The old theory would have it that Manchester United was the club that attracts most tourists in the Premier League, but new data released in a study of foreign fans attending top flight matches shows that Chelsea and Arsenal have far more ‘day trippers’.
The appeal of London as a city break tourist destination was underlined by the figures from Ticketbis.net who revealed that 28.05% of foreign fans buying tickets on the secondary ticket sales market last season went to see Chelsea. Whether or not the trend will remain true throughout the 2015-16 season, given the demise of the champions and the recent sacking of Jose Mourinho, remains to be seen.
Across the capital at the Emirates Stadium, meanwhile, Arsenal welcomed the second biggest percentage of foreign visitors to their league matches with 26.46% of the overall market share. Manchester United have been well known for attracting fans from beyond the metropolitan boundaries of Old Trafford over the years and they had the third biggest number of overseas fans at 15.91%.
The study also revealed that Americans are the Premier League’s biggest foreign fan base buying resale tickets, and the US is the only nation to appear in the top three nationalities of overseas supporters that buy tickets for each top flight club. In total, 38 American players have played in the English top flight since 1992, whilst Manchester United, Arsenal and other Premier League sides have attracted significant investment and sponsorship from across the Atlantic.
The numbers from Ticketbis.net also showed that Premier League tickets are a more valuable commodity at Chelsea and Manchester United than Champions League tickets.
Tickets for European games at United are resold for an average price of £97, far cheaper than for Premier League games which average out at £171. It is a similar case at Chelsea where domestic league games set fans back to an average tune of £164, far more than the average ask of £119 per ticket for Champions League ties.
The opposite is true at Arsenal and Manchester City where Champions League football is marginally more expensive to watch than the Premier League. Arsenal’s European home matches cost £165 per ticket to watch on average, whilst for Premier League games they cost £164, whilst for City those figures are £147 (Champions League) and £133 (Premier League) respectively.
