Today (Wednesday 15th October 2014), the BBC published a report into the price of football. The report compared the prices of clubs across England, Scotland and Wales as well as 31 European clubs. You can read the report for yourself here.
While interesting, for me the report had one major problem. The cheapest match ticket at Manchester City is £37. At St Mirren it's £20. At Napoli it's £10.90 (according the BBC report anyway). There's a pretty obvious conclusion here: Scottish football is a rip-off. While you might expect to pay almost twice as much to see Manchester City as you would St Mirren (given the quality of football will be at least twice as good), you'd be pretty stung if you paid twice as much to see St Mirren as Napoli (I don't think this report proves that St Mirren are twice as good as Napoli).
However, we're always being told that we can't compare ourselves - on or off the field - to the "big leagues", with these generally being accepted as La Liga in Spain, the Premier League in England, the Bundesliga in Germany and Serie A in Italy. Furthermore, you can't really compare Scotland, a small north-Atlantic country with huge countries like Spain or Italy.
So, I decided to do a little bit of my own research. What follows is a comparison between Scotland, and three "similar" countries: Denmark (we're practically the same, Alex Salmond said so), Switzerland (a small country - though bigger than Scotland - generally seen as one of the most expensive places on earth), and the Czech Republic (twice the population of Scotland, but I'll get to that).
These countries were chosen because all of their leagues have a higher UEFA coefficient ranking than the SPFL. Therefore it's reasonable to say that the "product" is better despite these countries being similar in size and stature to Scotland. So if Scottish fans are paying more, we are entitled to ask why.
Before I begin, I should say that I got a 4 at Standard Grade Maths, so feel free to check the figures and correct me...
Scotland v Czech Republic
Ok, so I'll get the controversial one out of the way first.
Scotland has a population (according to Wikipedia) of 5,327,700.
The Czech Republic meanwhile has 10,513,209 - twice as many people.
So why include it?
Two reasons: The first is that with the other two countries both being Western European countries, I felt it was important to have more of Europe-wide view, so including a central/Eastern country made sense.
The second is that while the country is twice as big, football has a challenge to its sporting supremacy which it does not have in Scotland, and that challenge is ice hockey.
If we look at the average attendance in the Czech Liga (football), we get an average of 5054 (source). If we compare this to the Extraliga, the Czech ice hockey league, the average attendance there is 4,948 (source) - almost on a par with football. So while it's true that the nation has twice the population of Scotland, football has to compete far more for audiences than in Scotland.
Of course, there are other sports in Scotland. In terms of spectator sports, the main competitors to football would probably be rugby and ice hockey. However, Scotland does not have a national professional league for either of these sports, with Scottish teams instead competing in British or European leagues. In and of itself, this could be taken as evidence that the sports don't enjoy anywhere near the profile of football, or of ice hockey in the Czech Republic, but let's look at the attendances anyway.
Scotland has two professional rugby teams: Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, who compete in the European Pro12 League. In the 2012/13 season, Glasgow had an average attendance of 4541, while Edinburgh managed 4600 (source).
While this figure is very close to the Scottish football average attendance (which we'll get to), it's worth noting that each team is the sole representative of one of Scotland's two biggest cities. Glasgow Warriors may have similar crowds to Partick Thistle, but Partick Thistle have to compete with Rangers, Celtic and Queen's Park for supporters, so the fact that Warriors, as Glasgow's sole professional representative can only draw 4541 fans on average is indicative of the attitude toward club rugby in Scotland. It's also worth noting that if we were to take an average of the two teams (i.e a "Scottish average"), the figure of 4570 is well below the league average of 8046.
In terms of ice hockey, Scotland has four teams, which compete in the UK Elite Ice Hockey League. Those teams are: Braehead Clan, Dundee Stars, Fife Flyers and Edinburgh Capitals. Here is a breakdown of the average gate of these four teams in the 2013/14 season (source):
Braehead Clan 2590
Dundee Stars 700
Fife Flyers 1680
Edinburgh Capitals 978
If we take a "Scottish average" again, we get a figure of 1487, which is once again below the league average of 2021 (source). We can therefore probably state categorically that football is by far the number one sport in Scotland.
So how does the SPFL compare to the Czech Liga?
The Czech Liga is ranked 14th in Europe by UEFA, compared to 24th for Scotland (source).
As mentioned above, the average attendance in the Czech Liga is 5054 so far this season.
When comparing it to Scotland, I felt we could take Celtic out of the equation. Why? Well I can't do the maths to work this out, but to the naked eye Celtic seem like a statistical outlier, which would make the figures artificially higher - having one massive club is not necessarily a reflection of the health of a league. I will note at this point that I did the same for some teams in the Swiss and Danish leagues, who had a hugely higher attendance than the norm.
