London Cricket Ticket Prices

[mcgillianaire]

You know something is wrong when the most expensive ticket of the summer to watch Test Cricket at The Oval (against New Zealand and South Africa) is 10% higher than the most expensive ticket in the English Premier League (Arsenal at The Emirates). Even the cheapest tickets for Test Cricket in London this summer are no less than £50 ($100 US). At Lord's the cheapest tickets on Days 1-4 are £60 ($120). It's fucking ridiculous. And what makes me even more angry is the disparity between these prices and juvenile prices (ie, U16s). The most expensive juvenile ticket (gotta love how they call it that) is £52 for the game against New Zealand at The Oval, but the cheapest ticket is £25. And to make matters even worse, and confusing, juvenile tickets are only £5 for all stands and levels in the South Africa Test at The Oval. WTF?! Domestic championship tickets are not much better with the cheapest ones starting at £12 at The Oval, and £15 at Lord's. One of the domestic limited-over cup final sets you back a minimum of £40. And you wonder why cricket is not able to attract bigger crowds?! The only hope I have of watching international cricket this year is if either of the London Test matches go into a fifth-day. Even then it costs £20 at Lord's and £15 at The Oval. And that's before you check the weather report. Blargh!!! This is why I've chosen a career at law. I need a decent income just to finance a day out in the sun (when it pops out). Not.Happy.At.All. Come on guys, this is why I moved here!

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I suppose part of it is that all our Test grounds are very small considering the popularity of Tests here. If we had an MCG equivalent, maybe the prices would be more sensible. Not that you can use that excuse for non-Twenty20 domestic games, though Worcestershire are fairly reasonable: £10 for the County Championship seems okay.

Mind you, my local football club (Kidderminster Harriers) charges £13 for standing and £16 for a seat - and they're not even in the League. They don't sell out, either! I've never really understood why so few sports clubs realise that 2,000 people at £5 a head is better than 500 people at £15 a head. Especially since you also have four times the opportunity to sell food, programmes, shirts etc!

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

>I suppose part of it is that all our Test grounds are very small considering the popularity of Tests here. If we had an MCG equivalent, maybe the prices would be more sensible.
True. It's still too expensive for massive cricket enthusiasts such as myself who would love to take an entire week off just to go to an entire Test match if it was affordable. Even if it was against Bangladesh!

>my local football club (Kidderminster Harriers) charges £13 for standing and £16 for a seat
That's ridiculous! I can't believe they charge so much. Even Barnet FC (my nearest League team) charge peanuts for their matches. The cheapest Premier League tickets, which are more expensive than their La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A equivalents, start at about £30 which makes the Harriers seem even more expensive.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

>Even Barnet FC charge peanuts for their matches.
I stand corrected. Barnet charged between £15-20 for all their home matches this season. They're in League Two which is one level above The Harriers but it's still inexcusable for the West Midlands club to charge so much! It is commendable however that one can still buy standing tickets. :)