Arsenal Fans Are Still Being Ripped Off

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 101 months ago
Arsenal Fans Are Still Being Ripped Off
Even Tony Adams can't believe it. Photo by London Cabbie in the Londonist Flickr pool

Gooners fan, avert your peepers now. The BBC's annual Price of Football survey has been published, and Arsenal continue to be the most expensive club to support in London, the UK, and quite possibly the world.

As you can see from our table below, the cheapest season ticket at the Emirates costs £1,014, while the dearest is £2,013. At London's second most expensive club, Chelsea, the cheapest season ticket is £750, and the priciest £1,250. That makes Arsenal's season ticket between £264 and £763 costlier. Good job they're finding the net at the moment.

But there's positive financial news for London's footie fans too. As the Beeb revealed, most ticket prices across the UK have been frozen, or even dropped, and this pattern follows in the capital. So though Arsenal fans are still forking out to see their club play, they're not paying a penny more than they were last season [insert small yelp of triumph here].

The same story goes for big clubs including Chelsea (the only change here is the cheapest matchday ticket has gone up by £2), and Spurs (no change at all).

It's a different story for Palace fans, who are paying up to £40 more for a season ticket than last year, while the best matchday seat at West Ham now costs you up to £20 extra. And despite not gaining promotion into the Premier League last season, Charlton have ramped up the price of their season tickets by up to £25, the scoundrels.

Perhaps the only silver lining of getting relegated is the price drop; Leyton Orient's high-end season tickets have been lowered by £45 from last season, while QPR's have plummeted by £230, now the team is no longer in the Premier League. QPR have, however, had the audacity to raise the price of the programme by 50p, even though there'll be no glossy pictures of Louis van Gaal in it this year.

Tea and pies

With all this talk of tickets we've almost neglected the most important thing of all: tea and pies.

Arsenal's ticket prices may have frozen, but it's 10p more for a pie, and 10p more for a tea. Rivals Tottenham should be ashamed of themselves; they've put their tea up by 20p (although the price of nothing else has changed since last season). Fulham must be trying to claw back some of the money they're losing on reduced ticket prices; their tea's shot up by 30p.

The tea story to end all other tea stories, however, is happening at Chelsea, where last season's already-cheap tea has been discounted by a whole pound, now costing just £1. Not only is it the cheapest cuppa in a London football stadium, it's probably the cheapest in all London. Why is this? Well, at the moment, there is probably scant demand for PG Tips at Stamford Bridge, as the fans of the 16th placed champs opt for something stronger. Cyanide, for example.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace are hawking the most expensive football pies in London, and — one final shocking finding — AFC Wimbledon STILL won't release any information on their pies. What are they PUTTING in those things?

Compare this table with last year's.

Club Cheapest season ticket Most expensive season ticket Cheapest match ticket Most expensive match ticket Programme Pie Tea
Crystal Palace £420 £680 £23 £45 £3.50 £4.00 £2.20
Arsenal £1,014 £2,013 £27 £97 £3.50 £3.70 £2.30
Tottenham £765 £1,895 £32 £81 £3.50 £3.50 £2.20
Charlton £175 £550 £17 £37 £3.00 £3.60 £2.10
Fulham £259 £839 £25 £45 £3.90 £3.50 £2.20
QPR £389 £719 £25 £70 £3.50 £3.30 £2.10
West Ham £617.50 £955 £25 £95 £3.50 £3.50 £2.30
Millwall £333 £514 £22 £30 £3.00 £3.40 £2.00
Brentford £369 £499 £28 £35 £3.00 £3.30 £1.60
Chelsea £750 £1250 £52 £87 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00
Dag & Red £199 £400 £18 £21 £3.00 £2.50 £1.20
Leyton Orient £180 £315 £22 £24 £3.00 £2.30 £1.70
AFC Wimbledon £260 £430 £16 £20 £3.00 N/A £1.50

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Last Updated 15 October 2015