Once Celtic are removed, we get a figure of 4993, a broadly similar number, but undeniably less than crowds in the Czech Liga.
Next, let's compare those attendances as a percentage of capacity. For this Celtic are included. The reason for this is that the capacity is a notional "maximum attendance". Of course there are exceptions to this (Celtic could probably draw 90,000 on Champions League nights), but it's a fairly decent barometer. Therefore we can see what percentage of their "maximum" crowd Scottish and Czech teams are actually getting into the stadium,
The capacity figures for the SPFL look like this (source):
For the Czech Liga the figures look like this (source):
The only conclusion therefore is that Scottish football teams are falling further below their maximum possible crowd than their Czech counterparts.
Now let's look at ticket prices.
The way all the ticket prices in this blog have been worked out is very simple. One adult ticket, purchased on the day. No family or online deals, just the price you'd pay as an adult if you walked up to the stadium and purchased a ticket.
Obviously, not all tickets are the same price, with different prices being given for different seats. So all the prices listed here are taken from the club website, for the next game. The price of every adult ticket is considered, then divided by the number of different ticket prices to get an average. Exchange rates are worked out by google. Where the website didn't list a price, the team is listed as "unavailable". Sound fair? Ok, lets go.
In order of price, the Czech Liga looks like this:
Sparta Prague :256 czk (£7.33)
Slavia Prague: 228 czk (£6.53)
Slovacko: 183 czk (£5.23)
Bohemians Prague: 151 czk (£4.32)
Dukla Prague: 150 czk (£4.29)
Mlada Boleslav: 150 czk (£4.29)
Viktoria Plzen: 143 czk (£4.09)
Banik Ostrava 136 czk (£3.89)
České Budějovice: 125 czk (£3.58)
Vysočina Jihlava: 120 czk (£3.43)
Hradec Králové: 120 czk (£3.43)
Slovan Liberec: 115 czk (£3.29)
Zbrojovka Brno: 103 czk (£2.95)
Jablonec: 90 czk (£2.57)
Příbram: (unavailable)
Teplice: (unavailable)
If my maths is correct - which is by no means a given - then the price of an average match ticket in the Czech Republic is £4.23.
So how does Scotland comapare? In order of price, the SPFL looks like this:
Celtic: £26
Ross County: £24.66 (although next match is Celtic so price may usually be lower)
Aberdeen: £24
Inverness: £23
St Johnstone: £22.50
Partick Thistle: £22
Motherwell: £22
Hamilton: £22
Kilmarnock: £20.75
St Mirren: £20.50
Dundee United: £20
Dundee: £20
This would give an average Scottish ticket price of £22.28.
"BUT WAIT" I hear you cry. "Scottish wages must be higher than Czech wages?".
Indeed they are. So let's look at that.
According to this the average net wage in the Czech Republic is 19 378 CZK or £554.98.
The UK average is £2063.
So looking at the numbers, the average Czech wage is 27% of the average UK wage. However, the average Czech football ticket is only 19% of the average Scottish ticket.
Put another way, the average Czech football ticket would represent 0.76% of the average Czech wage.
Meanwhile, the average Scottish ticket is 1.19% of the average UK wage.
It's also worth mentioning that while the four of the top five most expensive tickets in the Czech league can be found in Prague, the centre of Czech economic activity where wages are likely to be highest, Scottish prices vary very little between more affluent places like Aberdeen and places where wages are almost certainly below the UK national average like Kilmarnock, Motherwell and Paisley (if anyone wants to check that then be my guest).
So, simple comparison so you don't have to actually read all that:
Scotland Czech Republic
Average attendance 4993 5054
Average Attendance by capacity 46% 53%
Average ticket price £22.28 £4.23
Ticket price % of monthly wage 1.19% 0.76%
Uefa coefficient rank 24th 14th
Scotland v Denmark
So, simple one here. Population of 5,612,000, so definitely an effective comparison to Scotland.
The Danish Superliga is ranked just above the SPFL in 22nd place.
The attendance figures Denmark look like this (source):
From this we can see that two clubs FC Copenhagen and Brondby far outstrip the league in terms of average attendance. Therefore, as with Celtic they're considered outliers, and not included in the average attendance figure.
The average attendance figure for the league as a whole stands at 5276 when we exlude those two teams. Once again this is close to the Scottish figure, but is once again higher.
