Being an England fan has never been more expensive and those heading to the World Cup are facing astronomical costs to show their support.
In addition to the flights, tickets, accommodation, travel between cities, food and drink, just wearing the latest shirt is another painful blow to the wallet.
The latest Three Lions replica shirt is the most expensive in history at £134.99 and the cumulative bill for a superfan wanting to follow Thomas Tuchel‘s side is racking up.
So, how much would it cost to go and watch England’s three group games against Croatia, Ghana, and Panama, wearing the latest gear and sampling the delights of the US?
My esteemed colleague, Luke Power, ran the numbers in December and while tickets remains around the same price, the flights and accommodation would only have risen.
After splashing out on three tickets, flights, hotels, travel in between and a few dollars in your pocket for food, drinks and souvenirs, a comfortable trip can be done for… £10,168. It’s a fortune for 13 days, but that’s the price of footballing passion.
You can slash that fee if you’re willing to stay in motels, or bump it up for somewhere uber-fancy. If you want to follow all the way to the final, sorry to break the news but you’re probably looking at £25,000, if not more, as you’ll need five more tickets, additional flights, and three extra weeks of hotel rooms. Let’s dive in.
How much would you be willing to spend on a dream trip to watch England at the World Cup? (Pictured: New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium, where England play Panama on June 27)
The shirt- £89.99
After a price hike approximately double the rate of inflation, an adult ‘match’ shirt for this summer’s World Cup is being sold at a steep £134.99, an eight per cent increase on the equivalent Three Lions kit released ahead of Euro 2024 which was £124.99.
Even young fans will have to fork out three-figure sums to wear the ‘match’ strip, with junior shirts priced at a huge £114.99.
Meanwhile, the adult ‘stadium’ shirt has been increased by six per cent in price to £89.99, with juniors counterpart costing £69.99.
A ‘match’ shirt mostly closely resemble the jerseys worn by England’s players during the tournament, while the ‘stadium’ alternative is designed for supporters to wear more casually in the stands.
For our purposes, that standard England fan is likely to go for the ‘stadium’ option and cough up £90 to kit themself out in the red away jersey or home white one.
For comparison, England’s ‘match’ shirt sold for £114.95 ahead of the last World Cup in 2022, while a ‘stadium’ strip cost £74.95.
England’s new adult ‘match’ is retailing at £134.99, while the ‘stadium’ version costs £89.99
Flights – £2,631
This is where the the 2026 World Cup really kicks you where it hurts: for us hardy Europeans, it’s far away, and it’s spread across a large area. It’s bad news for Dennis Bergkamp, who famously has a fear of flying.
We’re going to need four flights. One from England to the United States, two to get between American cities, and another back to London – unless you want to skimp and swim for several months across the Atlantic Ocean.
The trip would run between Tuesday June 16 and Sunday June 28.
Going from London Heathrow Airport at 8.20am, you’ll touch down at at 12.20pm at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, where the mercury reads about 35C in mid-June.
My plan would be to fly to each region the day before the respective game. That works out cheaper than if you fly the day after each match.
Our other flights are between DFW International and Boston Logan (Monday June 22, 12.19pm-5.08pm); Boston Logan to Newark Liberty International (Friday June 26, 1.49pm-2.59pm); and New York John F. Kennedy International to Heathrow (Sunday June 28, 9.45am-9.40pm).
Us England fans are quite lucky that our games are either in Texas or near the East Coast. Getting over to the West Coast would be more expensive and time-consuming.
There is a way you can practically halve the flight costs, and that’s by forfeiting your check-in luggage. But with the sweltering heat expected, I think you need space for plenty of changes of clothes unless you want crusty armpits.
Dallas is the first city that England will be playing near as they take on old foes Croatia
The AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is the site of England’s first group game on June 17
Our second city will be Boston, where our recommended hotel is a short walk to the subway
Accommodation – £3,870
This is the most expensive portion of the trip, but it’s also the most flexible. If you’re not liking the big number in bold text above, you can slash it down to a quarter if you’re willing to stay in the dustiest rooms.
