Premier League Dead Ball Time
Published:Are football fans getting their money’s worth from their Premier League Season Ticket? Coral investigates.
The Premier League is arguably the most exciting league in the world. It provides plenty of drama every week and there’s never a dull moment on the pitch. Click here to discover the latest Premier League odds and get in on the action.
But, it’s not cheap to watch in person.
Fans pay big money for their season tickets to watch all that action unfold, but how many tackles for tenners are they really getting? Coral digs into new research powered by Opta to discover the real value for money at the match.
Are fans getting their money’s worth?
The cheapest season ticket for Arsenal is £891. That works out at £47 per league game at the Emirates Stadium, the most per game in the league.
Promoted side Huddersfield Town offer the cheapest season ticket at £199. Over the course of the campaign, each league game will cost Terriers fans just £10.
Whatever fans pay for their season tickets, they want to see plenty of action on the pitch.
However, in 2016-17, Premier League matches averaged 96.4 minutes of game-play. Of that time, games only averaged 55.6 minutes of live match-play. That means that 42% of each game is “dead ball time”, i.e., when the ball goes out of play or after a foul has been committed.
The Premier League table below shows the cost lost per game. Just think of what those fans could purchase with all that money spent on dead ball time…
Alongside Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are getting the worst value for money, losing out £320 and £297 on dead ball time respectively. Manchester United’s cheapest season ticket is a relatively affordable £532. But the Red Devils are still losing over £227, or 43% of their season ticket when the ball is not in play.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s Huddersfield fans who can be most satisfied with their value for money. Dead ball time costs them a league-low £85 over a season.
Click here to read more on Premier League averages over a 90-minute match.