The Cost of Following Your Football Team Away

TrainPal

Published: August 14, 2026

Regardless of which team football fans support, there’s nothing that shows commitment and dedication more than attending every game, home and away. Hearing the crowds roaring, being a part of the chants, and feeling the atmosphere are all unbeatable experiences when supporting your team. But this doesn’t come without its costs for these travelling fans.

Each season, the away-day schedule changes as different teams are promoted or relegated, meaning each year there are different away grounds to travel to for committed fans, creating what could be described as an ‘away-day postcode lottery’, meaning that costs will vary and be unpredictable each year. Figures are based on modelled advance fares for a fixed Saturday window and may not reflect actual costs paid by fans.

To help put these figures into perspective, we’ve pulled together the average cost of travel for different fanbases across the four professional football divisions within the English football pyramid, revealing how the costs of being an away fan can vary dramatically depending on which club you support.

Read on to discover which teams have the highest and lowest costs for their away-day travels and whether the data shows a relationship between club location, league status, and the cost of travelling to away fixtures.

Which teams have the highest and lowest prices to attend away games?

Starting off with an overview of English football, Plymouth Argyle in League One tops the charts as having the most expensive away days for their fanbase. With an average return ticket cost of £134.81 per away journey, it easily has the highest average travel cost, with fees adding up to a total of £3,100.74 for a whole season of following the team cross-country!

This is a stark contrast to the prices that Walsall fans are paying to see their team’s away games. Fans of the League Two club only have to pay, on average, £49.91 per away game, meaning that attending every away game of the season would cost £1,147.98.

So, compared to Plymouth, Walsall shows a difference of £84.90 per game, meaning that their fans spend a total of £1,952.76 less per season if they attend every away game! Looking at such a difference in price, it’s clear that fans can have very different experiences when travelling to support their team, with each facing a very different financial commitment.

One notable finding is that the most expensive teams to follow aren’t necessarily from the Premier League. Multiple clubs outside of the division record higher travel costs than any Premier League team, showing that the cost of following a team isn’t necessarily determined by the league or division they play in.

A rundown of football train travel prices for each division

So, though you now know the teams with the most and least expensive travel costs for fans across all divisions, let’s now run through each division, breaking down the most and least costly away-day travel prices for fans.

Premier League away-day travel costs

When examining England’s top flight of football, the Premier League, we can see which clubs emerge as having the most expensive and most affordable train travel for fans.

The list of the most expensive football clubs to follow in the Premier League is topped by Newcastle (£109.05 per game, £2,071.89 across a season) and their local rivals Sunderland (£107.93), making them stand out as the costliest fanbases to follow by train. These are followed by Bournemouth (£94.11) on the south coast, Ipswich Town (£92.24) in the east, and Hull City (£86.47) in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which all require their fans to pay hefty football travel costs – well above the league’s average.

At the other end of the rankings, however, the list of the most budget-friendly football clubs to follow in the Premier League is led by Aston Villa (£61.71 per game, £1,172.57 across a season) from the Midlands. Fans of the club can access affordable and popular train journeys from Birmingham to Liverpool, and Birmingham to Manchester when travelling to away games.

Villa is then closely followed by Arsenal (£62), with London clubs continuing to dominate the cheaper end of the table, as Tottenham (£64.72), Fulham (£64.95) and Crystal Palace (£65.30) emerge as the teams with the lowest cost of football away days. Supporters from the capital can also find a range of reasonably priced train tickets for away-days, including journeys from London Kings Cross to Newcastle, and London Kings Cross to Leeds.

On the whole, the cost gap across a season of travelling to away games for Newcastle and Aston Villa supporters comes out as a drastic difference of £899.32! Though each team plays in the same division, it really highlights how each set of supporters has to make a different level of financial commitment to support their team at away matches.

Championship away-day travel costs

Next up is England’s second division of football, the Championship, which has Middlesbrough (£118.24 per game, £2,719.62 across a season) leading the way in the north-east. Boro are then followed by Portsmouth (£98.45) in second place, with Swansea City (£95), Norwich City (£94.03), and Southampton (£90.02) rounding out the most expensive teams to follow in the Championship.

