The BBC’s Price Of Football survey for 2016 was released a week last Wednesday evening and as ever they looked at everything from the price of tickets through to the price of pies to determine how costs in football are changing for the supporter year on year.
Of course the Premier League figures highly in their ‘results’ but the same questions were asked of all Football League clubs (albeit Plymouth Argyle apparently declined to take part in the survey that featured 200+ odd UK and European sides and there are a couple of other omissions in the tables) and the major sides from European football were also contacted, along with Scotland, Wales, Ireland and I believe for the first time ever, the Women’s Super League took part.
Having dealt previously with Premier League headline results from the survey – please Click Here and provided a division comparison – please Click Here (League One and Two available Here for anyone interested), it’s time to move onto club specific details.
This is the sixth such Price of Football survey undertaken and it does show that ticket prices in general are falling, but there are exceptions across the divisions.
For the Premier League, this year includes the £30 price cap agreement on away tickets for the first time.
So what does this mean for Hull in particular.
The full results showed:
Cheapest Season Ticket: £252
Top Price Season Ticket: £612
Cheapest Match Day Ticket: £9
Top Price Match Day Ticket: £33
*
Programme: £3
Pie: £3.10
Tea: £2.10
Adult Shirt: £44.99
Junior Shirt: £31.99
Cheapest Adult Away Ticket: £30
Top Price Adult Away Ticket: £30
In relation to the rest of the division and in general, it means Hull’s prices compare as follows:
Match Day Tickets:
Cheapest – the cheapest is the lowest in the Premier League.
Most Expensive – the most expensive is 38% below the Premier League average.
Season Tickets:
Cheapest – the cheapest ticket is the cheapest in the Premier League.
Most Expensive – the most expensive is 29% below the Premier League average.
Price Paid To See A Home Goal: It’s a cost of £11.30 per goal putting Hull as the 4th cheapest in the Premier League on that basis.
Most Popular Ticket Price Range (Premier League): £31-40
Adult Shirt: 9% below the Premier League average.
Junior Shirt: 19% below the Premier League average.
Programme: £0.35 pence below the Premier League average.
Pie: £0.39 pence below the Premier League average.
Tea: £0.03 pence above the Premier League average.
With these figures and the way that Hull City have a new membership scheme, it must be pointed out the Supporters’ Trust dispute the BBC’s findings and comparisons here.
The Hull Daily Mail carry a statement from HCST suggesting the figures are misleading when you factor in membership fees and the like.
A statement released to the media, read.
‘It is not true that Hull City have the cheapest adult season ticket. Stoke City, West Ham United and Manchester City all sell adult season tickets for less than £300. Hull City admitted to a group of fans at a ‘Fan Working Group’ meeting that one consideration when coming up with the new pricing scheme, was that it would have very favourable headline figures for studies such as the BBC Price of Football Survey.’
The statement added.
‘Sadly, these figures are misleading and the reality is that thousands of fans have been priced out of attending games which has resulted in a significant drop in average attendances this season. Attendances are now at a lower level than was being achieved at many of our games in the old Division Three. HCST call on Hull City to reintroduce concessions tickets for home fans as well as fair pricing across the board, with no gimmicks or strings attached, so that next season, they could potentially make a genuine claim to have the cheapest passes in the Premier League.’
