An adult Kilmarnock supporter travelling to Ibrox on Saturday will pay £34 to watch their team. Hibernian fans heading to Tannadice for their new manager’s debut match face a £30 ticket, while Dundee supporters at Falkirk and St Mirren followers at Tynecastle will each be asked for £28. Those prices come before travel, food and other matchday costs.
Further down the SPFL, away entry fees can be lower, but they remain significant. Morton fans could pay £24 at Arbroath in the Championship, Hamilton supporters £21 at Alloa in League 1, and Kelty Hearts followers £18 at Stirling Albion in League 2. The figures raise a familiar question: how much is too much for a match ticket?
Scotland’s top flight is the best attended in Europe per head of population, a status the SPFL regularly highlights. But rising costs raise the prospect that this could be put at risk. A survey of all 42 SPFL clubs on what they charge visiting supporters found adult prices broadly similar within each of the four divisions, though the actual figure changes depending on the opponent, the location in the stadium and whether the ticket is bought in advance. Concession prices vary more widely, with many clubs offering free child entry with a paying adult, and the range of individually bought tickets does not capture those promotions.
Supporters who spoke about the issue were largely in favour of some form of limit. Aberdeen fan Glen Schreuder said he would like to see an away ticket cap, explaining that away travel has become unaffordable because of rises not just in ticket prices but in general prices. Dundee United supporter Paul McNicoll called the cost of away tickets borderline scandalous, noting that some venues are much higher than others, and said a standard price would be good but feels miles away. Falkirk fan Grant Heaney described away ticket prices as excessive and said some sort of cap definitely has to be introduced, while accepting that everything is going up and clubs are affected too. Kilmarnock supporter Sandy Armour suggested limiting prices to £20 and floated the idea of six or seven non-city clubs reaching an agreement among themselves. Rangers fan Jamie Currie, who goes home and away, said away pricing is vastly overpriced given the product and should be capped at £20, but acknowledged it is a catch-22 because it is the biggest earner for clubs.
Others highlighted the difficulty of change. Hearts fan Greg Playfair said that if away prices are capped, home supporters will ask why visiting fans are paying less, calling it a tricky issue. Hibernian supporter Matty Fairnie said some clubs try to keep prices down, but others see fans as a commodity to milk, and noted that gate receipts are a huge part of income for Scottish clubs, which would make them almost turkeys voting for Christmas. St Johnstone fan Sam Miller said it seems more expensive than it needs to be for what is received, and suggested that if clubs made their finances clearer, supporters might better understand why ticket pricing is what it is. St Mirren fan Mark Jardine said he understands why prices go up because St Mirren mostly make their money from people coming through the door, but believes it will reach a point where people are put off, and he finds himself siding more with the Twenty’s Plenty £25 cap side of the argument.
England offers a direct comparison. A £30 cap has been in place in the English Premier League for the last decade, and in March clubs voted unanimously to keep it for another two seasons. It was introduced amid recognition that ticket prices had become too high and that away fans were essential for match atmosphere. Since its introduction in 2016, away attendances have increased from 82% to 91%.
Michael Brunskill of the Football Supporters’ Association said there was initially some grumbling from home fans, who sometimes had to pay more, but that the mood soon changed. He said the money clubs lost was minimal, and that the Premier League engaged because executives understood the arguments being made. In his view, marginally lower prices mean full away ends, which makes stadiums look fantastic on TV and leads to more pies and pints sold, so it all added up.
In Scotland, however, a cap on away ticket prices is not on the SPFL’s agenda and has not been discussed by the clubs any time recently. Comparisons with England are complicated by the fact that Scottish clubs are far more reliant on matchday revenue because of smaller broadcasting deals. Despite ongoing cost-of-living pressures, attendances in Scotland are continuing to rise, so clubs will likely be reluctant to introduce a measure that could, at least initially, lead to a drop in income.
The issue has attracted political interest, with the Scottish Greens calling for a £25 cap before the Holyrood election in May. But while no cap exists, the SPFL does prevent clubs from charging visiting supporters more than home fans for equivalent seating. A number of clubs offer concessions and deals, and away fans can attend games at various levels of the SPFL for less than £25. The harsh reality is that the cost of everything seems to be going up, and any campaign for a cap may only gain real traction when fans stop going.