West Bromwich Albion (£50.26 per game, £1,156 across a season) stands out as the most affordable club to follow in the Championship, with their away-day travel prices being closely followed by the newly relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers (£54.30). The top five most reasonably priced teams to follow in the Championship also include Birmingham City (£54.96), Derby County (£58.43), and Stoke City (£59.20), who each have average train fares under £60 per game.

Middlesbrough fans’ cost of travel over the course of a full season stands at a significant figure, being £1,563.62 more than that of West Brom. This again reinforces the idea that teams in the same division can be required to pay drastically different amounts to travel and support their teams, with fans of the Baggies being able to save much more money than Boro supporters.

League One away-day travel costs

Looking at League One, it’s no surprise to see the most expensive club to follow is Plymouth Argyle (£134.81 per game, £3,100.74 across a season) considering that they also top the rankings across all English football – even exceeding every Premier League side too. Though there’s a steep drop-off to the next-most expensive, Reading (£85.42) takes second spot, with Blackpool (£82.45), Wycombe Wanderers (£79.69), and Bradford City (£73.76) also sitting as clubs involving pricier train travel.

On the opposite side of the spectrum in League One is the most affordable football club to follow, Notts County (£52.73 per game, £1,212.88 across a season), who narrowly beat the newly relegated Leicester City (£54.02), as well as Burton Albion (£55.43), Sheffield Wednesday (£57.24), and Luton Town (£60.97).

League One has the greatest difference between the most and least expensive teams for train travel in a single division, with Plymouth Argyle’s seasonal cost of making the trip to away matches sitting at £1,887.86 more than Notts County’s. This means that fans of Notts County pay less than half of what the Pilgrims’ fanbase does!

League Two away-day travel costs

Finally, League Two has fans of Exeter City (£106.78 per game, £2,456.05 across a season) paying the most to travel for their away games, with Colchester United (£103.47) running them close. Other clubs with expensive away-day trips include Gillingham (£102.17), Crawley Town (£95.80), and Swindon Town (£90.84), which all require fans to cough up significant amounts of money to reach an away game.

As mentioned previously, Walsall (£49.91 per game, £1,147.98 across a season) is then the most affordable in both League Two and across England’s football divisions. The division also features other teams that are more reasonably priced, with Chesterfield (£54.02), Oldham Athletic (£55.53), Crewe Alexandra (£55.69), and Port Vale (£58.19), who are under £60 per away day.

Looking at the difference in travel costs over a whole season of travelling to away games between Exeter and Walsall, there’s a clear difference in what dedicated fans are required to pay, with Exeter supporters paying £1,308.07 more for their train tickets. So, even though Exeter sit in the bottom division of the EFL, their travel prices are comparable to or even higher than the costs faced by fans higher up the football pyramid.

Is geography more important than the league your team plays in?

Interestingly, the findings highlight a potential relationship between club location and football travel costs. While the data doesn’t show that geography directly determines travel costs, there are several patterns that come to light when comparing the most and least expensive clubs.

With Premier League club Newcastle, the only team within a 50-mile radius is Sunderland, their great rivals. The Magpies also have 11 of their 19 fixtures over 150 miles away*, meaning their fans have a fair few long away-days in a season – the longest being a trip to Bournemouth all the way down on the south coast. Away travel for Newcastle fans ranges from just a £4.30 trip to Sunderland, right up to £155.03 for a visit to Bournemouth’s Pokesdown Station, and many other long-distance fixtures costing over £100 too!

Sunderland supporters also face high train journey prices, with a trip from Sunderland Station to Bournemouth’s Pokesdown Station costing an average of £192.20. Travelling to and from Brighton isn’t much different either, with a journey from Sunderland Station to Falmer Station totalling around £192.80 on average!

Similarly to Newcastle, Championship club Middlesbrough is also located in the north of England, requiring fans to travel a little further to get to away matches - again showing a potential relationship between geography and price. Unlike Newcastle, however, there are no league matches within a 50-mile radius and 11 out of their 23 are over 150 miles away* – meaning that for almost half their away games fans have a long journey ahead of them!

