How to measure which club on Merseyside is the best value

Football ticket prices are still on the agenda with Manchester United being the latest club to consult fans, but how do Merseyside’s clubs compare?

Many fans of major clubs such as Manchester City and Man United have staged protests about the rise in costs. Liverpool have done the same with their slogan “don’t kill the Kop” as fans wrote an open letter to the club after ticket prices rose 2% from last year.

Ticket prices look like they won’t stop rising so will fans eventually be priced out of their own club?

There are three professional clubs in the county: Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere Rovers.

Each of these teams are all at different levels of each other and all have a wide range of ticket pricing.

Liverpool, being the elite club with a global fan base, are naturally the most expensive of the three to go and watch.

An average ticket to go to Anfield would cost a person around £105 for a Premier League game, however, this is very dependent on what the game is.

For example, according to Seat Pick, which uses over 50 different ticketing websites to compare prices, tickets for last Sunday’s game against Man United started from £350 and raised to nearly £10,000 for a hospitality seat.

Everton have embraced their brand-new Hill Dickinson stadium instantly and fans are loving the impact it’s had on the team so far, a feeling that Man United fans may have in the near future.

A ticket for a Premier League game at the new arena will cost on average between £55 to £63, a decent bit cheaper than the £105 for Liverpool.

Match day tickets have not seen a major change in price for Everton since their recent stadium move, season tickets however, have.

The cheapest season ticket you could get at Goodison came at around £555 last season. There has been a 15.3% rise since arriving at the docks with the cheapest season ticket coming in at £640.

Unlike Anfield, the chances of getting a ticket on matchday at the Hill Dickinson Stadium are higher, Everton have more of a local support and less tourists who are going to spend big money on tickets.

According to The Financial Times in 2020, the 27,000 season tickets available for Liverpool, only around 5,000 (21.6%) belonged to Liverpool postcodes, whereas the 30,000 season tickets available to Everton fans over 25,000 (84.1%) belonged to Liverpool postcodes.

Tranmere are the smallest of the three clubs, playing in League Two of the EFL.

It’s a bit of a in-joke that no one supports Tranmere and people only watch them when they can’t get to the Liverpool or Everton games.

A ticket to watch the Rovers will cost you between £23 and £28 depending on where you want to sit. Exceptionally cheaper than their red and blue neighbours which is expected considering their standard of football.

Ticket prices stay the same regardless of the game, varying only when a different competition is being played.

How does this all compare?

So, which one is best value for money?

This is a matter of opinion, removing all preferences, purely for the neutral and depending on your budget on what you can afford.

The most luxurious experience you can have is Liverpool, the titan of the three, one of the most successful clubs in the world and arguably the most successful in England.

The highest average ticket price for the highest standard of football is expected, but how do you measure its worth?

For argument’s sake we’ll use the average wage across Merseyside, the cost of 10 games using the average ticket price, the cost per goal and per league point from last season and compare it.

Using last season’s stats, if you went to 10 Liverpool games at Anfield last season, it would cost you just over £1000, costing £13.12 per goal and £11.67 per league point. If you lived off an average wage in Merseyside it would cos you 0.04% of your wage each time Liverpool scored a goal last season.

Watching 10 games at Goodison last season would’ve cost you £600, which is over £400 cheaper than their red rivals. The cost per goal and per point, however, are slightly more expensive being £15 each.  This results in 0.05% of your wage being gone for every goal scored.

Tranmere are the cheapest. Costing £250 on average to watch 10 of their home games in the league last season, only costing their fans £5.56 per goal and £4.83 per league point. Watching Tranmere on an average wage will only take 0.017% of it.

Based on this data, the best team to spend your time watching would be Tranmere being by far the most affordable and having the best cost-per-goal ratio.

Liverpool is the most expensive, but watchers are rewarded by a high goal count most games. Bottom of the pile are the toffees, though fans may save a bit of money on tickets, Everton score no where near the amount of goals Liverpool do proving for worse viewing and less value for money.

If you’re a complete neutral and want to watch football for goals while saving money, Tranmere is your best option.

But football is more than just goals, it’s about the standard you play at and the success you achieve while you’re playing.

Anyone who follows football will know that the game is about  more than just scoring goals.

This is a big part of the experience when going to watch a team.

Looking at cost per point, similar to cost per goals, the outcome is the same when it comes to value for money per points earned. Tranmere fans get the best value for money paying way less per point and per goal, giving fans strong return for ticket cost.

Liverpool once again is middle of the park, being the most expensive team to watch but have high goal and point counts. Everton are the worst for value when it comes to pounds-per-goal and point.

Using these results, the fairest way to measure what is the overall best value for money is to consider both goals scored for entertainment and number of points won for success. By combining each team cost per goal and point, working out the average between them it gives us a fan value index.

It’s impossible to truly measure which team is the best to watch as it all comes down to a matter of preference, but football is also a game of stats.

Statistically Tranmere Rovers are the best value for money club you can watch in Merseyside, while Everton give their audience the worst returns on their investment.