If there’s one thing I love more than travelling, it’s football. In 2016, I did a 48h trip to Florida just to catch a Copa America game. If you’re a football fan like me, you always hope to catch a game when travelling to a new country. It doesn’t matter if it’s the MLS, Women’s World Cup, Spanish Liga, Premier League, Champions League, etc. If it fits my schedule, I’ll get tickets. Now, most leagues have a pretty straightforward system to buy tickets. You go to the club’s official website or Ticketmaster, and you buy your tickets. If you’d rather have the physical version, you can also go to the stadium or an official ticket re-seller, and buy it there. When planning my trip to England however, I realized that the Premier League is not so simple. Between Memberships, Matchday Experiences, and shady stubhub sellers, it’s easy to find yourself overpaying for a game. Hopefully this guide will help you plan ahead to have stress-free – or almost stress-free – experience.
Premier League teams by city
Unless they have family/friends outside of London, most people travel to London when going to England so here’s a list of teams in the capital, followed by the other cities.
London
- Arsenal – Emirates Stadium
- Chelsea – Stamford Bridge
- Crystal Palace – Selhurst Park
- Tottenham Hotspur – Wembley (2017-2018) / White Hart Lane
- West Ham United – London Stadium
Bournemouth
- Bournemouth – Dean Court
Brighton
- Brighton & Hove Albion – Falmer Stadium
Burnley
- Burnley – Turf Moor
Huddersfield
- Huddersfield Town – Kirklees Stadium
Leicester
- Leicester City – King Power Stadium
Liverpool
Manchester
- Manchester City – Eithad Stadium
- Manchester United – Old Trafford
Newcastle upon Tyne
- Newcastle United – St. James’ Park
Southampton
- Southampton – St. Mary’s Stadium
Stoke-on-Trent
- Stoke City – bet365 Stadium
Swansea
- Swansea City – Liberty Stadium
Watford
- Watford – Vicarage Road
West Bromwich
- West Bromwich Albion – The Hawthorns
How to buy tickets
1. Memberships
If you’re a diehard fan of a particular team and want to guarantee yourself a ticket for one of their games, buying the membership is the way to go. Most teams have a Lite version of their memberships which will give you the card and some digital goodies (like a wallpaper). If you’re buying the membership in the offseason, the card will be shipped to you before the season starts. If you don’t receive your card before your trip, you can contact the club’s Membership department to make arrangements.
Once your membership is confirmed and you’re registered on the club’s website, it’s only a matter of setting your alarm clock for the day tickets go on sale and buying them from the official website. This process can take 45 minutes to 4 hours depending on demand for the game and does not include matches against big teams i.e. Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, MCFC, MUFC, and Liverpool (more on that later). Tickets you purchased will be loaded on your membership card so make sure to bring it with you!
2. Matchday VIP Experience / Thomas Cook Packages
Games involving big teams facing off against each other often go through a lottery system so there’s no guarantee you will find a ticket even with a membership. If you absolutely must attend a certain match (like Arsenal-Spurs), you can shell out the big bucks and buy a VIP Experience ticket or Thomas Cook package. These packages will place you in the posh seats and will often have a Museum visit, food, wine/champagne, and one night accommodation included. I consider these packages way too expensive but if you only have this one item in your bucket list, might as well go for it.
3. General Sale
Premier League matches are usually sold out as soon as members get access to tickets (hence why I mentioned setting your alarm earlier), but sometimes you can get lucky and find tickets available on general sale. These are usually for midweek games such as the League Cup and/or Europa League. A good option if you only want to see a game, regardless of the competition. Make sure you’re registered on the website months ahead of the match though. Some teams will not let you create an account to buy a ticket the week/day before. I learned that lesson the hard way with Tottenham.
4. Social Media
Although touting (scalping) is illegal in the UK, it is rarely enforced. You will see a bunch sellers outside of stadiums on game day, selling tickets. Some are legit, some are scammers selling fake tickets. I suggest not walking up to a random person and buying their ticket. Instead, use social media.
Indeed, in the days leading up to a game, there are plenty of fans offering their tickets at face value on Twitter. And there are accounts retweeting those fans for more visibility. For example, Arsenal supporters have @GunnersTickets, @tickets2arsenal, @SpareArsenal, and @arsenal_tickets, connecting fans. I’m sure other clubs have their equivalent.
Secondly, if you travel often, you probably have a network of travelling friends. Sending a call out on Facebook can be rewarding. If your direct friends don’t have the tickets you’re looking for, you can get lucky through a friend of a friend of a friend, so don’t don’t give up hope.
So there you have it. Four ways to buy Premier League tickets. As for the best time to go, I’d say the stretch between the first international break (September) and Christmas is a good time as there are several competitions going at once. You have the Premier League, the Champions League group stage, Europa League group stage, and the League Cup. I went to England in mid-September and was able to attend two Champions League games, and one Europa League match, on consecutive nights. I could’ve also gone to a Premier League game on the following weekend if I had planned better but three matches were plenty enough.
What about you? Have you been to a Premier League game? How did you get your ticket?
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