25+ Years for a Season Ticket? These Premier League Waiting Lists Are No Joke (Updated 2026/27)

Imagine waiting over two decades for a seat at your favorite football team's stadium. Well, for some football-mad Premier League fans, that’s the reality.

Thanks to the immense popularity of Premier League football, several clubs have season ticket waiting lists that stretch for an entire generation.

So, which Premier League club has the longest waiting list? And how do different clubs handle the rising demand for tickets? Read on to find out.

Premier League Tickets

^{No Waiting Lists: Just Football}

What Team Has the Longest Waiting List for a Season Ticket?

Every Premier League club has its own system for allocating season tickets. Some use waiting lists, while others like Chelsea make fans prove their loyalty by attending tons of games.

A few have paid waiting lists, and at Tottenham, for example, a spot on the list is included with a club membership.

But a select group of teams have such high demand for tickets that the wait can feel endless. Let’s dive into the clubs with the most extreme season ticket demand.

Premier Clubs with the Longest Season Ticket Waiting Lists

Liverpool

Liverpool Season Ticket Waiting List: 30+ years

Liverpool holds the longest waiting list in the Premier League, exceeding 30 years at this point. As of 2026/27, it's impossible to even join the list: The club hasn’t reopened it since 2011 and there are no plans to change that any time soon. Every renewal period brings stories of fans finally getting a Liverpool season ticket after decades of anticipation.

Arsenal

Arsenal Season Ticket Waiting List: 25+ years

Since the club’s rise under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s season ticket waiting list has grown to staggering proportions. As of summer 2026, more than 110,000 fans are waiting, but only a few hundred season tickets become available each summer, so the queue is only getting longer. After the title win in May 2026, the price of debentures, an expensive workaround for season tickets, skyrocketed, which gives us a sense of the crazy demand right now.

Manchester United

Manchester United Season Ticket Waiting List: 25 years

Manchester United’s queue for season tickets exceeds 120,000 fans in 2026/27, with an estimated 25-year wait. Unlike Liverpool, United’s list is still open, and backdoor options like cup season tickets and Premium Membership will help fans move up the queue and get a ticket much quicker than 25 years. On the downside, in 2026, the club reassigned up to 1,200 general admission seats in the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand for premium/hospitality use, which could make the wait longer.

Newcastle United

Newcastle Season Ticket Waiting List: 10+ years

After not offering any new season tickets between 2022 and 2026, the Magpies announced a waiting list in spring 2026, and it had grown to 50,000 in the space of a few months. In order to get the chance to buy a Newcastle season ticket fans will need to keep their Mags Membership up to date from season to season. The list could also be a long wait, with only 250 new season tickets hitting the market in 2026. There may be better news on the horizon, especially if a quick expansion at St. James’ Park goes ahead in the next few years, potentially unlocking a larger season ticket allocation.

Leeds United

Leeds United Season Ticket Waiting List: 10 years

The annual renewal rates for Leeds United’s 27,000 season tickets are rarely below 95%. This is a problem for the more than 32,000 hopefuls on the season ticket waiting list. However, things may shift soon, with a proposed stadium expansion lifting Elland Road’s capacity from 37,890 to 53,000 by 2029. It has been confirmed that one of the goals is to cut the waiting list by putting more season tickets on the market.

Everton

Everton Season Ticket Waiting List: Up to 10 years

At Goodison Park, Everton consistently kept prices low, and the fanbase renewed season after season, through thick and thin. During the move to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium, fans with five or more memberships since the 2018/19 season automatically qualified for the right to buy a season ticket. The renewal rate at the new stadium has been 97%, putting only about 1,000 season tickets on the market. With the waiting list believed to be in the tens of thousands, this would indicate a significant wait.

Sunderland

Sunderland Season Ticket Waiting List: Up to 10 years

With around 36,000 season card holders, the Black Cats have a level of fan loyalty to put many Premier League teams to shame. In fact the renewal rate in 2026 was so high that only 300 new tickets were made available, against a list rumoured to extend to 15,000. With Premier League consolidation, demand has apparently blown up. To join the list, fans require an Adult or Academy Black Cats Membership, which must be renewed every season to remain on the list.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Season Ticket Waiting List: 3+ years

Back in 2019, the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium cooled the crazy demand for season tickets, as the ST allocation nearly doubled overnight from 23,000 to 42,500. There are officially 90,000 fans currently on the waitlist, but because that’s an automatic perk of One Hotspur + membership, many will turn down the opportunity to buy a season ticket when they are offered one.

