(6.327)	0.159***	(10.002)	0.148***	(10.173)
Away team is Manchester City	0.142***	(5.118)	0.140***	(5.785)	0.147***	(8.817)	0.142***	(9.373)
Away team is Liverpool	0.116***	(4.386)	0.125***	(5.425)	0.144***	(9.052)	0.133***	(9.160)
Away team is Tottenham Hotspur	0.136***	(5.032)	0.120***	(5.042)	0.132***	(8.098)	0.123***	(8.248)
Away team is Chelsea	0.112***	(4.121)	0.115***	(4.829)	0.143***	(8.706)	0.128***	(8.537)
Away team is Arsenal	0.101***	(3.717)	0.102***	(4.299)	0.109***	(6.657)	0.100***	(6.728)
Away team is Everton	0.017	(0.714)	0.017	(0.835)	0.024*	(1.690)	0.019	(1.507)
Previous season’s home performance	−0.003*	(1.655)	−0.012***	(8.271)
Previous season’s away performance	−0.002	(1.445)	−0.001	(1.002)	−0.002**	(2.401)	−0.001	(1.493)
Weekend	0.019	(1.488)	0.020*	(1.766)	0.012	(1.510)	0.016**	(2.232)
Public holiday	0.029	(1.049)	0.025	(1.053)	0.026	(1.582)	0.022	(1.432)
Season 2015–16	−0.036**	(2.244)	−0.066***	(4.671)
Season 2016–17	−0.088***	(5.547)	−0.104***	(7.459)
Season 2017–18	−0.102***	(6.220)	−0.100***	(6.974)
Season 2018–19	−0.112***	(6.856)	−0.059***	(4.093)
Constant	2.033***	(6.530)	0.538**	(1.975)	3.449***	(158.715)	3.740***	(188.806)
Observations	1520		1520		1520		1520
Adjusted r^2	0.422		0.646		0.318		0.335
Season dummies	Yes		Yes
Home-season fixed effects					Yes		Yes

Notes: Models (1) and (2) use linear regression estimated using OLS whilst models (3) and (4) are fixed effects with home club-season as the panel. Absolute t statistics in parenthesis. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

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