While Boro fans face multiple highly-priced journeys over the season, travelling to Bristol is the costliest, with a train journey from Middlesbrough Station to Parson Street Station averaging around £207.38.

Again, the data suggests that geography has a relationship with the average football away travel costs for League One teams too. Plymouth Argyle have all 23 away fixtures located over 150 miles away* - making them the most extreme case in all of the EFL and Premier League – which shows a potential link between the spread of fixtures and the average cost of football away days.

Other League One fixtures can also involve expensive train travel, with journeys between Barnsley Station and Oxford Station costing an average of £150.63!

Finally, moving down to League Two, Exeter is another club with no games within 50 miles of their stadium. Fans of the Grecians have to travel 150 miles* or more for 16 of their 23 away games - again showing a potential geographical link with football travel costs. This unsurprisingly means that Exeter fans wanting to attend an away game against Accrington Stanley have to pay a steep average cost of £157.20, using the train route between Accrington Station and St James Park Station.

If we follow the potential relationship between travel cost and geographical location, densely clustered clubs seem to be able to benefit from cheaper short-hop fixtures more frequently. Clubs such as Stevenage, MK Dons, Port Vale, Mansfield, Rochdale, and Crewe all play nine or ten of their 23 away games against teams that are under 50 miles away and sit in the cheaper half of their leagues.

The Cost of Being an Away Fan

Looking throughout all the divisions in England, we can see that the cost of football away days varies drastically, even within the same league. Across an entire season, fans can face hugely different costs to teams in the same league, requiring much greater or lesser financial commitments. There’s even the revelation that being in the top division doesn’t automatically result in higher football travel costs, as both Plymouth Argyle in League One and Middlesbrough in the Championship have higher train costs than Newcastle in the Premier League.

Geography also seemingly has an impact, with a relationship appearing in the data between each club’s location and the average train travel costs. Several teams situated in either the far south or far north seem to have increased football travel costs, appearing among the most expensive teams to follow. Teams located more centrally, such as in the Midlands, appear to face much lower prices instead.

For the dedicated supporters who choose to attend every away game of the season, it can often result in spending around £2,000 or more, which is a big commitment that many fans could struggle to make.

Regardless of your team’s location or what division your club plays in, finding affordable train tickets is always helpful when making the trips to away games. With TrainPal, you can book cheaper tickets with a variety of promo codes to help secure great deals, making away matches that much more cost-effective to get to!!

Methodology and Assumptions

These figures are indicative estimates to illustrate how away-day rail costs can vary between clubs. They are not a guarantee of price and do not represent the actual cost every fan will pay.

Source: Fare data sourced through TrainPal. Prices reflect the lowest standard-class Advance fares available for the relevant route at the time of analysis.
Routes & stations: Calculated from each club's officially recommended home station to the officially recommended station for each away fixture in the same division.
Travel window: A return journey on a standard Saturday matchday (3:00 pm kick-off), arriving 12:00-2:00 pm and departing 5:30-7:30 pm.
Booking window: Prices are captured approximately one month before travel; fares change continually and by booking time, availability and demand.
Averages: Per-club figures are the average of that club's away fixtures for the season; season totals are the sum of those fares.
What's excluded: Prices do not reflect walk-up/on-the-day fares, sold-out Advance tickets, Railcard discounts, split-ticketing, season-ticket or group deals, or alternative transport (coach/car). Your actual cost may be higher or lower.
Currency of data: Based on the 2026/27 fixture list; figures are correct as at 13 August 2026 and are not updated for subsequent fare or fixture changes unless restated.
*Geographic data: Geographic isolation claims (e.g., distances exceeding 150 miles) were calculated using standard point-to-point (straight-line) mileage between the home stadium coordinates and confirmed away stadiums for the 2026/27 Premier League and the EFL season.

Disclaimer: TrainPal is not a sponsor or official partner of the Premier League, the EFL or any club mentioned in this article, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.