As the most watched football league globally, the English Premier League holds significant influence to drive positive change in sport. A key area for progress is championing accessibility and inclusion for all fans. But which stadium provides the best accessible matchday experience?
The experts at SeatPick analysed Premier League stadiums across various metrics weighing importance to disabled attendees. The factors examined included:
- Pricing and availability of accessible tickets
- The number of accessible entrances, lifts, and toilets
- The allocation of accessible parking spaces
- The presence of assistive hearing systems, audio descriptive commentary, and sensory suites
These factors were then used to assign each stadium an ‘accessibility score’ out of 10.
How Accessible Are the Stadiums for All Premier League Teams?
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ranks first among the compared clubs for accessibility, with an impressive score of 6.55 out of 10. Despite not having the cheapest accessibility ticket prices, at £25, the stadium itself provides accommodations such as 66 accessible toilets and five accessible entrances complete with lifts.
Comparatively, despite Newcastle United‘s St. James’ Park having cheaper accessibility tickets (starting at only £7.50) and less than half (27) as many accessible toilets as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it remains competitively accessible with a score of 5.91. Newcastle beats Tottenham’s percentage of seating capacity dedicated to accessibility at 0.45% too.
The Emirates Stadium has an accessibility score of 5.82 out of 10, which puts it firmly in third place. As well as having a high number of accessible toilets (37) and entrances (9), Arsenal also offer an assistive hearing system and audio descriptive commentary for fans who are hard of hearing.
Anfield, home to The Reds, is in fourth place with 5.62 out of 10. Anfield has 34 accessible bathrooms — that’s seven more than St. James’ Park, even though both stadiums can hold around the same number of fans. Anfield also has a sensory room near the Sir Kenny Dalglish stand which has specialist equipment to help fans who have sensory challenges to still enjoy the match.
Luton Town‘s Kenilworth Road ranks 19th for accessibility, with a score of 3.56 out of 10. Despite having over 11,000 seats, the stadium only provides 28 spaces fit for a wheelchair, which is 0.25% of all their seats.
Despite Kenilworth Road’s poor accessibility, they also charge higher prices than some competitors, starting at £21. This is 100% higher than Liverpool’s Anfield in fourth place, which charges just £7.
As the least accessible stadium, Turf Moor is just behind Kenilworth Road with a score of 3.34. This low score is down to the lack of sensory suites and an assistive hearing system provided at the location. As well as this, it is the only stadium in the Premier League not to offer audio descriptive commentary for matchdays.
The Premier League Teams Offering the Most Reasonably Priced Accessible Tickets
Sheffield United‘s Bramall Lane has the most reasonably priced accessible tickets available, starting at just £1 per match. This is over 189% cheaper than the most expensive starting price, which is £37 at Goodison Park.
Fulham also offers great value, with accessible tickets starting at £5 at Craven Cottage and holding a maximum price of £32.50.
Both Liverpool and Newcastle keep their accessible ticket prices under £10, at £7 and £7.50, respectively. The stadiums also have similar maximum accessible ticket prices, with Anfield’s sitting at £45 and St. James’ Park’s at £44.
The fifth stadium with the most affordable accessible tickets is Selhurst Park. Home to Crystal Palace, this ground charges from £10 for tickets suitable for a wheelchair.
Premier League Stadiums Leading the Pack with Accessible Seating
From our analysis, SeatPick found that while Premier League stadium accessibility has room for improvement, a few clubs are leading the way.
AFC Bournemouth‘s Vitality Stadium stands out with 298 accessible seats, which accounts for 2.64% of the total capacity of the ground. This gives disabled Cherry fans far more seating options than many other grounds in the top-flight league.
Brighton‘s American Express Stadium also makes great strides with 221 accessible seats, though as a percentage it ranks lower at 0.69% of their 31,876 total capacity.
Chelsea and Everton tie for the fifth highest percentage of accessible seats with 0.55% of the total capacity, though Stamford Bridge edges out Goodison Park with total seats, with 223 to 217.
Methodology
- SeatPick sought to discover the Premier League stadiums that are the most accessible to fans.
- Data was sourced from accessibility statements found from each club’s respective websites, Level Playing Field, Accessable, and TripAdvisor.
- Where data was not available, SeatPick contacted the club’s accessibility teams to provide more information.
- Specific numbers could not be found for all factors, so all columns marked as ‘0.5’ means the answer is originally ‘yes’ and not an actual number.
- Lastly, an “accessibility score” out of a possible 10 was calculated to assess the most accessible Premier League stadiums. The higher the score, the more inclusive the stadium is.
- All data was collected in January 2024 and is accurate as of then.
- We accessed each club on a multitude of factors, including:
- Accessibility ticket starting and maximum price (GBP)
- Number of accessible entrances
- Number of accessible lifts
- Number of accessible toilets
- Number of accessible ticket counters
- Number of wheelchair viewing areas
- Availability of assistive hearing systems
- Availability of audio descriptive commentary
- Whether assistance animals are welcome
- Number of sensory suites
- Number of accessible parking spaces
- Availability of carer tickets
- Number of accessible seats
- Number of accessible seats per capacity (%)
- TripAdvisor rating out of five
