‘Premier League football fans have outlived their usefulness’ – Kieran Maguire

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Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has suggested that Premier League season ticket holders have ‘outlived their usefulness’ with the biggest clubs now prioritising revenue from tourists instead.

The Premier League is home to some of the biggest brands in world football. Clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool are no longer just football teams but global brands capable of generating major revenue.

Over the last decade or so, many club owners have realised that, from a financial perspective, football clubs are able to achieve a lot more from a business perspective, an attitude we have also seen filter down through the EFL.

Unfortunately for the match-going fan, this has led to a sharp rise in ticket prices.

Kieran Maguire on average prices for Premier League football fans

Speaking to Beyond The Back Four, football finance expert Kieran Maguire sat down with Graeme Bailey to discuss the issues surrounding the controversial topic.

Maguire said: “For the elite clubs, who are the equivalent of Oasis, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Coldplay in terms of popularity, there’s always going to be a secondary market for tickets. Premier League football fans have outlived their usefulness. What clubs want to focus on is – a horrible word – yield. It’s yield per fan per match.

“If you take a look at that yield on a net basis, Chelsea and Spurs are very much at the top of the Premier League, averaging £90 per ticket per match. Remember, that includes kids, seniors, and the family stand, and that’s before VAT.

“You add on 20% VAT, and as far as what the fans are paying, they’re paying on average fairly close to £110. They want that figure to go up and up. The reason for that is that we’re not getting any more money from TV deals. The Premier League is getting 4% more money in 2029 than it did in 2017 from the domestic deal. So they’re reliant upon overseas markets to continue to grow. That’s not guaranteed.”

TalkingPoints

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He went on to explain that the new target demographic for clubs isn’t the local fan anymore, but tourists, but those likely to spend the entire day around the stadium.

“So, why not target the fans?” Maguire said. “Season ticket holders are bed blockers, because what happens – this is an accusation made by my wife, or perhaps ex-wife, if she listens to this podcast – you go to every match, sit around the same table at the same pub, telling the same stories about the same matches you went to 30 years ago. You get to the ground at 10 to three and leave straight afterwards.”

The better option for clubs, as Maguire explains, is for the tourist, who will stay for a full day out and an “immersive experience”.

“If I’m going to Spurs, Anfield, the Etihad, wherever it’s going to be, I get there at half past one because this is the club I’ve been desperate to see for so many years. So you get there at half one. What are you going to do for that 90 minutes before kickoff? You’re going to spend money. You’re going to stay afterward. What are you going to do? You’re going to spend money.

“So it becomes an immersive experience. It’s a bit like going to watch a sporting event in the United States, where everything is geared from the minute you pay $30 for a car parking space, and you tailgate – you have your barbecue out the back of your pickup, whatever they call them – you are spending, spending, spending. The longer you can get people there, the more lucrative it is to have the non-loyal fans.”

With bigger stadiums for Arsenal and many more becoming apparent at clubs around the football pyramid, the business model is a foolproof one.

Manchester United spark ‘football is dead’ claim

The footballing empire that is Manchester United is among the clubs most affected. Maguire recalled a season ticket holder who lost his seat to make room for a “dugout experience.”

Maguire said: “At Manchester United, we saw a report, I think on BBC Sport or somewhere similar, that a guy who’d been shifted out of his ticket, which was just behind Ruben Amorim, into somewhere else, is having to pay twice as much. He’s being replaced by people buying the dugout experience at £200 a ticket. From a financial perspective, it makes absolute sense.

“But that’s because football’s dead as a sport, and it is now a business experience. It’s a money-making vehicle. It’s very depressing, isn’t it?”

TalkingPoints

Poll: Have you stopped going to Premier League football matches because of ticket prices?

So how do you combat it? Sadly, there’s not much that can be done. At the end of the day, football clubs are businesses, and the aim is to maximise revenue by any means possible.

Fan outrage is entirely understandable. Some families have been attending football matches for generations, but many now find themselves priced out.

It’s a bleak reality, a world where parents may no longer be able to take their children to a football match. But that, it seems, is the world we’re living in.