The FSA has been looking at the rise in ticket prices. And although their article concentrates on Liverpool, there's little doubt that prices at Hereford's level have also risen much faster than inflation.
The past few months have been marked with a series of price hikes across almost the entire Premier League and a wave of anger from the FSA’s member supporter groups.
But how do top-flight prices compare with previous decades and other consumer goods? We did a little number crunching to find out and the numbers are stark.
But where to start? With the range of clubs and tickets it’s impossible to define an average so we looked for one solid data point, and where better to look at than Anfield’s Kop? Home to supporters from a traditionally working class city who don’t have fortunes to spend but can create an atmosphere which, at its best, is arguably unrivalled.
And when to measure from? We decided on 1990 as it feels like a turning point in when the game started to modernise (Italia 90, Gazza, Pavarotti and all that). The Premier League was just around the corner so it’s also the last gasp of the old league system before hyper commercialisation of the game really took hold.
1990 also offers reliable data as the Office for National Statistics’ inflation index goes back that far meaning we can rely on official data for consumer prices.
With all that we can start comparing prices and we created the Football Price Index (FPI) which tracks a product’s price at the same percentage increase as a football ticket.
How much would a loaf cost if your local baker was Fenway Sports Group? Read on…
| Item | 1990 (May) | 2024 (May) | Product % rise | FPI cost |
| Pint of milk | 30p | 65p | 117% | £2.93 |
| Loaf of bread | 50p | £1.40 | 180% | £4.88 |
| Litre of diesel | 40p | £1.50 | 275% | £3.90 |
| Pint of lager | £1.21 | £4.77 | 294% | £11.80 |
| Liverpool ticket | £4 | £39 | 875% | £39 |
(Data collected June 2024)
Summary:
- The Bank of England’s inflation calculator says that a ticket costing £4 in 1990 would be £9.59 in 2024. The cheapest ticket on the Kop in 2024 is £39.
- The cheapest football tickets have increased astronomically compared to other “products” and are now 875% higher, using Liverpool FC as a data point.
- If shops followed football’s pricing model your loaf of bread would cost £4.88 and a pint of lager would set you back £11.80.