Ker-ching: part two

All this international summer we’ll be trying to find out how much it costs to attend England matches. Last month we reported on ticket prices for the New Zealand tests at Lord’s and Headingley. Now we’ll look at the five Royal London ODIs between England and New Zealand, which begin this afternoon at Edgbaston.

During the winter I wrote to every host county, asking them how many tickets they were selling, at which prices, for each fixture. No county apart from Durham and Glamorgan were prepared to tell me how many were on sale at a specific price – although Warwickshire came very close. This means the other three counties have not disclosed enough information for us to determine the average ticket price, only a notional figure.

The following information was correct as of pre-season and takes into account neither booking fees, nor any discounts offered subsequently.

Edgbaston – 9th June

Warwickshire disclosed the capacities of their stands, although they say the figures don’t represent their full stadium capacity. “We could require up to 1,000 seats for the sightscreen and hospitality could take a bigger or smaller allocation on particular days”. Their standard hospitality capacity is 2,100, and they also provide 400 seats for disabled spectators and carers.

In addition to what’s below, the club also sell tickets for the Tom Dollery Lounge and David Heath Suite, for £40 and £35 respectively (£20 and £15 for under-sixteens). These are for members only, so I will exclude them from the main analysis.

Their public-sale tickets are as follows:

South Stand Lower: £35 (capacity 2,132).

RES Wyatt: £35 (4,445).

Skyline: £40 (786).

West Stand: £30 (3,670).

Eric Hollies: £30 (5,945).

Press Box: £35 (841).

Raglan: £35 (2,083).

Drayton Manor Family Stand: £25 (1,390).

Stanley Barnes: £25 (not disclosed).

Based on these figures, the average ticket price for today’s ODI at Edgbaston is £32.27. Tickets for under-sixteens range from £20 to £5, at an average of £11.59.

For a family of four – two adults and two children aged fifteen or younger – tickets for the day would cost an average £87.72.

Warwickshire also told us that in comparison with their equivalent 2014 ODI fixture “we’ve changed our pricing policy by making tickets between £25 and £40, rather than £35 and £75 for Sri Lanka”.

The Oval – 12th June

Surrey CCC have sold tickets at these prices, stand by stand. I have excluded sections which are members-only or described as not for general purchase. The full listing is here.

Lower Bedser: £75.

Upper Bedser: £85.

Laker: £80.

Lower Lock: £70.

Upper Lock: £90.

OCS Lower: (average by block) £65.27.

Peter May £55.

Unlike with Edgbaston, we can’t calculate a true average. We can essay a notional average by assuming each stand has an identical capacity. Using this approach, we can say the ‘average’ ticket for the Oval ODI costs £74.32. Under-sixteens’ prices are all exactly half the adults’ (average £37.16). The family of four price is £222.96.

The Ageas Bowl – 14th June

Hampshire responded to our request by directing us to the ticketing zone of their website. These pages did not disclose the full range of price options. All they enabled us to do was click on certain seats – as if we intended to purchase them – at which point the price was revealed. It was not feasible for us to conduct this process for every single seat in the ground – and at any rate, only the unsold ones were visible. Therefore we can say little about the Ageas tickets, save this brief information, on their site:

“Adults from £40. Under 17s £15”.

Trent Bridge – 17th June

Radcliffe Road: £52.

Hound Road: £52.

New Stand: £42.

Fox Road: £42.

William Clarke: £37.

Using the same methodology as with the Oval, the notional average ticket price for the Trent Bridge is £44.40. All under-sixteen tickets are £10. The notional family of four price is £108.80, although Nottinghamshire also offer this specific package, in the William Clarke stand only, for £84.

Emirates Durham – 20th June

Durham, uniquely, disclosed the exact numbers of seats available at specific prices.

Don Robson Pavilion, South Terrace and North Terrace: £50 (4,500 tickets in total). 

County Durham Stand, South West Terrace and North West Terrace: £45 (4,500 tickets).

Castle Insurance Stand: £40 (5,000 tickets) 

Family Stand: £40 (500 tickets).

The average ticket price at Durham, for the New Zealand ODI, is £44.65. Under-sixteens’ tickets range from £15 to £5, and the average is £11.38, making the family-of-four package £112.06.

The bottom line

The variations in the degree of disclosure are interesting. Durham, and to nearly the same extent Warwickshire, are happy to tell consumers what their tickets really cost. Surrey and Nottinghamshire are more coy, while Hampshire said virtually nothing at all.

