Chants, drums and beer flying through the air. The atmosphere at a Major League Soccer match is unlike any other.
“It’s hard to top your first,” Matt Baker, a St. Louis native, said as he reminisced on the fond memories made at St. Louis CITY SC’s first MLS game visiting Austin FC. “You’re just celebrating up in that corner of Q2 [Stadium] and you’re seeing your team on the field and they’re doing the unthinkable.”
Going to an MLS game is an exciting and family-friendly experience, but how family-friendly are the prices?
There are many ways to compare gameday expenses across the league, but the system used for the purposes of this article considers the costs for a family of four. This covers the prices of four non-premium tickets, the cheapest parking option, four hot dogs, two beers and two soft drinks.
The league average cost for a family of four is $418.94, which means that nine teams, including Supporters’ Shield winner FC Cincinnati and MLS Cup winner Columbus Crew, are among the teams with above-average family costs.
One of the notably more expensive teams to support is St. Louis CITY, the league’s newest club which debutted in 2023.
Baker, who does a St. Louis CITY podcast called Flyover Footy, stated that one of the reasons for the inflated ticket costs is the high demand. He said that St. Louis CITY season tickets are sold out and the waitlist for them is over 100,000 people.
“The fact that you have that many people clamoring for tickets at all is going to jack the price up a little bit,” Baker said. “People who might have season tickets and they want to resell them, they’re able to resell them at fifty, a hundred percent of a markup because there’s going to be a buyer.”
Another explanation Baker gave for the high matchday costs is that all vendors inside CityPark, St. Louis CITY’s stadium, are local. While that improves the quality of the food, it also bumps up the price.
Despite the seemingly prohibitive prices, Baker assured that the club makes efforts to offer free or reduced tickets to some areas of the community. Furthermore, the club’s MLS Next Pro team, St. Louis City 2, presents another option for fans to experience gameday at CityPark for a fraction of the cost.
On the other side of the spectrum sits Real Salt Lake, a club that has played in the league since 2005. Having the lowest average ticket price of the league at $41.15, the Claret and Cobalt are the most economical club to root for.
“They’ve [Real Salt Lake] been able to keep it cheap,” said Hayden Nielsen, founder of the Royal Riot podcast. “You have to to be able to have success in this market.”
Although Nielsen was born in Idaho, he grew up in Utah and considers it his cradle. He played soccer growing up and adopted the jersey number 15 belonging to Real Salt Lake’s all-time leading goalscorer Álvaro Saborío. He cherishes the memories of MLS legends that wore the Real Salt Lake badge such as Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman and Jason Kreis.
Nielsen said that he goes to most home games and usually brings two to three people with him. Although he admitted that food at America First Field was expensive, he expressed a deep appreciation for the affordability of tickets and parking.
“I think RSL does a pretty good job not overcharging their fans,” Nielsen said. “I feel like they do make it affordable and really easy and fun-going for families, which is a big thing for Utah culture.”
Support independent soccer coverage in Atlanta. Join our Patreon, starting at $1.17/mo. Click here.
Stephen Reid, a youth soccer coach, had similar praises to sing of Atlanta United’s affordability.
“I firmly believe that Arthur Blank Sports and Entertainment, Mercedes-Benz Stadium have actively worked at having low prices for food and drink,” Reid said.
Reid’s love for soccer goes back to days when it was considered taboo by his peers. He enjoys the constant action, fascinating tactics and the thrill that comes after nutmegging someone. He describes himself as someone who “helps build good people who also happen to play soccer.”
He spent $1460 on two season tickets to see the Five Stripes throughout 2024. That purchase includes perks such as a 15% discount at the team store and a free subscription to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV worth $99.99 for the year.
“It makes me feel like the ownership and management is engaged and cares,” Reid said. “Because if you’re not making it accessible to moms, dads and kids, then you’re in it for the wrong reason.”
The obvious outlier in the data is Inter Miami with by far the highest average ticket price at $290.30 and the highest total family price at $1270.88. Of course, when the Herons’ games regularly feature some of the world’s best soccer players such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez, a significant premium is to be expected.
