Devoted Arsenal fans could save over £1,600 because of COVID-19

With COVID-19 making it impossible to attend home and away games this season, dedicated fans are certainly missing out. However, with reduced costs of following their team, supporters may end up saving money on their typical spending. Here, Peter Watton from matched betting experts OddsMonkey, crunches the numbers for Arsenal fans.

Since March last year, the coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption across the football world as clubs have scrambled to stay in line with regulations. With crowds banned for long stretches of the 2020-21 season, it has also meant that dedicated fans who normally would go to every home and away match have found themselves following the action from home.

However, despite the past year being almost overwhelmingly negative, one silver lining has been the amount of cash that fans have been able to save on attending matches. While you’d probably prefer to spend your money going to matches in person, being forced to watch at home is a lot cheaper, which means that you will be spending less in what is a financially difficult period for many.

To get a clearer picture of how much Gunners fans could be saving, I’ve taken a look at the costs of attending home and away games last season and compared them to watching on TV this season. You might just be surprised at the size of these savings.

• Taking the cheapest season ticket prices for Arsenal last season (com) and adding the cost of away travel (by car)* and tickets, Gunners fans would have been paying £2,177.10 to attend every match in person this season.
• With attending matches banned for most of the season, watching every match from home requires access to all TV and online subscriptions from Sky Sports, BT Sports, and Amazon Prime, for a total cost of £535.84.
• As a result, Arsenal fans could save up to £1,641.26 this year, which is a reduction of 75%.

Because Arsenal supporters could be set to save over £1,600, it means that they are one of the fan bases that will claw back the most cash — in fact, only followers of Newcastle will save more. This is due to the fact that the Gunners have the most expensive entry level season ticket at £891, which is costly enough to negate the fact that away travel distances (and costs) aren’t as high as other clubs. As a result, fans will be saving more than those of other London clubs, like Chelsea (£1,372.56), Crystal Palace (£1,354.06), West Ham (£1,170.46), and Fulham (£1,060.26). Only Tottenham (£1,600.76) come close in the level of savings for fans this season.

Here’s how Arsenal are second only to Newcastle when it comes to fan savings:

1. Newcastle United: £1,711.76 (-76.16%)
2. Arsenal: £1,641.26 (-75.39%)
3. Tottenham Hotspur: £1,600.76  (-74.92%)
4. Brighton & Hove Albion: £1,582.26 (-74.70%)
5. Liverpool: £1,525.86 (-74.01%)
6. Southampton: £1,385.06 (-72.10%)
7. Chelsea: £1,372.56 (-71.92%)
8. Crystal Palace: £1,354.06 (-71.65%)
9. Manchester United: £1,300.56 (-70.82%)
10. Burnley: £1,299.86 (-70.81%)
11. Everton: £1,261.76 (-70.19%)
12. Wolverhampton Wanderers: £1,182.66 (-68.82%)
13. West Ham United: £1,170.46 (-68.60%)
14. Sheffield United: £1,107.46 (-67.39%)
15. Leeds United: £1,097.16 (-67.19%)
16. Manchester City: £1,089.66 (-67.04%)
17. Fulham: £1,060.26 (-66.43%)
18. Leicester City: £1,029.16 (-65.76%)
19. West Bromwich Albion: £1,023.46 (-65.64%)
20. Aston Villa: £1,017.06 (-65.49%)

Please note: These results are based on a fan not attending any Arsenal matches at all this season. If it becomes possible to attend games and more money is spent, the savings would be less.

Although attending games is proving to be difficult for fans this season, they will definitely be in line to make some savings on tickets and travel when following the football from home.  

*Methodology: We took the cheapest season ticket prices from last season and combined them with the cost of travelling by car to each away game. The route was measured from stadium to stadium using Google Maps, and the fuel costs were calculated using the Government’s advisory fuel rates.