At least £115 to watch a day of the Ashes in Birmingham - unless you are an Edgbaston member. A minimum of £255 for a standard seat at the Wimbledon singles finals. Prices starting from £289 for general admission to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on raceday.
Those are the ticket fees British sports fans have been told a single adult must pay if they want to attend some of the country's most beloved sports events in 2027. The cost of entry to elite sport in the UK has risen sharply in the 2020s, but attendances across the majority of sports are as strong as ever. Even for armchair fans watching at home, the breadth and expense of television subscriptions can be a barrier to accessing sport.
So what exactly is behind the rise in prices, can the increases possibly be justified and what does it all mean for fans? In a new BBC Radio 5 Live programme - The Price of Our Sport - BBC Sport has taken a look. Fans reacted with anger when some of the ticket price rises for major events next year were announced earlier this summer.
The increase in Ashes ticket prices is stark - the minimum price the last time Edgbaston held a Test in 2023 was £65, a rise of £50 to £115 in just four years. Admission to other venues, including The Oval, is even higher. Last time out in Australia, some seats were sold to fans at all five venues for between £16 and £22.
At Wimbledon next year, the most expensive standard seat for both the men's and women's singles finals will be £400, £50 more than 2026, and more than double the cost from 2017. That still makes Wimbledon the cheapest of the four Grand Slams, but even a Centre Court ticket for the middle Saturday of the tournament now costs at least £130. General admission for Grand Prix Sunday at Silverstone is up to £289 from £189 in 2021, while the cheapest allocated seat now costs at least £609, up from £276 five years ago.
And general admission to the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, in the Republic of Ireland, will cost €499 (£434), compared with up to €260 (£220) in Italy in 2023. And other events which took place this year laid bare just how much more fans are being charged. Fans paid £150 to attend a day of The Open at Royal Birkdale earlier this year, compared to £95 at St Andrews in 2022.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
