The Ultimate Guide to Football Hospitality: VIP Matchday Experiences

Welcome to our article all about the posh seats at Premier League stadiums. From the arrival of private boxes in the 1960s to today’s immersive, themed experiences, football hospitality has come a long way.

In 2025/26, hospitality accounts for a massive proportion of the capacity of Premier League stadiums.

For example, at the newly expanded Anfield Stadium, home to Liverpool FC, almost 20% of attending fans are now in hospitality seats.

It’s all a far cry from the days when the only VIPs at football stadiums were a few dignitaries personally invited by a club director.

In this article we’ll look at hospitality tickets from all angles. What do you get with them? Who are they for? How has hospitality developed, and what is the price relative to regular general admission tickets? Read on and we’ll reveal all.

Premier League Tickets

^{Hospitality Tickets for Every Fixture}

What Is a Hospitality Ticket for Football?

A football hospitality ticket is a premium experience, distinct from general admission tickets. Hospitality, also known as VIP tickets, offer a variety of perks that increase in luxury, depending on how much the package costs.

In the past we would have compared football hospitality tickets to flying in business class instead of economy. Now it’s more complicated.

Today, the football match is the main attraction in an immersive day out.

At the lower end of the pricing spectrum this will be a slightly elevated version of a general admission matchday, with a lively sports bar, still a cut above what regular customers would expect.

Aston Villa have even named one of their hospitality tiers, General Admission+, which gives you an idea of an entry-level hospitality experience.

But as you move through the price tiers, matchday hospitality offers ultra high-end catering, unforgettable “wow” moments, and touches of rare class.

What Is Included in a Football Hospitality Package?

There are a few universal benefits in all football hospitality packages, which we’ll outline now:

• Access to an exclusive lounge, usually within the stadium but occasionally off-site near the ground
• Extended opening hours, normally 3 hours before kick-off and 1 hour or more after the final whistle
• Padded seats with some of the best views in the stadium
• Food and drink options distinct from those offered in general admission areas
• A copy of the matchday programme as a souvenir

High-End Perks of Matchday Hospitality Tickets

Paying more for VIP football tickets opens up a world of special benefits.

These may be seeing the players line up from behind glass panels in the tunnel, chatting with a club legend, or dining in the same room as the club’s top decision-makers.

For these top-level experiences, prices can increase exponentially, with tickets costing $4,066 or more, if you really want to make memories at a Premier League match.

Let’s look at a few common benefits with high-end hospitality tickets:

• Inclusive fine dining, canapés, cheeseboards, afternoon tea and more
• Champagne on arrival and a choice of premium beverages, from cocktails to craft beer and fine wines
• A dedicated host to help coordinate your day
• A spot at the man-of-the-match award ceremony
• Match analysis from club heroes
• A look at the inner-workings of a stadium on a pre-match tour
• Planting the corner flag pre-match or stepping out onto the pitch
• A premium souvenir, such as a signed team shirt

The Benefits of Private Boxes for Football Hospitality

Now, for the highest level of comfort and privacy you can get with football tickets, an executive box is still the way to go.

You and your group, which is usually up to 15 people, will have a personal space all to yourselves, usually with rows of seats directly in front to watch the match in the stadium.

Let’s talk about some of the perks common across every Premier League stadium:

• Champagne on arrival and inclusive drinks throughout
• Upmarket dining, usually with a seasonal menu
• Light bites at half-time and full-time
• Personalised service from a dedicated member of staff
• A visit from a former player for a personal conversation
• An exclusive, bespoke gift relating to the team

Which Former Players Work in Club Hospitality in 2025/26

Depending on the package, here’s a sample of English football legends you may bump into in hospitality at stadiums around the Premier League. These are the former players we’ve spotted in the last year:

• Arsenal: Charlie George, Ray Parlour
• Everton: Graham Stuart, Ian Snodin
• Liverpool: John Aldridge, Alan Kennedy
• Manchester United: Denis Irwin, Bryan Robson
• Tottenham Hotspur: Ledley King, Gary Mabbutt
• West Ham United: Tony Cottee, Carlton Cole

1. Mon

   18 Aug

   2025

   Leeds United vs Everton FC

   Premier League・Elland Road

   Leeds, United Kingdom

   from $250

   67 available tickets

   TICKETS FROM $250

Who Are Football Hospitality Tickets for?

As the proportion of hospitality tickets in stadiums grows, the market for typical hospitality is broader than ever.

Still, with Arsenal and Chelsea hospitality tickets starting at $542, it’s fair to say that budget-conscious buyers and families may be put off.

So we’ll find out exactly who typical hospitality buyers are now:

Companies Seeking Corporate Entertainment and Rewards

Without question, companies will always be prominent hospitality buyers, either for one-off matchday tickets or seasonal hospitality commitments, including corporate boxes.

