BBC Sport has reported:

Fans in the United Kingdom face higher costs to attend major sporting events in 2027, as ticket prices for cricket, tennis, motorsport and golf rise. A single adult will pay at least £115 for a day of the Ashes at Edgbaston in Birmingham, unless they are an Edgbaston member; £255 for a standard seat at the Wimbledon singles finals; and £289 for general admission to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on race day. At home, viewers may also need several television subscriptions to follow the sports and competitions they want to watch.

The increases have drawn scrutiny because attendances across most sports remain strong even as prices rise. The cost of entry to elite sport in the UK has climbed sharply through the 2020s, and the breadth and expense of television packages can limit access for fans who do not attend in person. A BBC Radio 5 Live programme, The Price of Our Sport, examines the causes of the increases, whether they can be justified and what they mean for fans.

Some of the announced ticket prices for major events next year prompted angry reactions earlier this summer. For the Ashes, the minimum ticket price at Edgbaston has risen from £65 when the ground last hosted a Test in 2023 to £115 in 2027, an increase of £50 in four years. Admission at other venues, including The Oval, costs more. During the most recent series in Australia, some seats were sold to fans at all five venues for between £16 and £22.

At Wimbledon, the most expensive standard ticket for either the men’s or women’s singles final will cost £400 next year. That is £50 more than in 2026 and more than twice the price in 2017. Wimbledon remains the cheapest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, but a Centre Court ticket for the middle Saturday now costs at least £130.

At Silverstone, general admission for Grand Prix Sunday has increased to £289 from £189 in 2021. The cheapest allocated seat now costs at least £609, up from £276 five years ago. General admission for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in the Republic of Ireland will cost €499, or £434, compared with up to €260, or £220, at the 2023 tournament in Italy.

Prices at events held this year also show how much fans are being charged. A day at The Open at Royal Birkdale cost £150, compared with £95 at St Andrews in 2022. Tickets for the 2026 FA Cup final ranged from £50 to £285, while in 2016 they ranged from £50 to £120.

Lee Hanlon, an England cricket fan who lives near Edgbaston, has decided against attending next summer’s Ashes because of the price rise. “It's just ludicrous,” he said. “I'm angry. It seems like a lot of the normal cricket fans have been priced out. It seems like just people with money are going now. ‘The increase is just too much. I find it upsetting.’”

In a poll on the BBC Sport website, 95% of respondents said tickets for the 2027 Ashes were too expensive. An Edgbaston spokesperson said: “Our entry-level ticket prices roughly match inflation compared to the last time Australia visited Edgbaston in 2023 - but like the rest of the country, we're battling increased costs and trying to manage these wherever we can.”

Event organisers say ticket prices reflect the expense of staging major competitions, including utilities, staffing, technology, insurance and marketing. Mark Darbon, chief executive of the R&A, which operates golf’s Open Championship, said that fans increasingly value the atmosphere and sense of belonging associated with attending live events. “We exist in an experience economy - we have definitely seen a subtle shift in the value people are placing on belonging, on the atmosphere you can be part of when you attend a live experience,” he said. “So when we set our prices we start by looking at some of the other major sporting events and benchmark ourselves, on price and value for money, by looking at what others are delivering.”

Darbon said ticket sales account for less than one-fifth of The Open’s total revenue, while the cost of hosting the tournament has risen significantly. “Ticketing revenue generates less than 20% of our total revenue from The Open,” he said. “We have seen really significant cost inflation in recent years. It now costs us 25% more than it did five or six years ago to host The Open - that could be £10-12m in incremental costs. We have to cover those costs.” The tournament offers half-price tickets to attendees aged 16 to 24 and free admission for children.

Hospitality tickets have also become a larger part of the offer at prestigious events and newly built venues, potentially increasing costs for fans seeking standard seats. Richard Flint, chairman of Seat Unique, an online platform focused on hospitality and VIP event tickets, said more people are willing to pay for special experiences. “We are seeing more and more regular people willing to pay for a special experience at sport,” he said. “Corporate boxes are being broken down more and more into individual seats, so it's less about people taking 10 of their colleagues and more about a couple, or four people, going together.”

Flint said teams and leagues are seeking to increase revenue from premium packages, which can appeal to people who attend only one or two games a year or travel from abroad. “Sometimes stadiums need updating and the revenue from premium ticketing can help fund a new stadium or new stand, so there are benefits to the everyday fan,” he said.

The cost of watching sport is also shaped by how live broadcast rights are sold. In a volatile economy and amid changing consumer habits, live sport has remained a reliable source of revenue for companies. Live sport and entertainment are also among the industries whose financial success is considered unlikely to be significantly affected by artificial intelligence in coming years. More companies have therefore pursued rights to show events, leaving fans with more subscriptions to buy.

A UK football fan seeking all matches across the Premier League, Champions League and Scottish Premiership must subscribe to Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Amazon Prime and Premier Sports. They also need an annual television licence to watch other matches on the BBC and ITV. Other sports can require still more subscriptions and expense if viewers do not use special offers.

Pete Oliver, DAZN’s chief executive of growth markets, said a single service carrying all events in one sport can make a better offer to fans. “It certainly helps when you can say to a fan that they only need to buy one subscription to see everything in one sport,” he said. “If a sport is very fragmented, we would say it's not going to be a great proposition for the fan [for us to be involved], and it's probably not going to be a great commercial prospect for us.”

Oliver said subscription costs are likely to rise as prices across the entertainment market increase, sports rights attract competition, athletes seek higher pay and leagues pursue better returns for their content. He described the UK as “a very tough market”. In some sports, including Premier League football, broadcast rights are the largest source of income for leagues and clubs, although those revenues have plateaued to some extent in recent years. Broadcasters are not necessarily paying substantially more for rights, but fans continue to face higher charges. Competition, operating expenses and uncertainty about the long-term financial model also contribute.

Pierre Maes, an author and consultant on sports media rights, said fans who avoid illegal streams will pay more in the short term, but there is a limit to what consumers can bear. He said higher prices and more fragmented subscriptions encourage piracy, and that many people have little moral objection to using it. Maes compared the challenge with the one faced by the music industry and argued that sports may need a single subscription service. “In the long term, I think there is no other path than a Spotify of sports,” he said. “Otherwise, sports will lose their fans and lose their attention.”