Is Scottish Football Value for Money? – The Update

In October, when the season was still young we wrote a post asking the question ‘Is Scottish Football Value for Money?’ where we pulled data and made forecasts and made some calculations and with this and some other technical knowhow, we came to the decision of – undecided! Yes that’s right, undecided. As a lot of the data was as we said, forecasted from the games that had been played up until that point, we couldn’t really say for sure. Now we can! We think? The respective leagues of all the teams and competitions involved are now finished and we have the definitive data. The absolute data if you will. So, we’ve decided to make the updated version to the table.

See who the movers and shakers were and hopefully we’ll find out once and for all if we as Scottish football fans get value for money when we go and see our favourite team.  We’ll find out who gets the best value for money within the Scottish Premiership and again a few other Scottish teams to keep things friendly and how they fare against the top European teams. Despite the process being explained in the last post, we thought that we’d give you rundown again, just because we’re such nice people. Once again, the man behind the numbers was one of our favourite recluses, @Scott_McLay who helped us collate the data and work it in a way to garner the figures we wanted. First, we took the number of goals that each team managed to score at home during the course of their season (league games only) and we then calculated the number of goals versus the CHEAPEST adult season ticket available at each club – meaning we know how much the average fan paid to see their team score a goal. Also, once again we have included how much it would cost you for goal your team concedes because; well, because we included it the last time, that’s why. Here are the results – drum roll:

Once again, in Scotland Rangers give their fans the most for their money, although they have dropped down in the table to fourth whereas they were second when the first table was made. This obviously means that Rangers did not live up to their early season expectations and of course, The Skint Scot’s expectations. However, it would only cost you £3.45 per goal scored at Ibrox, which is the best you’ll find in Scotland. Surprisingly, Dumbarton (added in just because I have a soft spot for them) are the Scottish team who will give you the second best value for your money at £5.76 per goal scored at The Bet Butler Stadium. So, two lower league teams (albeit one being Rangers) are giving you better value than the top tiered teams. That can’t be good, can it?

Good news for Thistle fans though who were projected to come bottom of the pile in October, they moved up 3 places and avoided relegation. Well, they would’ve avoided relegation if this was a real league and not a figment of some very bored guys’ imaginations. Now, the good news is that the team that offers the least value is not Scottish (good news for Scots anyway) and it is none other than the mighty Manchester United. With a shockingly high price of £18.34 per goal scored at Old Trafford, they come bottom of our table. Although, they would have to charge a lot for their season tickets to pay the wages of superstars such as Fellaini and Cleverly. And to pay Moyes’ severance pay. And to make up for the shortfall of European competition money next season. They really didn’t have a good season, did they?

Unsurprisingly, Bayern still top the pile and they’ve even managed to lower their cost per goal value to £1.40, but in fairness they do have the cheapest season ticket available of the teams on our list at £67. The continental teams have definitely shown their value over the home nations teams with Barcelona and Real Madrid rounding off the Top 3 with cost per goal values of £2.69 and £2.81 respectively. Rangers are the only British team never mind Scottish team to have a position in the top 5.

So, to answer the question posed; does Scottish Football Offer Value for Money? We think it does. While the teams may not have ranked as high as we had hoped in October, they have still made a valiant effort and we feel they have done us proud. No Scottish team came top of the pile, but we also never came bottom of the pile.

My name is Chris and when I’m not helping the guys at The Skint Scot out I write over at Spend It Like Beckham where you’ll find the latest and best football finance stories and some top notch* money saving advice.

*may or may not be a lie