Few things could impress clients or reward employees more than a premium matchday at the very top level of the world’s favourite sport.

The extra time you spend at the stadium, combined with the high volume of corporate clients also make hospitality a perfect opportunity to rub shoulders and do some networking.

Fans with Something Big to Celebrate

No doubt, football hospitality tickets can deliver something out of the ordinary, which makes them ideal for gifts.

Getting to meet a star of the club you love is not something that happens every day.

When you head towards the higher end of the pricing spectrum it’s just one of many experiences that make hospitality tickets the perfect present or way to celebrate a landmark event like an anniversary or birthday.

Occasional Matchgoers Attending High-Demand Fixtures

This is a group that never would have considered hospitality until a few years ago. Today, there are quite a few reasons why an occasional matchgoer would buy hospitality.

A big one is that you can buy football hospitality tickets without needing a Premier League club membership, which is normally required to buy general admission tickets.

Along those same lines, you won’t need to rack up a specific number of game credits for matches that are on restricted sale.

With prices starting well below $136, the relatively low price point for some starter hospitality packages is part of that appeal.

Overseas Fans Who Want Something Memorable

The Premier League has always had a strong international fanbase, but the competition has reached new levels of popularity in the 2020s.

According to the league’s official figures, 1.87 billion people follow the league worldwide.

Premier League matches reach 900 million homes worldwide, and are broadcast to all but four of the 193 UN member states.

So when a fan makes the effort to become one of the 1.5 million people visiting the UK to watch football, it makes sense to splash out.

Sometimes to make a day of it but sometimes because the availability of general admission tickets is low making hospitality a genuine option for tourists.

But how have football hospitality tickets evolved? We’ll explore the history next.

Evolution of Football Hospitality

Anyone who’s had the pleasure of Fulham tickets for Craven Cottage will notice the handsome old pavilion in the south-east corner of the ground.

Dating back to 1901, this building is a holdover from the old days of hospitality, with a bar on the top floor and a balcony where dignitaries would, and still do, watch the game.

Going back a little further to the 1890s, a lucky few Celtic fans could watch the match at Celtic Park from behind glass and enjoy padded seats in an enclosed stand on the south side of the pitch.

The only drawback was they needed to climb four flights of stairs to get there, and the windows would mist up.

A few decades later, Arsenal unveiled their new East Stand at Highbury in 1936. For years, the East Stand, which included the club’s marble halls, boardroom and an elegant cocktail bar, was a byword for class and luxury.

Until the 1960s, that was the limit of football hospitality—more like a private members’ club.

The Executive Box Era Begins

In England, football hospitality began to evolve in the 1960s.

The man behind it was a great innovator, Sir Matt Busby, who saw private glass boxes at baseball stadiums during a tour of America in the early 1960s and recognised their potential in English football.

And so the very first executive boxes opened at Old Trafford in the United Road (North) Stand in 1965, in time for the 1966 World Cup.

By the 1980s, whenever a stand was renovated in English football, boxes were included in the design.

This happened with the West Stand at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane in 1982, and on an unprecedented scale Arsenal’s Clock End at Highbury, which featured 48 executive boxes when it reopened in 1989.

Emirates Stadium Changes the Football Hospitality Game

When Arsenal’s new stadium opened for the 2006/07 season it expanded the horizons of hospitality, to the point where many Premier League clubs are still catching up.

By incorporating Club Level and Box Level (150 boxes) into two rings around the middle of the Emirates Stadium seating plan, Arsenal were able to build an entire separate concourse for hospitality fans and Platinum Members, paying for premium seats.

The quantity of hospitality seats was also higher than ever, with close to 10,000 seats (of a 60,704 capacity) on these two levels, a large number of which are reserved for Arsenal hospitality tickets.

New Heights and Experiential Theming

In the 21st century, nothing stands still in football hospitality, and with more than three quarters of clubs reconfiguring their stadium since the 2010s there have been plenty of innovations at the premium end.

A big one is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, unveiled in 2019 and featuring unique experiences like the mid-range Stratus Lounge, with sweeping views of both the pitch and London Skyline.

As the Premier League boom continues, clubs are constantly trying to outdo each other with their hospitality options.

Think, Michelin-starred cuisine (Banks on the Wear at Stadium of Light), a rooftop pool (Fulham’s Riverside Stand), or seeing all of the preparation that goes on behind the scenes on a Premier League Matchday (Backstage at Etihad Stadium).

We have also noticed big changes at the less expensive end of the market.

For one, General Admission+ packages offer basic luxuries including a padded seat and a voucher for a sports bar, and allow fans to experience hospitality while losing none of the intensity of a Premier League matchday.

Things to Consider When Booking Football Hospitality Tickets

If you’re ready to splash the cash on football hospitality tickets, there are a few factors to keep in mind. We’ll run through the main ones now.

What Is the Dress Code for Football Hospitality?

