Here is your Matchday Money article for gameweek 22, where we will estimate the matchday gate receipts taken at all premier league games this week. We will compare the revenue generated between teams and compare their strategy for maximising matchday revenue.
The revenue is calculated based on an average of the highest and lowest prices offered to club members for each match. This amount is then multiplied by the number of tickets available for sale which for home teams is attendance less away ticket allocation and season tickets sold. Away teams is simply the away ticket allocation multiplied by the away ticket price. A separate article will analyse the season ticket revenue taken by each club.
The away allocation differs from game to game with it up to negotiation between the clubs. The lower of 10% of stadium capacity or 3,000 seats must be offered to away teams on each matchday, however this is not always taken up as clubs analyse the demand for the game among their fans and choose accordingly.
Here are the matchday results for gameweek 22:
Brighton 2 – 2 Bournemouth
Burnley 1 – 2 Liverpool
Leicester 3 – 0 Huddersfield
Stoke 0 – 1 Newcastle
Everton 0 – 2 Manchester United
Southampton 1 – 2 Crystal Palace
Swansea 0 – 2 Tottenham
West Ham 2 – 1 West Brom
Manchester 3 – 1 Watford
Arsenal 2 – 2 Chelsea
Tottenham 1 – 1 West Ham
Gameweek 22 Analysis
Arsenal led the way in stadium capacity percentage with an unmatched 99.2% of the stadium full as 59,379 fans flocked to their blockbuster London derby against Chelsea, a great match finishing 2-2. They were closely followed by Everton who achieved attendance of 99% for their game against Manchester United.
Arsenal’s attendance of 59,379 was the highest attendance this gameweek, pipping London rivals Tottenham and West Ham and also domestic rivals Manchester City, who all achieved attendance in excess of 50,000.
Tottenham’s attendance although high with 50,034 fans attending their London derby against West Ham, was poor in relation to the stadium size with a capacity utilisation of only 55.6%. The high ticket prices in the region of £50, plus the sheer size of the 90,000-seater stadium make filling it impossible, possibly to the detriment of the team at home.
West Ham have faced a similar issue, if not as bad, filling the 66,000 seater Olympic Stadium. However their ticket prices are not as expensive while they also have sold more season tickets, and hence achieved a utilisation of 86.2%.
Southampton were the only other team to have a utilisation of less than 94% at 87.4%, possibly due to growing fan discontentment with their poor performance this season.
Despite their low capacity utilisation, Tottenham continue to take huge gate receipts and as such vindicating their pricing system supposedly. However one may wonder whether they could take even more with a more reasonable pricing system while achieving high turnouts on matchday. Tottenham benefitted by having two games this gameweek, helping take their gate receipts to over £1.1m. North London rivals Arsenal were a close second, taking around £900k form their game against Chelsea.
West Brom languish at the bottom this week, with takings of around £38k due to taking a modest away allocation of only 1,272 for their game against West Ham.
Just ahead of them was Watford with £45k takings from an allocation of 1,500 tickets against Manchester City, potentially not wanting to expose too many of their fans to the frightening attack of their opponents.
Tottenham’s season ticket sales of only 28,000 also allow them to benefit from more expensive matchday tickets. Arsenal, Manchester City and Leicester complete the top 4 this week with the usual suspects Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United playing away this week. Manchester City have lower gate receipts due to having season ticket sales of 40,000 for their 55,000-seater stadium. These amounts are more secure, so there is always a trade off between the guaranteed selling of season tickets and the potential for empty seats on matchday.
West Ham also have this issue, having sold 52,000 season tickets meaning on this matchday they only had 3,616 gate receipts, leading to low matchday takings of just over £100k.
Brighton also have lowly takings due to their small stadium and modest pricing. On the matter of matchday pricing, Stoke offered the lowest average ticket price of £25 as they try and entice their fans to continue supporting the troubled club.
There was some variance this week among away matchday revenue with Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Huddersfield, Manchester United, Newcastle and West Ham all achieving around £90k in takings leading while Watford and West Brom lagged the group due.
As mentioned earlier Watford and West From both took extremely low allocations from their away games while those achieving around £90k all taking around 3,000 tickets.
Watford were away to Manchester City, a loss was expected and as such Watford may have decided demand was low due to the lack of optimism while West From were away to West Ham and are known to take low allocation for away games with their fans apparently not willing to travel far to watch their out of form team.
Thats it for this week’s matchday money article – any feedback would be greatly appreciated as we continue to refine the formula to get as accurate a read on matchday takings.