There’s also a distinct variance in the prices themselves. Tickets for Edgbaston, by almost any fair measure, are relatively cheap, while seats at Trent Bridge and Durham are by the same yardstick fairly reasonable. But Oval tickets are much more expensive – more than double the price of Edgbaston’s.

Children can attend three of the four ODIs for barely more than a tenner – something I think we can all commend. Again, Surrey are the great exception – their average under-sixteens ticket is nearly quadruple the price of Nottinghamshire’s.

 

13 comments

  • I would suggest that all the grounds are trying to maximise their revenues on this landmark fixture. Surrey charging London ‘entertainment’ prices and I would surmise that they will as a result have far fewer children in attendance and more corporate.

  • I have been a Hampshire supporter for 40 years and used to go down to the county ground with my uncle and brother to watch Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge larrup the ball all over the surrounding area.

    When they moved to the Rosebowl they maintained the parochial feel about it, franchised vendors competing with each other, a range of well priced food and drink and entry at £10 for a county game. Since “re-branding” as the Ageas bowl the heart and soul has been removed from the club. You have to pay £21 for day’s LV cricket, none of the bars are open other than 1 (not that it makes any difference as the “Shane Warne Bar” sells the same pint of pish for £4.50 on T20/International days as the other bars). The is no soul about the ground anymore, everything is corporate and the twitter account is quite honestly, crap!

    That you have been unable to gain prices from their website does not surprise me. They have been totally “ECB’d” in their culture. Treat the customers as paying idiots, tell them nothing, charge them as much as you can and they will come anyway.

    Will they? Not me, I still watch my beloved club, just not at the awfully named Ageas Bowl. I

    • Andy – my sentiments exactly – I’ve followed HCCC for nearly forty years, with regular trips to United Services Ground (very local), Northlands Rd, Dean Park (both easy access by train with a short walk). I went to the Rosebowl three times by car in is first couple of years (dreadful access and parking, no public transport) and yes for the first few years it was still a pleasurable experience upon arrival.
      I went there once last year, and yes, it’s a corporate hovel now, and the cost is exorbitant and access is still pitiful – never going again, not even for an HCCC match

    • Another Hampshire fan here who shares the disgust at the way the club treats paying spectators.

      Last time I went I felt like I was an inconvenience to the club. As I live between Southampton and Brighton I now take my custom to Hove.

  • I think that it’s interesting that Warks have bent to financial reality and lowered prices from last year. (I sense some other grounds have too, but don’t have evidence to hand.)

    And call me a fair-weather fan (at least on the family side) :-
    I don’t know what the weather is like at Edgbaston today, but if it’s like it is here (grey, with a chill wind) then I’d certainly be thinking twice before taking my young’uns (one + cousin) even at prevailing prices.

    (Although of course, in fact they are in school for 3 out of the 5 matches anyway…)

  • One thing about my “fair weather” status – the key issue about prices with cricket is the variability. It can be a great day out or it can be a rubbish day out. That depends on weather, pitch conditions and stewards…

    Other things you might do with the kids may be equally expensive, but there’s a lot more consistency to the experience. Largely you fork out the money and the kids come home happy with the day, if not each other… ;-)

  • how much has Jason Roy paid for the ‘privilege’ of playing for England – aged 10 years leaves South Africa to go to the highly private and independent school called Whitgift, apparently created by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1580 something …. seems he’s exactly from ‘the right sort of family” … this England set up wreakes of privilege, money, status and upper classness – there’s no wonder it costs so bloody much – keep the workers out should be the anthem not bloody Jerusalem!!!!!

    • Ron, archbishop Whitgift created schools and alms houses that are still used today. One beneficiary was Mark Butcher. Another was Ally Brown, and.,going back, the legendary Jack Crawford. Don’t let sjw shit distract you.

      • Not sure of the school’s history, but Ally Brown went to Caterham Grammar. I know this (a) because he was a bit of a schoolboy legend (him and Trevor Ward) and (b) my mate at work went to school with him and never fails to tell us that Ally Brown once “gobbed” on him.

  • As a point of comparison, I’ve just booked tickets for 4 adults and 9 kids to watch a T20 at Northampton… £97 in total.

    Why would anyone bother going to watch England?

  • My research into county finances told me that Test grounds were massively over – indebted and that cricket came into the petty cash area. These grounds are on a financial knife edge and the ECB knows. The ECB wants top dollar Sky subs and let the counties finance themselves.

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