It's only live once, but at what cost?

Fancy watching a little bit of live sport in the capital this weekend? Well at Stamford Bridge there are literally two tickets available, at about £60 apiece and on opposite sides of the ground. Hospitality remains in abundance and starts at £595. 

And a little bit of rugby in Twickenham to watch Harlequins take on Saracens will set you back at least £43. Not atrocious, but it begs the question: is sport too expensive?

Our columnist Matt Readman argues that the sector is practising one big old game of hypocrisy; preaching inclusivity while charging crazy ticket prices for families.

Should clubs top up the coffers at all costs or make stadium experiences affordable for fans who may look elsewhere for their weekend entertainment – even if the profit and loss is dented? Is there a right answer? Answers on a postcard.

Welcome to The Turnover, a weekly newsletter on the business of sport from City AM. It’s Matt here, on my way to the West Country having just spent £70 to watch a domestic rugby match taking place this evening. Jeez.

Sticking with West Country rugby we revealed this week that Thatchers has become a sponsor of Prem Rugby, while Exeter Chiefs owner Bill Foley – of Black Knight Capital fame – insists he can replicate in Devon what he has done in Dorset with AFC Bournemouth. Ambitious, given the rugby side closed an entire stand because they priced out fans earlier this month.

But the fallout after Manchester City were found guilty of cheating en masse continues. Spanish chief Javier Tebas – never one to miss an opportunity to stick his oar in both at home and internationally – says that the Abu Dhabi-owned club must face justice for the sake of preserving the sanctity of football. How idealistic. 

And it is not just City in hot water. Sam Cunningham’s Between the Lines column this week leads on Newcastle MP Dame Chi Onwurah denying a toning down of the intensity of her criticism of the club’s Saudi Arabian owners. She’s accepted £5k in freebies in recent seasons.

Frank is still following the Gianni Infantino debacle, after the Fifa president attempted an under-valued sell-off of the World Cup. Visa, Coke and Adidas should speak out, integrity experts tell him.

Elsewhere it has been a good week for McLaren, who extended their partnership with fintech Airwallex – as revealed in City AM – while opening the bidding on five of their Formula 1 cars, which could each fetch £10m.

And preempting news that will dominate next week’s pages, Chancellor John Healey has been warned that hiking taxes on betting firms won’t just hurt horse racing but non-league football too.

And to round off with some of our hot takes: Ed Warner argues that the IOC’s abdication over Russia at the Olympics is causing angst across sport; and Ollie Phillips goes into scrum for the 2035 Rugby World Cup to be staged in Spain.

ICYMI: Landmark legal case highlights EU’s neglect of football fans; an Olympic gold medallist is pumping millions into a CBD brand; Bellingham led a £10m fund raise of a UK firm; I checked out London’s bougiest sports bar; and Mercedes were crowned Evelyn Partners Padel Cup champions. 

There’s never a quiet week in the business of sport but The Turnover is here to keep you company whether you pick the sofa or brave the coming cold snap. Have a great weekend.

Last week, a BBC Sport investigation revealed just how sharply the cost of watching live sport has risen in the UK. Across the Ashes, the Open, Wimbledon, Formula 1, the Ryder Cup and FA Cup, selected ticket prices have increased by an average of around 90 per cent in just a few years – more than twice the rate of inflation.

Sports executives have rallied to defend this. Operating costs have risen. So too have fan expectations. And, they argue, the profits flow back into grassroots sport. All fair points. But let’s be honest about the underlying reason: they’re raising prices because they can.

Manchester City critic and Spanish league boss Javier Tebas says the club must face “justice” for the sake of English and European football.

City were last month found guilty of more than 100 counts of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules by hiding over £900m in owner funding that allowed them to spend freely on some of the world’s best players. 

Newcastle MPs have been urged to stop accepting hospitality and gifts from Newcastle United amid concerns it has softened their criticism of the club’s Saudi owners.

Dame Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central and West, was a vociferous critic of the Saudi regime before in recent years taking tickets and hospitality from the club. 

In 2018, she described Saudi Arabia as a “murderous state” in a Commons debate on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. In 2022, she stood in the Commons wearing Newcastle colours to call the execution of 81 people in Saudi Arabia an “atrocious, horrific massacre”.

Fintech Airwallex will today extend its partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team after both organisations enjoyed steep valuation boosts, City AM can reveal.

The partnership, initially announced in 2024, will be renewed and upgraded, making Airwallex the Formula 1 constructors’ champions’ AI finance partner.

To Brentford FC’s Gtech Community Stadium last week for the second outing of The NEDwork, a gathering of chairs and non-executive directors from across Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic governing bodies. 

Russia’s return to the Games, and the chaotic way in which it is being handled, was the principal concern of the chairs of Britain’s OLY and PLY sports when I spoke to them. Specifically, the inconsistent approaches of the IOC, the IPC and the individual international sport federations that control their component sports.

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