However, the “Messi Effect” is not just affecting Miami’s home games at Chase Stadium: it also causes prices to skyrocket at venues it visits throughout the season.
With prices averaging a 631% increase when Inter Miami comes to town, it is little wonder fans of other teams have expressed dismay.
“I do think that a lot of the fans that have been here for a while are getting screwed over,” Nielsen said. “If for whatever reason MLS chooses to send Messi to Sandy, Utah, it’s going to suck and we’re going to see the same thing that’s happening around the league where the actual hardcore fans are going to be priced out.”
Season ticket holders do not seem to be completely safe from the price increases that come with Inter Miami’s visit, with some clubs requiring fans to opt in and purchase tickets for that game separately or else that ticket can be sold at a mark up.
“It doesn’t do anything to grow the sustainability of the fanbase in America for your local club,” Baker said. “It’s definitely sold as more of an attraction. It’s kind of like a circus is coming into town in that regard where you have a travelling show of the greatest soccer player potentially of all time.”
Baker added that he felt the upcharge in prices to watch Inter Miami does nothing to reward fans that have supported the team to get the club where it is today.
Even paying such a steep price does not seem to guarantee watching Messi play as fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium learned the hard way when the Argentine did not play during Miami’s game there in 2023 which resulted in a 5-2 battering at the hands of the Five Stripes.
Reid told the story of a family of five that flew in from Mexico to see Messi play that day – a trip which incurred airplane tickets, hotel costs, match tickets and more – to be met with the disheartening news that he had not even travelled with the team.
“You have the expectation as a fan that you’re going to get to see top talent on the field,” Reid said. “And that’s just not the case.”
Overall, the biggest price increase in average ticket prices to see Inter Miami came from CF Montréal, which saw a 2027% jump from its typical home game ticket average. On the other hand, the lowest price rise goes to Charlotte FC at an 85.45% increase.
Whether the ticket costs $40 or $400, fans around the league use one word to describe the experience of being in the stands supporting their team: surreal.
“All my life I have wanted that experience in my city,” Reid said. “Being able to go see my team play at my stadium was an amazing, wonderful event.”
Through win, loss or draw, fans are happy to put on their club’s jersey, stand side-by-side and cheer on their team for 90 minutes. And although they might groan about the price of beer, they agree that you can’t put a price on passion for the game. The beautiful game.
[…] *Originally published at Scarves and Spikes. […]
The Revolution have free parking on stadium grounds for all games. Where did you get the pricing for Revs parking?
Thanks for this analysis. Where did you get the price for “average cost of 4 non-premium tickets?” $63+/ticket seems high for Atlanta United. A quick check of three games — Charlotte, Nashville, and Houston showed that the highest price for a non-premium ticket sold by Atlanta Unuted is $54 – before junk fees of course. Miami is $250, but one game out of 17 at home shouldn’t increase the average price by that much (I wouldn’t think.)
I used Ticketmaster and they have some non-club tickets for $134 against Columbus (my reference point as it had the midpoint in prices this season excluding Miami for obvious reasons).
Got it. I wasn’t counting resale ticket prices. All of the games I looked at have tickets available directly from Atlanta United.
I love attending matches at MBS. But, the costs food and beer have gone up since opening. One notable increase was when tax was added, not included in the price.
Unlimited Cokes at the Benz is $2. You’re overcharging!
MARTA for a family of four is $20 roundtrip.
Imagining all the ways my family would’ve tried to game the system to get that attendance cost down.
Now is all of this effort worth it in the long run to save $50-$60? Probably not, but if things are tight you do what you gotta do.
You could also try the classic “three people in a trench coat” method 😂
This is how my family does it lol, gotta save where you can. Thankfully the Benz food is cheaper than most places around it anyway
I think AU’s pricing is reasonable, especially food. The free away tickets plus the Apple MLS deal are pretty good, I have been able to watch just about every team the last year and so far this year. Don’t know if other teams have the same deal though.