Sport & Fitness

Perhaps you’re not a regular visitor to this section of Time Out. You might not be interested in football, but one of your kids has pledged allegiance to a London club and been badgering you to go to a game. Or you’re thinking about a birthday outing to a match, or a Christmas family treat. You’ve clicked on the websites to find out who’s playing and you’ve got your credit card ready to buy the tickets. Then you’ve seen the prices…

In the Premiership, only seven out of the 20 clubs have an adult ticket cheaper than £23. Nine have a top price above £39, for an event that could be wonderful – or utterly woeful. Unlike the theatre or gigs, where you’ve a general idea of the quality, your 90 minutes of football could be dire. In London, Spurs charge £27-£71 for the privilege, West Ham £32-£57 and Chelsea £35-£65. Even in the Coca-Cola Championship, a seat for Saturday’s routine clash between Crystal Palace and Colchester United will set you back £25-£45. Nor are there substantial discounts for children. At Premiership clubs, membership is almost essential to gain any benefits: it costs £15 to join West Ham’s Junior Hammers, for example, with kids’ tickets then costing £12-£28.50. In mitigation, West Ham do offer three ‘Kids for a Quid’ fixtures each season – though against the least glamorous opposition. Feature continues

The main argument used to justify such figures is that, last year, clubs paid out £786 million in players’ wages – of which a staggering £583 million went to the Premiership. If we want to watch the best, we’ve got to pay for the privilege.

At Chelsea or permanently sold-out Arsenal, it’s hard to disagree. Yet how can Crystal Palace charge £10-£30 for a kid’s ticket to a match that is among this weekend’s most mundane?

It would be unfair to single out Palace, however, for they are among the 61 Coca-Cola Championship and League clubs taking part in ‘Fans of the Future’ – a scheme offering reduced and free admission to children at more than 800 games this season. The Eagles gave a free under-16 ticket with every paying adult for two (it must be said, unattractive) fixtures in November, with more such deals to follow. Elsewhere, under-12s can pay £15 for associate membership at Barnet then get into all league matches without charge while, at Brentford, under-sevens pay just £3 for a season ticket. The next generation of Millwall fans can join the Junior Lions (free for under-nines), benefit from free tickets for four games each season and learn to shout abuse at Willie Donachie’s struggling team.

The logic is simple, yet it appears until now to have been ignored: an empty seat can never be sold again, so why not fill it with a child who, though paying nothing for admission, will almost certainly want a programme, a drink, a burger and a piece of tat from the club shop? The initial findings are impressive: research shows that 77 per cent of parents who have not taken their kids to watch their local club would now consider doing so, with 66 per cent of parents who aren’t football fans thinking the same.

Some clubs have extended the principle. At Leyton Orient on Saturday, children aged seven to 13 can enjoy two hours of football coaching then watch the match against Huddersfield Town with an adult for a combined price of £16 (for details call 0870 310 1881).

For those Premiership clubs who believe the gravy train is never going to slow, here’s a telling statistic. A one-month Sky Sports subscription now costs less than the price of the cheapest ticket to watch Spurs play Newcastle next month.