Football VIP dress codes vary from stadium to stadium and package to package. They range from casual to smart, with a strict shirt-and-tie policy in the more exclusive lounges, especially when fine dining is one of the perks.

To illustrate, sometimes football shirts are allowed and sometimes they’re not. Denim jeans may be permitted, but again they may not.

So always check these rules before booking because you may be turned away if you show up dressed in the wrong way.

One rule that we have noticed across all grounds is that the colours of the away team will not be permitted. This leads to our next point.

Away Fans Are Discouraged in Football Hospitality

Because club memberships are not needed, hospitality tickets may appeal to fans of the visiting team.

This may seem like a viable way into the ground, seeing as Premier League away allocations are limited to 3,000 or fewer, so tickets can be scarce and in high demand.

However, most clubs take a dim view of having visiting supporters in home sections. So behaviour as subtle as celebrating a goal for your team could bring an abrupt end to your special day.

The Rules Around Alcohol in Football Hospitality Are Complex

Hospitality fans will have unique privileges when it comes to consuming alcohol at Premier League stadiums.

For fans with general admission tickets, alcoholic drinks are served on the concourse only, and you can’t take a drink into the stadium seating.

Things are a little different in hospitality, where you can take a more relaxed sociable attitude to a pre-match, half-time or post-match drink. Instead of being a crowded concourse, you can stretch out in a lounge or bar.

Yet some of the rules apply. In cases where a lounge has a view of the pitch, the blinds or shutters will be drawn 15 minutes before kick-off, after the second half starts, only opening 15 minutes after the final whistle.

This is a curious workaround to prevent alcohol being served to fans with a view of the pitch during a match.

Football Hospitality Ticket Prices Are Dynamic

While there is always a fixed tariff for general admission tickets in the Premier League, the price of matchday hospitality tickets will vary a lot depending on how much demand there is for a match, and the size of the club’s remaining inventory of tickets.

So, be prepared to pay a premium for hospitality tickets for popular matches, while you may find bargains for less in-demand fixtures.

The Price Difference: General Admission vs Hospitality Tickets

Now we’ll give you a cross-section of matchday hospitality prices for Premier league teams, finding the least expensive and most expensive hospitality package and comparing it to their general admission pricing.

Maybe you’re wondering why top-end prices vary so much. Well, clubs set their highest hospitality prices based not only on demand and exclusivity, but also on the nature of the experience itself.

Some clubs focus on providing industry-leading comfort and dining, costing several hundred pounds for a ticket.

Meanwhile others, like Man City and Arsenal, create “bucket list” packages featuring rare privileges like meeting current players, behind-the-scenes tours during the match build-up, or dining in ultra-exclusive spaces.

These once-in-a-lifetime extras will push top-end prices into the thousands, as you can see below.

2025/26 General Admission and Matchday Hospitality Price Comparison

• Premium non-hospitality prices are not included
• Hospitality prices do not include boxes
• All prices are for matchday packages only
• Hospitality prices are dynamic, and we have listed the starting price

Let’s compare the average prices:

• Average gap between the price of the cheapest general admission tickets and the cheapest matchday hospitality tickets: $247
• Average gap between the most expensive general admission tickets and the most expensive hospitality tickets: $2,451
• Cheapest packages: On average, entry-level hospitality costs about 5 times more than the cheapest general admission tickets and tend to be just over twice as expensive as the most expensive general admission tickets. .
• Most expensive packages: At the top end, hospitality can be over 23 times more expensive than the priciest general admission seats.

So on average, a typical entry-level hospitality option costs about $247 more than the cheapest general admission ticket. Meanwhile the top-end hospitality is over $2,440 more than the priciest general admission Premier League tickets.

The Price of an Executive Box at Premier League Clubs

In the Premier League the starting price for an executive box in 2025/26 ranges from $3,389 ($282 per person) at Turf Moor for Burnley, to $17,552 ($1,755 per person) at Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal.

These prices are for private and not shared boxes, and the per person prices assume that the entire box is filled. As with all hospitality tickets, prices are dynamic and will rise and fall according to opponents.

Conclusion: Are Football Hospitality Tickets Worth It?

Absolutely. Football hospitality tickets are definitely worth the price. Especially if you have a reason to invest in experiences that go above and beyond what you might expect from regular general admission tickets.

If you really want to splash out, you will be treated to unprecedented access, meeting your favourite footballers and witnessing with your own eyes how a team goes about a matchday.

At the cheaper end, football matchday hospitality tickets bring a touch of convenience and class to a day of top-level football.

Ticket-Compare.com offers hospitality tickets for every Premier League club. We also work hand-in-hand with the clubs’ own officially sanctioned hospitality ticket sellers to help you buy authorised tickets for the games you simply cannot miss.

At this very moment, we have thousands of hospitality tickets in our inventory, across all of our listings. We have hospitality tickets starting from as little as $102 today.

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