Would you spend £219 on a match? Why Arsenal and Man Utd cash in on overseas fans

109,000 foreign fans visited Arsenal games in 2014

MANCHESTER UNITED and Arsenal attract a quarter of all tourist fans that watch football while visiting Britain, new government figures have revealed.

 

The two Premier League giants each drew around 109,000 of the sport's 800,000 international spectators last year.

And they made sure they cashed in. According to the Daily Mirror, the average spend of a tourist in the UK was £636, which rose by £219 for those who visited games.

 

In 2014, Arsenal's most expensive match-day ticket was £97. An adult home shirt this season (without long sleeves or name on the back) costs £55, with a programme, pie and tea bringing a potential match-day experience for the travelling fan's trip up to around £163.

The same outlay for a travelling United fan at Old Trafford comes to around £127.

Granted, not every overseas supporter pays for the most expensive ticket, while some have season tickets and make the regular trip over the oceans. But the general outlay of tourist fans goes to show why Premier League clubs are so keen to go on pre-season summer tours and boost their profiles abroad.

 

The research was carried out by the Office for National Statistics on behalf of VisitBritain as part of the International Passenger Survey.

A staggering 121,000 people that visited games came from Ireland, while 93,000 supporters arrived from Norway and 58,000 from Sweden.

One person in every 10 visiting the north west attend a match - while of the 800,000 total, 40,000 were business travelers.