Mark Butcher has pointed to the relatively small capacity of English stadiums as a factor behind Ashes ticket price increases.
Spealing on Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Butcher disagreed with the increased Ashes ticket prices, but highlighted how this relates to there being enough demand to fill English stadiums.
The ECB’s bid to make cricket the most inclusive sport in the country has been subject to scrutiny after the ticket prices for the 2027 Ashes series in England were unveiled. Tickets for the Test match at Edgbaston have risen by 43 per cent, whilst the cheapest non-member ticket is priced at £115, not including the £2.50 booking fee.
"I don’t know what the reasoning is behind those enormous increases is beyond demand," said Butcher. "We have very small cricket grounds in comparison to other places. We do not have the capacity in these grounds, even at Lord’s to be able to price it in a way that guarantees the ground is going to be full and they get their full value out of the demand that is required."
England are currently 2-0 up in their Test series against Pakistan, but the tickets for the third and final Test match between the two sides at Edgbaston this week have not sold out, despite the more affordable price range of £57.50 to £87.50.
"You make things cheaper when you’re desperate to sell them and you make them more expensive when you have no problem selling them," said Butcher.
"I’m not defending it, I’m not saying it’s correct. I’m just saying that if you have 24,000 tickets to sell at Birmingham and you could sell them three, four times over on every day for a Test match, for an Ashes Test, then you’re going to price them at a point you feel you can still sell the place out and the ground is full. They’re expensive because lots and lots of people want them."
Lord’s is the largest cricket ground in the UK, with a capacity of 31,180 and category A tickets to watch the Ashes at the iconic venue next year are £195. Butcher discussed how this ultimately boils down to supply and demand.
"If Lord’s had a capacity of 100,000 then some tickets would be sold for 40 quid and some tickets would be sold for 350 quid. But it doesn’t, it’s restricted," he said. "You’ve got a capital city with a population of 8 or 9 million people. You’ve got people from all over the world who want to go to say they’ve been to a Lord’s Test match and therefore the demand for those tickets is very high and they are expensive.
"As much as it’s unpalatable and as much as it doesn’t chime with the most inclusive sport in the world, it’s just a simple fact of economy. Economies of scale. Our scale in terms of our stadiums is not big enough."
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