Following an extensive review and consultation on football pricing in Glasgow, the new structure has been developed in alignment with detailed customer comments obtained through surveys, feedback, and focus group activity.

A working group set clear objectives to ensure the new structure created a fairer, transparent, and simpler pricing plan, with a focus on youth football and improved participation within this group.

Glasgow Sport’s new structure will implement a more standardised pricing policy which ensures every customer pays the appropriate charge for comparable space and time. This will mean some clubs will pay more and some will pay less than they are currently – but it means a fairer and more consistent approach across the city. Extensive benchmarking was also carried out for both adult and youth football to ensure prices were competitive and fair.

The new prices promote youth football and feed into Glasgow’s overall strategy for growth and lay the foundations for a pathway to a healthier city. This strategy is the beginning of Glasgow’s ten-year football action plan which will kick off next year as Glasgow hosts UEFA EURO 2020, seeing communities, facilities, and the game itself benefit from a dedicated plan for growth.

Key highlights from the new pricing and programming structure include:

- All prices for youth football (under 18) will decrease and are based on a new rate of £2 per head. In some instances this sees reductions of 33% for clubs (based on £72 for an outdoor 11-a-side match hire now being priced at £48).

- Off-peak (adult) and concession football will now be priced at 50% of the adult rate, leading to a decrease in prices across the board (with the exception of our premium league criteria pitch in Petershill). In some instances this sees reductions of over 16% for clubs (based on £57.50 for an outdoor 11-a-side match hire now being priced at £48).

- Grade 2 pitch (Ibrox, Stepford, Haghill, Barlia and Drumoyne MUGA) prices will go down to £2 for adults and £1 for youths. This sees price reductions of 50% for adults, and 66% for youths.

Glasgow Life has an extensive annual refurbishment and refresh programme for pitches across the city, which sees improvements such as carpet and shock-pad replacement, as well as new fencing and equipment. Over the last five years, Glasgow Sport has spent more than £2 million on pitch refurbishment, with just under £1 million of refreshes scheduled for the 2019/20 financial year.

This investment in quality facilities creates a sense of empowerment within the community, ensuring local citizens have venues and resources they can be proud of.

Councillor David McDonald, Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow Life, said: “With the new pricing plan, Glasgow Life offers the cheapest match prices for the best facilities for youth football in the country whilst promoting health and wellbeing for all.

“All prices for youth football will decrease, creating more affordable options for under 18s to play on our pitches. Youths will pay just £2 per head to play – seeing a price reduction of up to a third. Adult prices will remain largely the same, as our research and consultation has shown us these prices are fair. Off-peak and concession prices will decrease to 50% of the adult rate, seeing a decrease in prices across the city.”

Billy Garrett, Director of Sport and Events for Glasgow Life, said: “Our new football pricing and programming structure will be implemented in March 2020 and was developed in alignment with detailed customer comments obtained through surveys, feedback, and focus group activity carried out with local community football clubs.

“Long-established local agreements have led to a disparity in the payments being made by some clubs, and this new structure will address that by bringing clubs into alignment with the same rates being paid for the same products across the city. This will mean a price decrease for some clubs, but increases for others. We’re working closely with affected clubs to implement a three-year phased approach to price increases, meaning they won’t pay the full new rate until March 2022.”

A Scottish FA spokesperson said: “Access and affordability are two critical factors that currently impact on people’s ability to enjoy regular healthy physical exercise through sport, and specifically from a Scottish FA perspective, football.

“We look forward to working closely with both Glasgow Sport and Glasgow City Council to ensure more people can access affordable football facilities across the city.”