A price worth paying?

The BBC's annual Price of Football report has been published and, as usual, makes for interesting reading.

As was the case last year, our club continues to offer the cheapest day out in the Premier League - a day out being defined as the combined cost of the cheapest matchday ticket plus a programme, a pie and a cup of tea. The cost has increased by 20p to £23.20, but the next lowest, for Cardiff, is £28.10, nearly a full fiver more. What's more, it's less than the cheapest day out at no fewer than 18 Championship clubs, 20 League One clubs and 17 League Two clubs.

Liverpool come out at the top (or bottom, depending on how you want to look at it) of the Premier League table with £46.60, though West Ham run them close. As the Hammers' hefty £45.70 indicates, there's little correlation between the status and success of the club and what it charges. A day out at megarich title challengers Man City could set you back as little as £28.10, while the Etihad is also home to the cheapest season ticket, at £299.

Intriguingly, the cost of our equivalent is given as £530, whereas last year it was just £322. There's no specific comment in the article about the reason for the significant discrepancy, but presumably the oddity can be explained. Perhaps we just scrapped our cheapest season tickets? Answers on a postcard. Either way, it means we compare much less favourably to our rivals than we did before - though it's still some way short of Arsenal's eye-watering £985. Talk about a grand day out...