Going to watch your favourite football team can be a draining experience, both emotionally and financially.
Once you’ve got your match-day ticket, you’ll also need to factor-in the cost of food, drinks and travel. And if you journey to the game by car, the price of parking can be another significant outlay.
With the Premier League back underway following the international break, we wanted to find out which team’s fans were most likely to be charged the most when parking close to their home ground.
Will newcomers Luton Town remain near the bottom of the table when it comes to the price of parking on a matchday? And which of the big London clubs actively discourages car use, urging fans to travel by public transport instead?
To find out, read on.
Stadium Showdown: Parking Prices for Premier League Fans Unveiled
When you go to match, there are a few different methods you might use to park your car.
You could book yourself into an official car park via the club website. You might chance your arm with on-street parking or the nearest NCP. Or you might even join the growing number of fans who book a parking spot in a private car park, or even a homeowner's driveway, via a website like JustPark.
To get a good idea of just how expensive parking might be, we first looked at the cheapest official parking that you can book via the club itself and its official parking partners.
We then gathered the cheapest costs from two parking websites; Footy Parking, which is created by fans and allows supporters to share parking info and prices, and JustPark, which has more than 100,000 spaces available to reserve.
We then combined all of the cheapest prices from the three sources for the various grounds, and combined it into a ‘minimum cost’ average.
It’s also worth noting that we only looked at car parks within a maximum 30-45 minute walk from the ground.
The Premier League Parking League Table
According to our research, Spur’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the most expensive for fans to park near, with the average cost of parking starting at a whopping £37.
This comes from a minimum of 632 parking spaces on offer close to the ground. And parking in north London is at a premium, even when there’s no match on.
Meanwhile Spurs is one of a small number of Premier League clubs that has no official car parking for general admission fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. According to the Spurs official website, public transport is wholly endorsed instead.
The second most expensive stadium for fans to park close to is the Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal. The cost of parking on gameday starts at £22, on average. Local parking facilities around the 60,740-capacity Emirates are also seriously in-demand, with 250 fans per available bay.
Meanwhile driving to Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium (below) can also put a dent in your wallet - with average parking costs hitting £18, which is the most expensive outside London.
Interestingly, Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge - located in affluent west London - proves cheaper by half to visit by car when compared to fierce rivals Spurs.
For fans of other Premier League clubs, however, there’s reason to celebrate like their striker has just scored a last-minute winner.
Bournemouth FC has car parking that’s FREE for users - on a first come, first served basis - and which is located just a short walk away from the Vitality Stadium. Even paid-for parking at Bournemouth is low, with average prices beginning at £6.
Meanwhile Premier League newcomers Luton Town offer supporters a match day permit for midweek night games that’s FREE when you download it from the official website.
Luton's Kenilworth Road (above) is also the cheapest Premier League club for car parking overall. When you take both official and non-official car parks into consideration, fans can expect to pay an average £5 for parking, with a demand of only 18 fans per parking spot within a 30-45 minute walk to the stadium.
Stadiums with Good Parking Opportunities
According to our analysis, there are only two Premier League stadiums with 12 decently-sized car parks located within a 30-minute walk.
These are Old Trafford, home to Manchester United, and The Etihad Stadium, home to Manchester City. These stadiums are situated on either side of Manchester city centre, just 5 miles apart, and both have a minimum number of 1,060 spaces on offer. Parking near Old Trafford and The Etihad will set you back a similar amount, starting at around £11.
The stadium with the most parking on offer overall is St. James’ Park, home to Newcastle United, with a minimum of 1,353 spaces on a match day. Parking near the St. James’ Park stadium is actually the third least expensive parking out of all the Premier League teams, starting at around £7.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s important to plan where you’re parking before leaving home on game day. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has the most expensive parking, starting at around £37. If you’re travelling to the Amex Stadium in Brighton, make sure to get there early to guarantee a spot, as spaces are at a premium.
And remember that if you’re driving across London, you’ll have ULEZ charges to contend with.
Methodology
To find out the most expensive Premier League clubs when it comes to fan car parking, Select Car Leasing investigated the cheapest official parking available through the club and its partner channels.
Select Car Leasing also gathered average minimum cost metrics from two parking websites, Footy Parking, created by fans, and JustPark, which allows fans to park on an individual’s driveway. The minimum cost of parking is an overall price taken from all three metrics.
We figured out the minimum parking capacity by adding together the minimum parking allowance for the individual spaces and the car parks. We chose car parks and spaces within a 30-45 minute walk from the stadium.
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