by Andy Kelly

With a nationwide protest against ticket prices planned for this weekend, we thought we’d update this article that was originally published in March 2014. 18 months ago we were talking about a 3% rise in ticket prices at the Emirates for the 2014-15 season that had just been announced. There was much talk on social media about how expensive it was to watch football but there were all sorts of misrepresented figures being thrown into the pot. This article shows how ticket prices have increased at Arsenal over the last 35 years.

I would also still like to recommend Matthew Bazell’s “Theatre of Silence“, a fantastic book that explains his disillusionment with the game. @RoyalarsenalMRA and myself have felt pretty much the same way as Matthew for a number of years, especially with regards to the enormous sums paid to players. I heartily recommend Matthew’s book, it’s an easy read and only £4.11 on kindle.

With regards to this article, I started at 1980 for two reasons. Firstly, it harks back to an age when football was affordable, especially on the terraces and secondly, I’ve got the club’s accounts going back to this year that include other figures that I felt were relevant.

This article includes a big tables of figures that may seem daunting at first but the figures are fairly easy to understand.

At this point I’d like to say that I don’t have an agenda. I’m not taking the side of a multi-million pound corporation nor fan groups who feel aggrieved at the prices that are charged at the Emirates. All I’m doing is showing what has happened over the last 30+ years. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I’ve listed my sources and some explanatory notes at the end of the article but feel it is worth mentioning how I calculated the ticket prices before I launch into the facts and figures. The main problem I had was the move of stadium in 2006 – what seats do I compare at The Emirates to those at Highbury? I went for East Lower at Highbury and Centre Lower at The Emirates. The reason for this is that at both stadiums they offer a similar view and were neither the most expensive nor cheapest seats. I did a similar comparison for East Upper Centre v Centre Upper and East Upper Wing v Upper Wing, and the comparisons were, again, very similar. Also, it was possible to stand at Highbury prior to 1992 which means that the average price for entrance into the ground would have been much cheaper than at The Emirates. However, I had to use something as a comparison and I chose the aforementioned seats. Feel free to leave a comment if you don’t agree.

So, on to the figures. Below is a table that shows the following for each season from 1980/81 to 2014/15:

Cost for one seat

Price rise compared to the previous season

Compounded price rise (i.e. the overall price rise for the seat since 1980/81)

UK Retail Price Index (RPI) for the year at the end of the season

Compounded RPI since 1980

Average UK wage for the year to the end of the season

Rise in the UK average wage compared to the previous year

Compounded rise in the UK average wage (i.e. since 1980)

Percentage of the ticket cost to the UK average wage

Arsenal’s wage bill for the season

Rise in Arsenal’s wage bill compared to the previous season

Compounded rise in Arsenal’s wage bill (i.e. since 1980)

Arsenal’s gate receipts for the season

Percentage of Arsenal’s wage bill compared to gate receipts for the season

Also included are compounded rises since the start of the Premier League

Click on the table to enlarge it.

I’ve put some of the figures into graph form to give a better indication of the figures. The first shows the comparison of compounded rises of ticket prices, RPI and the average UK wage.

It’s plain to see that while wages have risen faster than inflation, ticket prices have gone through the roof.

However, add in the Arsenal wage bill and these figures pale into insignificance.

Here are my observations:

The 38% rise in 1991-92 would have been to help pay for the installation of seats at the Clock End and towards the cost of building the North Bank following the Taylor Report.

The reason for Arsenal’s current high ticket prices are due to the inflation-busting rises between 1995-96 and 2005-06 which were needed to pay for massive wage increases. During this period, ticket prices trebled and the wage bill increased eight-fold. I don’t remember protests back then, or am I mistaken?

It is three times more expensive to watch football at Arsenal in 2015-16 than it was in 1980-81. This is based on the ratio of the ticket price to the average UK wage. But…

Since the move to The Emirates, ticket prices have risen 17.2% (2.5% of which was a VAT rise that the club had no control over), RPI has risen 26.5% and the average UK wage has risen 23.8%. Technically, it is cheaper to watch Arsenal at The Emirates than it was at Highbury.

As a percentage of the average UK wage, it is as cheap to watch Arsenal in 2015-16 as it was in 2004-05.

Gate receipts have not covered the wage bill since 1994-95. It is not just the fans who attend games that are paying the players’ wages. Between 2001-02 and 2003-04 those attending games contributed less than half the wage bill.

Arsenal’s top paid player in 1980-81 earned £50k per annum – 11 times the UK average wage. Arsenal’s top paid player in 2015-16 earned approximately £7m per annum – 290 times the UK average wage.

Thanks to Phil Wall for providing some missing figures.

Notes:

Ticket prices are general sale figures and do not include membership fees.

Where matches are graded (e.g. A, B and C) the overall ticket price is based on the average price of attending all League games.

The club does not break out the wages of the playing and coaching staff from the admin staff. However, it is safe to assume that the playing and coaching staff make up the vast majority of the wage bill (A player on £50k/week = 86 admin staff on £30k per annum).

Some increases have been due to rises in VAT.

It looks like there was some financial jiggery-pokery going on during 2009-10 & 2010-11 which can be seen with the gate receipt figures (or matchday revenue as it had become by then). The following footnote was included in the accounts:

Sources:

Ticket prices – Arsenal handbooks

RPI – http://swanlowpark.co.uk/rpiannual.jsp

Average UK wage – http://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/ & Office of National Statistics

Arsenal wages – Arsenal year end accounts

As I said, feel free to leave comments if you dispute any of these figures.

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The books…