Ninety minutes is all the referee gives a Premier League game. For the bars, cafés and B&Bs near the ground, though, matchday tends to start well before kick-off and run on long after it. Zoom out and the numbers get big quickly. EY’s latest assessment puts the League’s contribution at £9.8bn in gross value added for 2023/24, up 21% on 2021/22, with more than 100,000 full-time equivalent jobs supported and £4.4bn paid in tax.
Most of that money isn’t made in London, either. Over 60% of it, £5.9bn, came from clubs based elsewhere. The North West is the stand-out region at £3.1bn and 31,700 jobs, and Greater Manchester on its own accounts for £1.6bn of that and 13,700 of the jobs. Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, picked up on exactly this point when the figures came out in November 2025, naming the money spent at local businesses on matchdays as one of the clearest ways communities gain from the League.
So what does a matchday actually look like on the till? Barclays data published in March 2026 suggests Premier League and Women’s Super League games generate roughly £2.3bn in local spending a season. Within a kilometre of a stadium, spending climbs by an average of 4.1% on matchdays. Premier League fans spend about £138 each per game before the ticket is even counted, which works out at around £5.6m in discretionary spending per Premier League matchday.
Plenty of it goes before kick-off. The average pre-match spend on food and drink is £19.10, and the pub remains a natural spot for the build-up: team news, the likely line-up, and whether the football betting odds on the big UK betting sites have called it right this time. Just don’t expect the buzz to last if the home side slips up. Barclays found nearby spending jumped 5.8% after a home win but barely moved, up just 0.1%, after a draw or defeat.
What promotion does for a town
Promotion is where the effect is easiest to see. Take Sunderland. Since the Black Cats returned for 2025/26, home games have been drawing roughly 10,000 more people through the turnstiles than they did in the Championship, according to the North East’s chamber of commerce. That crowd has to eat and drink somewhere. Figures from the city’s Business Improvement Districts show food and drink accounted for 38.4% of all sales in Sunderland from August to October 2025, well above the 25.3% national average.
The city’s visitor economy hit a record £657.5m in 2025. Food and drink was the biggest slice, and local tourism data names Sunderland AFC, and the away fans it brings to Wearside, as a key part of that.
Coventry is next in line. After winning the Championship last season, the Sky Blues are playing top-flight football again in 2026/27, and the city is keen to make it count. Destination Coventry expects the extra exposure to bring in visitors who stay overnight and spend in local hospitality. The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has been talking to the club, the city council and other partners about how local firms can share in it. Bournemouth’s experience gives a sense of the stakes. Dorset Chamber of Commerce says promotion alone was estimated to be worth around £60m to the local economy there. Its tip for businesses? Build offers and marketing around the fixture list and the away fans each game brings.
Visitors, sponsors and the bigger picture
The pull isn’t only domestic. EY estimates 1.1 million overseas visitors came to the UK to watch Premier League football in 2023/24, spending £903m on their trips. Add 2.4 million domestic visitor trips and that’s 3.5 million journeys to matches in one season. In written evidence to Parliament, the League says the international visits alone generated more than £1bn in GVA and supported around 18,200 full-time equivalent jobs.
Grounds are fuller than ever, too. Attendance reached a record 15.9 million in 2025/26, and occupancy has stayed above 98% for four seasons running, even though average capacity has risen 55% since 1992/93. Of the 51 clubs to have played in the League, 22 have built or moved into a new stadium.
Clubs also buy from, and partner with, UK businesses. Crystal Palace’s multi-year deal with Aurora Utilities gives the grid connection firm year-round access to Selhurst Park for hospitality and networking. At Liverpool, the partnership with cloud storage firm Wasabi Technologies has racked up nearly 800 million impressions across its channels, raising the company’s profile through the club’s 2024/25 title season. Stadiums aren’t just for football, either. A study commissioned by Brighton & Hove Albion found its ground welcomed more than 100,000 people to non-matchday events, conferences included, back in 2017/18.
Then there’s the money that goes back into communities. The League put £1.6bn into football and community causes across England and Wales between 2022 and 2025. In the West Midlands, club charities work with 20,000 people a season through Premier League programmes, and the League has signed an agreement with the West Midlands Combined Authority aimed at opening up education, training and job opportunities for young people in the region.
EY expects the growth to continue, forecasting annual GVA of £10.8bn in 2025/26 and £11.3bn by 2027/28, around £33bn over the three seasons. For anyone running a business near a ground, the fixture list works as a trading calendar. Staff rotas, stock orders and offers for visiting fans can all be planned around it, and the firms that do so are best placed to cash in when the crowds arrive.