Ticket rises and more TV packages - why is price of sport increasing?

At least £115 to watch a day of the Ashes in Birmingham - unless you are an Edgbaston member.

A minimum of £255 for a standard seat at the Wimbledon singles finals.

Prices starting from £289 for general admission to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on raceday.

Those are the ticket fees British sports fans have been told a single adult must pay if they want to attend some of the country's most beloved sports events in 2027.

The cost of entry to elite sport in the UK has risen sharply in the 2020s, but attendances across the majority of sports are as strong as ever.

Even for armchair fans watching at home, the breadth and expense of television subscriptions can be a barrier to accessing sport.

So what exactly is behind the rise in prices, can the increases possibly be justified and what does it all mean for fans?

In a new BBC Radio 5 Live programme - The Price of Our Sport - BBC Sport has taken a look.

What has happened to ticket costs?

Fans reacted with anger when some of the ticket price rises for major events next year were announced earlier this summer.

The increase in Ashes ticket prices is stark - the minimum price the last time Edgbaston held a Test in 2023 was £65, a rise of £50 to £115 in just four years. Admission to other venues, including The Oval, is even higher.

Last time out in Australia, some seats were sold to fans at all five venues for between £16 and £22.

At Wimbledon next year, the most expensive standard seat for both the men's and women's singles finals will be £400, £50 more than 2026, and more than double the cost from 2017.

That still makes Wimbledon the cheapest of the four Grand Slams, but even a Centre Court ticket for the middle Saturday of the tournament now costs at least £130.

General admission for Grand Prix Sunday at Silverstone is up to £289 from £189 in 2021, while the cheapest allocated seat now costs at least £609, up from £276 five years ago.

And general admission to the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, in the Republic of Ireland, will cost €499 (£434), compared with up to €260 (£220) in Italy in 2023.

And other events which took place this year laid bare just how much more fans are being charged.

Fans paid £150 to attend a day of The Open at Royal Birkdale earlier this year, compared to £95 at St Andrews in 2022.

Prices for the FA Cup final varied from £50 to £285 in 2026, compared with £50 to £120 in 2016.

"It's just ludicrous," says Lee Hanlon, an England cricket fan who lives close to Edgbaston, but has decided not to attend next summer's Ashes because of the price rise.

"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."

But for event organisers, the prices chime with wider trends.

"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," says Mark Darbon, chief executive of the R&A, which operates golf's Open Championship.

"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."

How do organisers justify the ticket price rises?

In a poll on the BBC Sport website, 95% of respondents voted that tickets for the 2027 Ashes were too expensive.

A spokesperson for Edgbaston 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."

Whether prices are set by governing bodies or the stadiums, the costs of putting on a major sports event include things like utilities, staffing, technology, insurance and marketing.

"Ticketing revenue generates less than 20% of our total revenue from The Open," Darbon says.

"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."

Many prestige events and newly built venues also include an increased proportion of hospitality ticketing, which can drive up costs for fans wanting standard tickets.

"We are seeing more and more regular people willing to pay for a special experience at sport," says Richard Flint, chairman of Seat Unique, an online platform specialising in hospitality and VIP ticketing for events.