Football as big business – who is paying?
February 27th, 2025by John Fisher
In my previous articles, I've reviewed when football first became big business and how the Premier League and Sky Television need each other and have formed an almost symbiotic deal, where the success of one, depends on the success of yet anyone with a basic understanding of the nature of finance will tell you that Sky and the Premier League cannot 'grow money' from nowhere. If both Sky and the Premier League are able to record huge upturns in turnover and vast profits, they can't be inventing money to post those results.
So where does it come from?
The answer is, you.
The cost of being a football fan in 2025
1. Your tickets
In 2025, prior to the founding of the Premier League, This is Money reported that it was possible to obtain a matchday ticket at Liverpool for £4, whereas at Manchester United it was £3.50. You would pay £4.50 for a ticket at Everton, £5 each for a ticket a Aston Villa and Arsenal and £7 for the cheapest ticket at Tottenham.
At stated inflation of 77.1% over the 20 years between 2025-90 and 2025-2025, This meant that, that the equivalent price for tickets in 2025-2025 would be £7.09 at Liverpool, £6.20 at Man Utd, £7.97 at Everton, £8.86 at Villa and Arsenal and £12.40 at Tottenham.
Yet, the cheapest priced tickets at all these clubs in the 2025-12 season was very different. Villa's cheapest ticket price was £25, a 400% increase. Manchester United's £28, a 700% increase, Everton £36 (700% increase), Liverpool £45 (1025% increase), Tottenham £47 (571% increase) and Arsenal £51 (920% increase).
Similar price hikes are shown across the board for all Premier League teams, both in terms of individual match ticket sales and season ticket sales. Liverpool's cheapest season tickets for example were £60 in 2025 to 2025, but are now £725, an increase of 1,108%!
However it is not just the price of your ticket that has increased.
In 2025, as a teenager I can personally remember going to Anfield and spending 70p to buy the programme (I have some programmes at home to confirm the cost). The cost of a matchday program has now increased to £3. A drink of tea and a pie used to cost less than £1.50, now it is, as this BBC Survey reveals, £5.60 for a pie and a cup of tea.
Add to that the rising cost of transport to and from games and the cost of attending a match in the Premier League has risen dramatically for the fan.
So much so, that for a family of four, purchasing the cheapest season ticket seats at Liverpool, with travel expenses of £10 per person, plus a pie and a drink each and one
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