The UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as the “Euros”, is one of the most popular sporting events in the world. UEFA reported that this year’s tournament had ticket requests from 209 territories around the world, signaling that even though the tournament might be limited to European teams, its appeal is clearly worldwide.
With supporters from all over Europe and around the world flocking to France to cheer on their favorite team, we were left wondering what are the costs associated with supporting these teams? Is it more expensive to support the English national team compared to the Belgian national team? How much more money does a casual supporter need to spend to watch their country play in person?
In this analysis, we collected data from StubHub, Pint Price, Expatistan, Busbud and every national team’s jersey price through their official shop or retail partner to determine the costs of supporting your country.
One of the most obvious ways to showcase your allegiance is by proudly wearing your team’s colors and official jerseys during the tournament and matchdays. But it comes at a cost.
The average cost of an official jersey is €75. However, some countries are able to sell their jerseys at a much higher price than others. We took a look at every country’s respective football federation and visited their online shop or official shop partner. From there, we analyzed the prices of the latest authentic jerseys. For the purpose of this analysis, we didn’t add a player’s name to the jersey which would’ve increased the price.
There aren’t many surprises when it comes to the most expensive jerseys in Europe. The top five features four traditional powerhouses with the exception of Switzerland, (where 5.8% of the employees work in financial services). Even though Portugal have never won the Euros, they have arguably one of the most influential athletes on earth in Cristiano Ronaldo, who brings a large following to the team.
On the other end of the spectrum, the five cheapest jerseys are mostly made up from Eastern European teams. At €25, Hungary’s jersey is extremely affordable, which is great for supporters of the country.
Produced by Nike, Turkey’s jersey is one of the freshest and cheapest in the upcoming tournament.
UEFA have given themselves a pat on the back for offering affordable tickets to the tournament. There are four ticket categories in the group stages. Category 4 tickets were sold at €25 a pop, Category 3 tickets were sold at €55 a ticket, Category 2 tickets were sold at €105 and Category 1 tickets were sold at €155.
However, as any event that’s hot on the market, there are scalpers and people looking to make a quick buck. We were left wondering which teams commanded a higher re-sale value. Which teams are the most expensive on the secondary market? Is there a correlation with the stadium’s capacity?
For this, we went on StubHub and looked at the prices for every match in the group stages a month prior to the start of the tournament. Knowing that the least expensive tickets were being sold at €25, we took a look at the cheapest tickets for every match and compared the price difference. Here are the results.
If you didn’t get your hands on tickets for Swedish, Italian and English national team matches, you might want to cover your eyes or open up your wallet.
The resale value for Swedish matches is through the roof, where the average fan can expect to pay over 11 times (€284 instead of €25) over the original face value of a category 4 ticket. Italians should expect to pay at least €267 for a category 4 ticket while England supporters will have to pay a minimum of €259 to get their hands on a CAT4 ticket.
We obviously recognize the huge following of the English and Italian national teams but what about Sweden? The team is ranked 22nd out of the 24 teams and don’t play a particularly attractive style of football. They do possess one of the biggest football stars in the world, but is Zlatan Ibrahimovic that big of a star to command such a hefty price of admission? There are a couple of explanations for this.
First of all, Sweden is in the same group as Italy and Belgium, two countries that are considered as legitimate contenders for the championship and that are neighbouring countries to France, meaning that a lot of supporters will be making the trip to watch them play. Whenever you pit a global superstar against the likes of a perennial contender like Italy or an exciting team like Belgium, you know you’ve got yourself a hot ticket.
Second of all, both of Sweden’s matches against Belgium and Italy will be played in the tournament’s two smallest stadiums. As you can imagine, with high demand and a low supply of tickets, these resale values are expected to be huge. Turns out, there’s a correlation between the size of the stadium and the resale value of a ticket.
Size does matter.
We analyzed the price increase percentage for every host city. Turns out, the smaller the stadium capacity, the heftier the resale value. With less seats available, it’s logical that demand for these matches are higher.
Lens, Toulouse and Nice have respectively the three smallest stadiums in the tournament (under 40,000 capacity) and yet their matches have some of the highest resale values in the tournament. Meanwhile, the three largest venues (Paris – Stade de France, Marseille and Lyon) have the lowest re-sale values for their matches.
You’re in France, enjoying the sights and sounds but don’t want to shell out the cash to watch a match in person. You’d much rather watch the big game at a bar with locals and tourists alike. If you want a taste of French gastronomy, we’ve partnered with Yelp to deliver a useful guide on the best pubs and restaurants to check out around the stadiums at Euro 2016. Don’t miss out on these festive spots if you’re in town! But if you’re focused on the game and just want a quick bite and a couple pints, we looked at the price of a pint in each country as well as the average price of a fast food combo. How much will a regular meal with a couple of drinks cost these supporters? Let’s take a look.
The only citizens that’ll benefit from a cheaper pint of beer and meal are the Swiss, the Swedes and the Icelandic people. Every single other nationality will need to spend more in order to enjoy some refreshments and grub.
The seven countries where the meal price % difference is the highest are from Eastern European countries where supporters can expect to pay well over 60 and 70% more than what a meal back home would cost.
How about getting to Paris by bus? Turns out, England, Belgium and Switzerland offer great bus fares to supporters traveling to Paris.
Taking a bus from Portugal (Lisbon) to Paris will cost on average €99 and will take quite a long time, so we recommend checking out these 8 bus survival tips.
If you’re lucky enough to travel in France during the summer, whether it’s chilling in the Calanques in Marseille, exploring La Petite France in Strasbourg or taking in the amazing sights and sounds of Paris, make sure to check out Busbud for your bus travel needs. You can also sign up to the Dollar Bus Club, where there’s a lot of €1 bus tickets readily available across France and throughout Europe!
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METHODOLOGY:
Jerseys: We visited every country’s soccer federation website and went to their official shop or retail partner. Depending on the country, we converted the price of the jerseys to euros by using the exchange rate on xe.com.
Tickets: We visited stubhub.com and analyzed the lowest priced ticket for every group match a month prior to the start of the tournament.
Food and drinks: We based ourselves on the price indexes featured on Pint Price and Expatistan for our beer and fast food prices.
Bus travel: We analyzed the average cost for a bus ticket from every country’s capital to Paris on Busbud.
FAIR USE:
Feel free to use the assets found on this page freely. When using anything here, we ask that you link back to this page so that readers can explore other parts of the project and methodology as well.
SOURCES:
http://www.stubhub.com/
http://www.pintprice.com/
http://www.uefa.org/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2264604.html
https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living
https://www.busbud.com/
http://boutique.fff.fr/maillot-match-fff-home-16-17-312200bhttp://fshf.org/index.php/en/shop/dyqani-online
https://englandstore.thefa.com/?aspxerrorpath=/collections/nike/england-home-stadium-mens-football-short-sleeve-jersey
http://www.hnswebshop.hr/nike-cro-m-ss-h-a-stadium-jsy724602-611.html
http://www.mlsz.hu/
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