Nottingham Forest 

Nottingham Forest Season Ticket Waiting List: 3+ Years

Following their return to the Premier League, Nottingham Forest's popularity has soared. There are more than 12,000 Forest fans on the waiting list in 2026, and the length is thought to be over 3 years. With high renewal rates and a historic fanbase, Nottingham Forest supporters must be patient for their chance to secure a season ticket (or ‘season card’, as they call it).

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace Season Ticket Waiting List: 3+ Years

Crystal Palace introduced a season ticket waitlist for the first time in 2024 after freezing the price of all 18,000 season tickets at Selhurst Park. The initial wait was brief, but as the club has continued to grow so has the number of fans wanting a permanent seat. As of June 2026, there were 9,000 on the waiting list, which is far more than the club tackle in one, two or perhaps even three seasons. Keep an eye on the Main Stand redevelopment, boosting capacity to 34,000, to see how availability changes.

Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town Season Ticket Waiting List: Up to 3 years

It’s tricky to make an estimate for the ITFC season ticket waiting list, as it was only introduced in 2025. What we do know is that there are already more than 6,000 fans in the queue, and that the fierce demand for tickets at Portman Road has hardly wavered since the club’s astonishing revival began in the early 2020s. At this early stage the queue is also randomised, which adds to the difficulty of offering a reliable waiting time.

Premier League Clubs Without Conventional Season Ticket Waiting Lists

Chelsea

Loyalty Points System Combined with Waiting List

With just 28,000 Chelsea season tickets available at Stamford Bridge, fans must attend matches to earn Loyalty Points for the right to buy a permanent seat, and the requirement has often been as much as 85% of all matches in a single season. In 2026, the club announced the introduction of a new waiting list, in which supporters were ordered according to their cumulative loyalty points from 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25. Any available 2026/27 season tickets were offered to supporters at the top.

Aston Villa

Loyalty Points System

Demand for season tickets with the Villans has grown with the club’s on-pitch success. A revamp of the waiting list in summer 2025 now prioritises AVFC members and regular matchgoers. This move, along with an upcoming expansion of Villa Park’s North Stand, has given the 45,000 Villa fans on the list new hope of getting a season ticket if they can amass enough Season Ticket Points by showing up. In the meantime, fans with elevated Season Ticket Point counts qualify for exclusive ballots for match tickets.

Manchester City

Flexi Season Ticket Available for Regulars

Manchester City season tickets sell out every season, without a traditional waitlist. Instead, any fan wishing to secure a full season ticket must first purchase a Flexi Season Ticket, essentially an advanced pay-as-you-go membership guaranteeing access to match tickets, without a permanent seat at the Etihad. To qualify for a Flexi ticket in 2026/27, fans needed to have attended a total of 35 home men’s matches across 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 combined. No mean feat, but not an impossible tally. Then, Flexi holders who meet the criteria—based on previous season attendance and membership duration—are automatically invited to purchase a conventional season ticket when renewals open.

Brentford

Ticket Access Points (TAPS)

Brentford uses Ticket Access Points (TAPS) to prioritise loyal fans. To qualify for a Brentford season ticket, fans need to accumulate TAPS by attending matches. For 2026/27, Bees fans needed at least 1,000 TAPS, which typically takes about two seasons to achieve. On top of this, fans must have attended at least 12 of Brentford’s 2025/26 Premier League fixtures—of which a minimum of 10 had to be home matches. The margins are tight because 98% of season ticket holders renewed in 2026.

Brighton & Hove Albion 

No Waiting List: Season Tickets on General Sale After Renewals

Brighton no longer has a traditional waiting list. Instead, after the renewal window closes (typically in mid-March), any remaining season tickets go on general sale to all MyAlbion+ members and the wider public. All qualifying fans simply need to log in when sales open—there is no minimum attendance or loyalty-point requirement to purchase a 2026/27 season ticket, and tickets remain available until sold out, usually by the start of a new season.

Bournemouth

No New Season Tickets Since 2014

AFC Bournemouth’s stadium capacity is just 11,379, and the club hasn’t sold any new season tickets since 2014. Many season tickets are held by long-term Bournemouth fans who secured them when the club was still in League One, making it almost impossible for new fans to buy a season ticket in 2026/27. The situation may change as the club plans to almost double the capacity of the Vitality Stadium to 20,200 seats by 2026.