Now, this is where things get tricky. Unlike the Czech Liga and the SPFL, the Danes don't helpfully list the attendance as percentage of capacity on their webstite. As such, I had to do the calculation myself, by dividing the average attendance by what the capacity of their ground was on Wikipedia. Given my notoriously poor maths and the unreliability of Wikipedia, I'd give this figure a 3-4% margin for error. However, the attendance to capacity figure I got for the Danish Superliga is 47%. Again this is higher than Scotland.
So, those ticket prices again. I'm sure you can scroll up to see the Scottish prices, so here are the Danish ones in order of cost.
Copenhagen: 172.5 DKR (£18.51) - Note club website kept crashing, so this only average of highest and lowest
FC Nordsjaelland: 145 DKR (£15.56)
SønderjyskE: 125 DKR (£13.41)
Brondby: 125 DRK (£13.41)
FC Vestsjælland: 125 DKR (13.41)
Randers FC: 123 DKR (£13.20)
Silkeborg: 120 DKR (£12.87)
Aalborg: 120 DKR (£12.87)
Hobo IK: 100 DKR (£10.73)
OB: unavailable
Efsbjerg FC: unavailable
FC Middtjylland: unavailable
This gives an average price of £13.77 (128.36 DKR).
However, this is where things get very interesting indeed. The average wage in Denmark is 23,245 DKR (net) or £2498.85 - higher than the UK average.
What this means is that while Danish wages are 121% of the UK average, Danish football tickets are only 61% of Scottish ticket prices.
Presented in the same way as previously, a Danish football ticket is only 0.55% of the average national monthly wage, compared 1.19% for Scotland. Scottish tickets are, in effect, over twice as expensive as Danish tickets, despite having a lower Uefa coefficient.
Scotland Denmark
Average attendance 4993 5276
Average Attendance by capacity 46% 47%
Average ticket price £22.28 £13.77
Ticket price % of monthly wage 1.19% 0.55%
Uefa coefficient rank 24th 22nd
Scotland v Switzerland
Ah, Switzerland. This is where we'll pull it back. They'll be expensive as fuck and shite at football. Good old Swiss.
Well, maybe not. With the Swiss League 11th in the Uefa coefficient they're certainly not shite at football.
In terms of attendance too, the Swiss League is holding its Tobler-own.
After taking Basel out of the equation due to their abnormaly high crowds, we're still left with an average gate of 10,125 (being Swiss they didn't display this in a handy graphic, but check out the league page for the stats).
Unlike the helpful Czechs and Scots, the Swiss followed the Danes down the road of not giving attendances as a % of capacity. So, with the same caveats as before, I reached a figure of an average 52% capacity.
Which is all well and good, but surely we'll have them when it comes to ticket prices? Well, yes and no.
Here is the ranking of prices in the Swiss Super League (please note the Swiss league sells tickets through one website, which doesn't work very well):
Aarau 59.5 CHF (£39.47)
FC Zurich: 50 CHF (£33.16)
FC Sion: 49.5 CHF (£32.87)
Basel 46.4 CHF (£30.78)
Grasshopper 46 CHF (£30.51)
FC Thun: 42.2 CHF (£27.99)
Young Boys: 38 CHF (£25.21)
Luzern: unavailable
FC Lausanne: unavailable
St Gallen: unavailable
Huzzah! An average ticket in the Swiss league is a massive £31.46 (47.43 CHF), comfortably more than the Scottish average.
However, the average Swiss wage is 4,948 CHF or £3277.47.
Basically Swiss wages are 158% of the UK average, with ticket prices at 141%.
This means that the average Swiss Super League ticket is only 0.96% of the average Swiss wage, meaning in real terms Swiss tickets are still cheaper than a ticket in Scotland.
Scotland Switzerland
Average attendance 4993 10,125
Average Attendance by capacity 46% 52%
Average ticket price £22.28 £31.46
Ticket price % of monthly wage 1.19% 0.96%
Uefa coefficient rank 24th 11th
Conclusion
In summary, not only can Scotland not compete on a technical level with the elite European leagues, the product on the park is inferior to leagues which many Scottish punters would scoff at. Yet the Danish league, the Czech league and the Swiss league are outperforming our own top division.
Not only that, but compared to all these nations, both those with lower wages and those with higher wages, Scottish football fans are paying more of their monthly wage to watch sub-standard football in half empty stadiums.
What's the solution? I don't know, but surely the governing bodies of Scottish football must do more to address the scandalous prices fans are being forced to pay. Who knows, maybe lower ticket prices would encourage more people to turn up? And maybe that would make the SPFL more attractive to native and international talent, and allow better players to strut their stuff in Scotland and move the league up the coefficient.
