Football Shirts Beginning to Fall Out of Favour with City Fans?

It's hard to beat the excitement of the match-day atmosphere with thousands of fans descending on the Etihad ready to watch Manchester City continue their dominance in the Premier League. The club shop's tills regularly ring as fans purchase pre-match merchandise as the excitement builds ahead of kick off. However, according to a recent study by Betting.net, the majority of Premier League fans do not tend to purchase their club's official shirt.

Less than 10% of football fans who took part in the survey will buy their club's latest strip this season. There will always be dedicated supporters who pre-order the strip but the survey found that 90.28% of fans do not purchase their team's kit upon release. Clubs often produce similar looking shirts each season with only a few minor tweaks and adjustments taking place over the summer and this could be part of the reason many potential customers abstain from purchase. However, price seems to be the biggest factor.

50% of Manchester City fans surveyed suggested that the cost of the new shirt was the main reason for not purchasing and this percentage increases if you include fans of lower-ranked Premier League clubs. The lowest price of home shirt for a top-six club is £55 and many supporters do not have enough disposable income to afford this outlay every single season. With the average price of a Premier League kit surpassing the £100 mark for the first time, it's unsurprising that sales are down.

Just 33% of fans who support clubs outside of the top six suggested that they would be happy to pay up to £40 for their club's latest kit and it appears as though the exorbitant cost upon release is a major deterrent for the average fan.

City shirts are likely to sell reasonably well this year following their title-winning season however 0% of the Spurs fans surveyed had purchased their new kit due to frustration at their sides lack of new signings and their potential extended spell at Wembley this season. Whilst cost appears to be the main factor behind supporters ambivalence towards purchasing the new kit, the current feel-good factor around the Etihad will certainly help drive a few more sales this season. As the survey suggests, kit purchases seem to falling out of favour with the average football fan as they simply cannot justify the exorbitant purchase cost and it's an issue that many clubs may need to address over the next couple of years.