England is home to some of the world’s most famous football stadiums, including Anfield, Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium. With the Premier League in full swing, it’s the perfect time to explore the origins of the beautiful game.
From having a pint in the birthplace of modern football to stadium tours and unique experiences, SeatPick have uncovered the Premier League teams that have the best value stadium tours. The experts created a points-based index system evaluating several metrics, including: average Google reviews, tour pieces, tour duration, number of trophies to see and cost per minute, to ultimately decide which teams provide the best value experience for fans.
Highlights from the research:
- Nottingham Forest’s City Ground is the best value Premier League stadium tour, with an overall value score of 8.3/10
- Brighton and Hove Albion’s American Express Stadium and Nottingham Forest’s City Ground tie for the cheapest stadium tours per minute at just £0.17 – 65% cheaper than Emirates Stadium (£0.50)
- Manchester United has the most trophies (69) but hosts the second costliest stadium tour in the top 10 (£28)
- Arsenal FC’s home ground, Emirates Stadium, scores poorly for value with the highest cost per minute (£0.50) – ranking tenth with an overall value score of 4/10
The results: The top 10 best value Premier League stadium tours:
| # | Premier League Team | Stadium Name | Google Review /5 | Standard Tour Price Adult (£) | Average Tour Length (Minutes) | Number of Trophies | Cost Per Minute (£) | Value Score (/10) |
| 1. | Nottingham Forest | City Ground | 4.7 | £15 | 90 | 15 | £0.17 | 8.3 |
| 2. | Liverpool FC | Anfield | 4.7 | £23 | 80 | 68 | £0.29 | 6.9 |
| 3. | Newcastle United FC | St James’ Park | 4.6 | £20 | 90 | 20 | £0.22 | 6.4 |
| 4. | Wolverhampton Wanderers | Molineux Stadium | 4.6 | £20 | 90 | 17 | £0.22 | 6.2 |
| 5. | Tottenham Hotspur | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium | 4.7 | £27 | 90 | 26 | £0.30 | 6.1 |
| =6. | Burnley | Turf Moor | 4.4 | £10 | 60 | 11 | £0.17 | 6.0 |
| =6. | Aston Villa F.C. | Villa Park | 4.5 | £20 | 90 | 24 | £0.22 | 6.0 |
| 8. | Brighton and Hove Albion | American Express Stadium | 4.5 | £15 | 90 | 5 | £0.17 | 5.8 |
| 9. | Manchester United FC | Old Trafford | 4.6 | £28 | 90 | 69 | £0.31 | 5.2 |
| 10. | Arsenal FC | Emirates Stadium | 4.7 | £30 | 60 | 32 | £0.50 | 4.0 |
*Please note, Sheffield United and A.F.C. Bournemouth have been excluded from the study due to limited tour price data available.
City Ground offers the best value stadium tour in the Premier League
SeatPick can reveal that City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest FC, is the best value Premier League stadium tour with an overall value score of 8.3/10. With two back to back European Champions League titles to their name (1979 and 1980), City Ground’s stadium tour is enhanced with even more history and value. The stadium benefits from a high Google rating of 4.7/5, which is 0.4 higher rating than Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park Stadium (4.3/5), as well as impressive adult tour prices which start at just £15. This is half the price of Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium, where adult tour prices start at £30, with tours lasting 30 minutes less (60 minutes).
Liverpool FC’s Anfield stadium tour ranks second, with an overall value score of 6.9/10. Tours at Anfield last an average of 80 minutes with a standard adult ticket price of £23, which is equivalent to £0.29 per minute. Although tickets are £8 more expensive than a tour at City Ground, Liverpool have 68 trophies to their name — 77% more trophies than Nottingham Forest (15) — making the tour a worthwhile experience for fans.As well as this, fans visiting Anfield can benefit from free parking and take part in the stadium’s abseiling experience, where they can scale the venue and then embark on a 100ft descent down the stadium.
Newcastle United FC’s stadium tour of St James’ Park is the third best value in the Premier League, with an overall value score of 6.4/10. The standard adult ticket prices start at £20, which is 28% cheaper than Manchester United FC’s stadium tour of the Old Trafford (28%), at a cost of £0.22 per minute compared to £0.31. Recent reports reveal that Newcastle have consulted leading architect firm Populous, which designed the iconic Tottenham Hotspur stadium, to redevelop St James’s Park — which is sure to add additional value to the stadium’s tour.1
Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium ranks tenth for its tour value
Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium tour ranks tenth for value in the Premier League, with an overall value score of just 4/10. Tied with Burnley’s tour of Turf Moor, a tour of Emirates lasts just 60 minutes on average, which is the joint shortest offering in the top 10. As well as this, the standard adult ticket price starts at £30 — the most expensive in the ranking — charging £2 more than a tour of the Old Trafford, despite having more than half (32) Manchester United’s number of trophies potentially on display (69).
While stadium tours are a great way to get behind the scenes of your favourite club, nothing beats the match day experience. If you are looking to combine your stadium tour visit with attending a match, then make sure to check SeatPick’s upcoming Premier League tickets for availability.
Methodology:
- SeatPick sought to discover the best value stadium tour in the Premier League.
- Tour prices, tour duration and parking information were collected on each Premier League team’s official website.
- Please note, Sheffield United and A.F.C. Bournemouth have been excluded from the study due to limited tour price data available online.
- All club honours and trophies were gathered using the Premier League club official website and Transfermarket.co.uk.
- The cost per minute of each stadium tour was calculated by dividing the standard tour price ticket by the duration of the tour.
- The highest weight ranking was given to cost per minute, followed by google review to account for stadium quality, and the lowest weight has been awarded to the number of trophies as a proxy for football heritage on display.
- Please note the list of honours that the teams have won, doesn’t necessarily mean they will all be visible during the tour.
- Lastly, an index score out of a possible 10 was calculated to assess the best value stadium tour. The higher the score, the better value the stadium tour is to visit.
- All data was collected in November 2023 and is accurate as of then. The full dataset used throughout the study can be found here.
- Photo credit: Berm_teerawat_shutterstock.com