The cost of being a 21st century football fan. It's been well publicised that the London clubs tend to have the most expensive season tickets, with Arsenal fans paying up to £2,000 in some cases, but what of the cost of travelling to away games?
It's fine if you can easily afford it, yet salaries and disposable incomesdiffer drastically with geography, so how do those costs relate to wagesfor fans in areas all over the country?
Taking into account the cost of a match day ticket (capped at £30 for all away fans this season), pint, pie and programme and the average cost of car or train travel, research collated by MyVoucherCodes has revealed that Sunderland fans are paying out more of what they earn to follow their team on away trips than any other set of supporters in the Premier League.
For a Black Cats fan travelling to an away game by car, the averagecost of the day will set them back 18.4% of theweekly income for the area. That's more than Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Southampton and Swansea, also among the most expensive, relatively.
Most Expensive AverageAway Day By Car:
Watford are at the opposite end of the spectrum with an average away day cost by car that is 13.92% of weekly income for the area. West Brom, Manchester United, Leicester and Stoke are also among the cheaper in those samerelative terms.
Least Expensive Average Away Day By Car:
What's immediately apparent is that those which cost fans more of their money are clubs that are more geographically isolated, therefore travelling is automatically increased and so quickly becomes more expensive than for fans who canmake shorter away day journeys.
By the more expensive train, the cost, both in real terms and relative to income, is obviously even greater.
Sunderland still top the most expensive table, with an away day on the train potentially costing a fan from Wearside as much as 42.31% of their weekly income - that's almost half of what their spending powerbeing spent on a single away day at the football.
For Middlesbrough fans it's almost as much at just over 40%, while Hull has replaced Southampton in the top five by train, completed by Swansea and Bournemouth.
Most Expensive Average Away Day By Train:
To travel to away days by train, West Brom fans are shelling out the least of their earnings at 23.53%, while Chelsea and Manchester City join the top five in place of Watford and Leicester. Manchester United and Stoke remain from the cheapest by car list.
LeastExpensive Average Away Day By Train:
*Average weekly salary expenditure figures are obtained from the world's largest stats database, numbeo.com
**Car costs are based on the AA's driving mileage calculator from ground to ground “ aa.com
***Train costs are based on off-peak return in October from the nearest mainline station to the ground “ www.trainline.com
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