Lately Sky Sports did a survey which suggested that the average cost of watching a Premiership away game came in at just over £100 for a person travelling alone. I'm not too sure as to what a person would have to do to spend such an amount though. Let's take our trip to the Emirates as an example:
The combined cost of Tiger Travel and match ticket is £63 for an adult. Let's say that our supporter buys a programme (£3), drinks 4 pints of pre match beer (£16) and buys a burger at half time (£3). That adds up to £85 for one of the further Premiership matches. There are of course many variants to the above scenario but I feel it is safe to say that the figures above are reasonable to use as an average.
Now we use our time machine and travel back in time. One of the nearest comparisons I can find is our visit to Roots Hall, Southend, in May 2001. If our same supporter went to watch the Tigers at this match it would have cost them £19 for travel, £13 for a ticket, £10 for 4 beers and £2 for a half time burger - total cost £44, some £41 cheaper than this weekend's trip.
Let's now look at the price difference in detail. The distance from Hull to Roots Hall is approximately 226 miles, whilst to the Emirates it is about 16 miles shorter at 210 miles. So overall there will be a 32 mile shortfall but a price increase of £11. The increase in price equates to 58% for a slightly shorter journey. Meanwhile, the average cost of a litre of petrol during 2001 was 78p, whilst so far this year the average cost of a litre is 106p - that is an increase of 36%, some 22% less than the added cost to your ticket.
The match day ticket has increased by £20. It works out at around £2.86 each year or an average of 22%. Is this an acceptable amount when you take into consideration the difference in quality?
The alcohol, burger and programme are all personal preferences and as such I will not digest their figures in detail as they are not vital components in watching our team.
Taking into account the facts and figures above, do you feel that the price of watching Hull City has risen to a level which is no longer sustainable by the average working man or woman? Would the proposal from Sky Sports to make away match day tickets have a set price of £15 make the difference between affording the game and not? Should the away club have the ability to set prices for their own supporters and then claim the amount generated as their income? Would it be beneficial from the club's point of view to have even cheaper travel to away games to help out the hand that feeds them?
There are no doubts that watching Premiership football (or any league club) now comes at a price that eliminates some from having the opportunity to do so. What do you think is the way ahead?
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