A people-first think tank and engagement lab

Always With Democracy

Research Projects

A people-first think tank and engagement lab

RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

Sitting There Thinking…

An insights project exploring the working class experience of football in modern Britain, supported by global men’s health charity Movember

ABOUT THE PROJECT

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Demo84 created listening sessions streaming audio from England's 2026 World Cup fixtures to create a brand-free environment to capture the lived experience of young, working-class football fans in Birmingham and Blackpool.


We then analysed over 1,300 commercial messages across football's digital ecosystem, and spoke with a handful of national experts across class, football culture and betting.


The findings reveal a compounding web of issues, from rising costs and shrinking social spaces to gambling-saturated second screens and rising loneliness among young men, that ultimately dents social capital.

READ THE FULL REPORT

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KEY FINDINGS

01

Fans are being priced out of the game they built

We've created a new metric tracking the rising cost of football that, when compared with Real Household Disposable Income, shows a 42% gap from 2015 to 2025.

02

Gambling adapts to consumption habits in real-time while regulation stalls

We analysed 1,300+ commercial messages across the digital ecosystem and found that gambling appeared most often and was often disguised as banter or punditry.

03

Our living rooms are the new football stadiums

As the Cost of Football rises, social connection from collective experience is substitued with isolated experiences.

04

The solution is a few streets away, and it needs protecting

Non-League attendances are rising fast across the pyramid, but the clubs best placed to catch these fans have no financial safety net to catch them in return.

Professor Carl Chinn MBE

“Football was a vital element of working class life, especially for young men. My generation, we lived for Saturday at 3pm. There was a ritual and a routine about it. And without glorifying it, you felt something really very hard to describe: you were still yourself, but you’re also part of this big group singing with the Villa or with the Blues. Whoever you were, you were part of this group. Football was the working man’s game; it should be the working people’s game still.”

“Football was a vital element of working class life, especially for young men. My generation, we lived for Saturday at 3pm. There was a ritual and a routine about it. And without glorifying it, you felt something really very hard to describe: you were still yourself, but you’re also part of this big group singing with the Villa or with the Blues. Whoever you were, you were part of this group. Football was the working man’s game; it should be the working people’s game still.”

PROFESSOR CARL CHINN MBE

Social Historian

COST OF FOOTBALL

The rising cost of being a football fan

The rising cost of being a football fan

We combined the cost of a pint, fuel, the average Premier League season ticket price, the average kit price, and TV subscription costs in the last decade to create a new Cost of Football metric.

The rising cost of being a football fan, 2015–2025
Football costs compared with CPI, real disposable income, pub closures, and public transport, 2015–2025

+47%

The Cost of Football has risen from 2015–2025.

42%

A stark gap when contrasted with disposable income.

WHO PAYS?

Working class fans will feel these impacts the hardest.

“We have allowed the game to become increasingly commercialised, often at the expense of the very people who give it its cultural value. When working-class fans are priced out of the stadium and pushed towards digital spaces saturated with gambling advertising and other commercial messages, this creates particular risks for younger and more vulnerable audiences. We should not simply accept this as the inevitable price of modern football.”

“We have allowed the game to become increasingly commercialised, often at the expense of the very people who give it its cultural value. When working-class fans are priced out of the stadium and pushed towards digital spaces saturated with gambling advertising and other commercial messages, this creates particular risks for younger and more vulnerable audiences. We should not simply accept this as the inevitable price of modern football.”

DR RAFFAELLO ROSSI

Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Bristol

Dr Raffaello Rossi

THE RISE OF SECOND SCREEN CONSUMPTION

The Digital Ecosystem of Football

Digital Ecosystem of Football

This model maps football's digital ecosystem: the platforms and channels fans move through after the final whistle.


As live attendance and broadcast subscriptions price fans out, they're pushed further into second-screen spaces, where football engagement is 24/7.


Here, social media, popular content creators, gaming, and livescore apps dominate the experience, and it's exactly where advertising is harder to identify, and regulation becomes thinner.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Ways policy can adapt

Ways policy can adapt

01

A ticket quota for
young fans

A statutory 10% quota of discounted Premier League tickets for under-25s, funded by a levy on transfer fees, guaranteeing access regardless of pricing trends elsewhere.

02

A content fund that shuts out harmful advertising

Premier League funding for independent creators and fan-led channels, on the condition that they carry no gambling sponsorship, giving them a real incentive to opt out.

03

One subscription,
every match

A direct Singapore-style Premier League-to-fan streaming service covering every fixture, cutting out stacked subscriptions and making illegal streaming a less attractive option.

04

A national
'second club' campaign

A talent-backed campaign encouraging fans to support a local lower division club alongside their Premier League team, turning existing community infrastructure into lasting connection.

WITH THANKS TO

This project was supported by the global men's health charity

Movember

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

For interviews, press materials or further information about this project, please contact:

sam.narr@demo84.com