Football tourism set to enjoy revival in 2022

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – Online flights expert BudgetAir.co.uk has released a study that reveals the price of watching football in stadiums in different countries around the world. As international travel specialists, they wanted to compare the current cost of watching football in each country and quantify the entertainment value that each league provides. They set out to do this by analysing and comparing current ticket prices, the overall market value of players in each league, the quality of each league and the average number of goals scored per game to give a comprehensive assessment of the price of watching football and the entertainment value fans get in different leagues worldwide.

“We wanted the study to capture the current ticket market in each country and expose some of the challenges football fans are facing when sourcing tickets during the pandemic,” comments Steffen Boon, Global Marketing Director at Travix. “In some leagues, high demand means all official tickets are bought by paying club members, especially for premium matches between the best teams and particularly at the moment, when there is reduced supply due to partial stadium closures in some countries. For visiting tourists wanting to watch a match, this means they must instead use ticket reseller websites where they often encounter vastly inflated prices. The study scoured both official and reseller platforms to provide a stimulating comparison of where it is most expensive and most affordable to watch football in stadiums around the world as well as, crucially, where fans receive the best entertainment value.”

How the study was conducted:
The study began by identifying domestic leagues that are significant in the football world. The researchers then assessed ticket prices for upcoming games in each league. To do this, they first searched for tickets on official club ticket portals. If these tickets weren’t available for the general public – for example if they were only available to paying club members – the researchers then searched ticket reseller sites. This reflects the situation a non-club member fan would encounter if searching for match tickets.

To ensure consistency during the data collection process, the researchers sought tickets in two areas of the stadium: behind the goal, and along the touchline, taking samples from the lowest tier of seats in each location. They also differentiated between ‘regular games’ and ‘premium games’ (games between the top teams), to capture that prices generally increase for games in higher demand.

Having collected the ticket prices, they then created an average deviation from the dataset median to compare the cost of tickets in each league, showing which countries currently have the cheapest and most expensive prices.

Following this, the researchers found the current overall market value of players in each league. They then calculated an average deviation from the median to reveal the leagues in which the highest value players ply their trade.

Next, they created a cost versus quality score to reveal where fans receive the best value for money. To calculate the score, they considered average ticket prices, the overall market value of players in each league, and the performance of clubs from each league in recent continental competitions.

The researchers then studied every result from the last two completed seasons to calculate the average number of goals scored per match in each league. Using this data and each league’s average ticket price, they were able to calculate the amount fans pay per goal.

The resulting index provides a thorough assessment of what it currently costs to watch football in 28 domestic leagues around the world, and reveals where fans get the best value for money.