But we can’t avoid the uncomfortable truth: hotel prices have already surged by an average of 300 per cent, as per The Athletic.
This budget was put together with comfort in mind, without excess. You’ll be pleased to know that it gets you a bed. Not only that, it gets you decent rooms in midscale hotels with good reviews, places that have a gym and swimming pool and hearty breakfast menus. You even spend a couple of nights near Times Square. Not too shabby.
Our first stay is at the Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Dallas East. Six nights here sets you back £1,301.
It’s 6.3 miles from downtown, so it’s not exactly a quick walk to the bars and shops, but if you want to get much closer to the action then you’re looking at £2,000 or more. It’s got private parking (if you fancy renting a car), a gym, swimming pool, breakfast, and it’s part of the recognised Marriott chain, so you pretty much know what you’re getting.
You will have quite a trek on matchday to the AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The roundtrip all things considered is around three hours by train and bus for around £50; by car you can supposedly do there and back in an hour. For the airport, it’s a couple of hours one way, but even staying in one of the West Dallas options won’t trim that down significantly.
Data from Booking.com suggests that searches for Dallas have soared by +3730% among British travellers. More than a few keen beans with their eyes on jetting out, then.
Our second city is in Foxborough, Massachusetts, 22 miles out of Boston. To cut down travel time, I’d recommend staying at the Hampton Inn near Boston Logan Airport – a quick shuttle ride away. Four nights here hits you for £1,750, unfortunately. Yep, it feels like daylight robbery, but Boston is an expensive place, particularly during the tournament.
You get access to all the same amenities as the Fairfield. You’re also only half a mile from the Boston subway system so it shouldn’t take too long to get into the city.
The final stop is the grandly named Hampton Inn Times Square Central. Two nights here and you’re £819 poorer. It’s not precisely on Times Square as the name suggests but it is nearby.
So, you get all the hustle and bustle of New York, and you’re within 45 minutes of both airports and the game at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. There’s even a flat-screen TV and a 24-hour front desk thrown in.
The Gillette Stadium in Foxborough is the arena where England will face Ghana on June 23
You can finish the trip with a couple of days in New York, not far from the final group game
Match tickets – £2,073
According to ticketdata.com, a seat at the England vs Croatia game on June 17 will be a staggering £788, a ticket for the Ghana clash on June 23 is £705, and if you want to see the Three Lions tonk Panama on June 27, it’s another £580.
Tickets for the group stages alone, then, are £2,073. It’s a lot of dosh for 270 minutes of football (a third of which will be spent watching Panama run down the clock). For the same outlay, you could rent a room in London for two months! Or perhaps two days if it’s in Zone 1…
If Thomas Tuchel’s men go all the way to the final, that’ll be another five games, so you’re probably looking at triple that fee to watch them all the way through the tournament.
Other expenses
My budget includes $150 to spend each day, which probably gets you a small burger and a glass of water in New York.
But no, hopefully that’s enough on average to cover eating out and purchase any souvenirs. Obviously you can set your own budget. I’m factoring in an extra £244 for travel between airports, hotels, and stadiums based on the prices I’ve seen for public transport and taxis.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, this sort of trip is what you make of it. If £10,168 sounds exorbitant – let’s face it, it’s crazy money – then you can probably trim it to £7,500 if you went in the cheap, out-of-town motels. Cut out a ticket or two, frequent some fan bars instead, and the damage becomes more comfortable.
At the other end of the scale, maybe you’ve got cash to burn. There’s always a private suite at the Michelangelo Hotel in New York, which costs £14,218-per-night. Have a rummage down the back of your sofas.
Would I be making this trip? Honestly, for the price, probably not. It’s around a year in rent. It’s 191 birthday messages from Paul Merson on Cameo.
With the European Championship coming to the UK in 2028, it might be worth waiting until then to bite. But if you’ve got the spare change, don’t let me put you off World Cup fever.
