The REAL cost of watching football in the Championship...

After today's headline grabbing BBC Sport 'Price of Football' survey (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24014727) about £1000 season tickets at my club, Ipswich Town, and £10 matchday tickets at Huddersfield I decided to try and dig a little deeper.

The tickets compared by this survey, as always, are totally incomparable and therefore any analysis is totally flawed by definition.

I decided to visit each clubs website and check on their match day ticket price for the 2013/14 season, and publish the results here. Note, none of this includes Derby County, who use a dynamic ticket pricing system which is unable to be analysed easily!

What type of ticket was chosen?
The ticket chosen was for an adult ticket in what is generally the cheapest part of the ground - the lower tier behind the goal.

Also, it is a ticket that is purchased before the day of the game, and any booking fees are excluded.

What did I do about categorisation of games?
In case you are unaware, 12 clubs categorise games depending on the opposition, some clubs have A and B games, some clubs have A, B and C and 1 club (Huddersfield) have A*, A, B, C and D!

Unfortunately not many clubs confirm how many games will be in each category at the beginning of the season so I've had to use a mid point across all clubs.

For clubs with 3 or 5 categories, I chose the mid-ticket price.
For clubs with 2 categories, I chose the midvalue of the 2 tickets
For clubs without categories, I obviously used that value!

The results:

As you can see, Brighton have the most expensive match day ticket in the Championship, and there are 7 teams that come in above the £25 mark - the average ticket price is £24.63

14 teams set their price between £24 and £26, and this would seem a 'fair price' for Championship football in my eyes. The 5 teams that come in under this mark are the 3 newly promoted sides, the smallest other club in the Championship (Barnsley) and Wigan who have always struggled to fill their stadium in their Premiership days and are in receipt of parachute payments.

The 5 teams with the most expensive tickets, operate 3 categories and therefore have tickets for some games that are even more expensive. Ipswich and Leeds are the worst offenders where their ticket prices are increased by £4.50 and £5 respectively. In fairness to Leicester their Category C tickets are a bargain at only £15.

Overall, the prices above generally seem fair and for me the problem comes when clubs wish to categorise games. This punishes away fans of the divisions 'bigger' clubs, a team like Leeds who are seen as a big draw will always be the highest category for each game they play, hitting their loyal away fans in the pocket on a fortnightly basis.

Would Reece Brown be a useful addition to the ITFC squad?

On the face of it, what is there to disagree with about signing Reece Brown – young, schooled at Manchester United, capped for England at youth level….. even representing his country at the U20 World Cup 2 years ago.


However, just last season Brown had his loan spell at Coventry City cut short as he wasn’t getting enough games with the League 1 side. He subsequently joined Ipswich on loan, in what was effectively an extended trial, making one substitute appearance for the first team away at Nottingham Forest.

I spoke to a friend who has seen Brown numerous times for Manchester United youth ranks at the time of his initial loan, and his opinion of him was this:

League One’s probably his level at the moment (and that’s maybe being generous) – seemed to start alright at Coventry before falling out of favour, similar story at Oldham I think. He’s got some decent raw attributes and should have a pro career somewhere but he’ll be doing pretty well to feature much for you guys and/or earn a permanent move I suspect.

I saw Brown for the U21s on at least 3 occasions and he never seemed to hugely impress, he’s big and quick – but always seemed to have a mistake in him. I’d like to put that down to him trying too hard to impress, and he was shifted around in positions frequently.

I think there is a decent player in there, and with his age, and the fact he can cover Right Back, Centre Back and a holding Midfield role he would be a very useful addition to the squad.

Other than Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers, we do not have any other Centre Back’s at the club. The U18 centre backs last year were George Fowler, who is still a schoolboy next season, and Omar Sowunmi, who is a very raw first year scholar who’s development will not be helped by playing above a level he is comfortable with. Matthew Clarke played there a few times and looks a good long term bet to eventually end up there.

Brown is capable of being a very versatile substitute for the first team, who will get regular football for the U21s and be in a position to push on if the opportunity arises. He is physically gifted, and being in a more settled environment rather than constantly being on loan should allow him to settle down and develop more naturally.

It will be very difficult to sign an experienced centre back to sit behind Smith and Chambers in the pecking order and Brown is exactly the sort of player we should be after, his wages will be relatively low and it is a low-risk piece of recruitment.

I hope to see Reece Brown in an ITFC shirt again next season.