Premier League Clubs with Shorter Season Ticket Waiting Lists

Coventry City

Coventry City Season Ticket Waiting List: 1+ year

Returning to the Premier League after 25 years has naturally increased interest in season tickets at the CBS Arena. Bearing in mind that the Sky Blues already posted sky high attendances in the Championship, so season tickets sold out quickly before the Premier League campaign in 2026, and the club introduced a waiting list. A few months into the process it’s difficult to put a tally or date on things, but, depending on CCFC’s progress, a fan joining in 2026 could hope to hear something by 2027 or 2028.

Hull City 

Hull City Season Ticket Waiting List: Up to 1 Year

The strangest club on our list from a ticketing perspective, the Tigers don’t really offer a season ticket in the conventional sense. Instead, the club offers season-long memberships that allow fans to pay monthly or annually for their seat. The membership count is capped at 19,000, and in summer 2026 demand was high enough to introduce a waiting list to deal with the spillover. Let’s monitor the Tigers’ Premier League return to see how the picture changes.

Fulham

Fulham Season Ticket Waiting List: Up to 1 Year

Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC, offers one of the more intimate stadium experiences in the Premier League. The capacity will soon rise to just under 30,000, while the Fulham season ticket allocation is capped at 15,000. If you register your interest, you can expect to hear back from the club by the end of the season. For 2026/27, it was still possible to buy a season ticket as late as August.

How Hard Is it to Get Premier League Season Tickets?

It’s a big, long-term effort to get season tickets for many Premier League teams, as we’ll show in our table.

If you notice some discrepancies, every team has a different way of allocating season tickets, and most teams with season ticket waiting lists have a different way of compiling them.

This table accounts only for general admission season ticket holders. Premium season ticket figures are not included.

Premier League Season Ticket Waiting Lists: 2014 vs 2026

Twelve years is an absolute eternity in football. It’s hard to believe how high the demand has climbed over the past decade, while Premier League season ticket availability is on the wane.

The numbers for Arsenal and Manchester United speak for themselves—here’s how waiting lists have ballooned from 2014 to 2026:

*”Current Queue Pressure” means the number of people on the waiting list per current season ticket holder.

Note that the Liverpool season ticket waiting list has most likely declined because it has been closed since 2011. Tottenham Hotspur’s situation is unique because they relocated to a large new stadium in 2019.

Why Are Football Season Ticket Waiting Lists So Long?

There are a host of different factors behind the long waiting time for Premier League season tickets. You will find a different story for every club.

• Liverpool: Relative to the size of Anfield’s capacity of 61,276, Liverpool has a low proportion of season ticket holders, at just 27,000. So one of the big reasons behind Liverpool’s huge wait for season tickets is pure scarcity.
• Manchester United: The Red Devils are still one of the three most popular football clubs on the planet. In 2022/23 the club announced 330,000 members, which is a world-record total. Safe to say demand for Man Utd season tickets is through the roof.
• Arsenal: By our estimation the Arsenal season ticket waiting list has more than doubled since the club’s turnaround under Mikel Arteta. The wait has surged from around 10 to more than 20 years in the space of a few short seasons.

Imagine being a kid waiting for a season ticket—and finally getting one when you’re a parent. That’s the reality at Liverpool and Arsenal at the moment, so naturally people will consider alternative routes into Anfield and the Emirates.

What to Do If You Can’t Get a Season Ticket?

If you're stuck on a long waiting list for a Premier League season ticket, don’t worry—there are still plenty of ways to watch your team live. Here’s a breakdown of your options:

Premier League Club Membership

For most fans, the first step is signing up for club membership. Except for Bournemouth and Hull City, all Premier League clubs offer memberships that give you priority access to match tickets.

While membership doesn’t guarantee seats for the biggest games, it often allows you to jump ahead of non-members in the matchday ticket queue.

Keep in mind that for high-demand fixtures, clubs often give priority to regular match-going members, so ticket availability may still be limited.

Buying Premier League Resale Tickets 2026/27

Why wait years for a Premier League season ticket when you can enjoy the action now? Instead of spending decades on a waiting list, consider the secondary market. If you’re unsure about using resale sites, Ticket-Compare.com makes it quick, easy and safe.

We partner only with the top trusted football ticket resale platforms and official hospitality providers, offering guarantees and customer support throughout the process. There’s availability for all matches, even if they’re sold out.

Ready to grab your seat? Visit Ticket Compare today to be part of the game—without the wait!

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