- Nottingham Forest charge £1,800 for a Category A match mascot experience
- Brighton, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and Ipswich also charge for the experience
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Should Marcus Rashford leave Man United to spearhead Aston Villa’s attack?
Premier League clubs are charging parents up to £1,800 for children to walk out as mascots – sparking outrage from MPs and campaigners.
Nottingham Forest are demanding a staggering £1,800 plus VAT for its top mascot package – more than the average monthly rent for a three-bed home in the city.
Despite significant TV revenues and wealthy owners, Forest, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Ipswich, and West Ham continue to charge families for mascot places, while half of Premier League clubs now offer the experience for free.
As reported by the Telegraph, the cost of top mascot packages has rocketed 157 per cent since 2020 – when clubs were first accused of freezing out working-class families. Some teams, including Aston Villa, have quietly scrapped fees. Others, like West Ham, have slashed prices.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: ‘It feels a shame that some clubs are profiting by pricing so many young fans out of this wonderful experience.’
Public Accounts Commission chairman Clive Efford MP added: ‘Pricing working-class families out of ever being a mascot like this is pure greed.
Nottingham Forest are demanding a staggering £1,800 plus VAT for its top mascot package
A number of Premier League clubs have been accused of ‘pure greed’ for their prices
Some teams, including Aston Villa , have quietly scrapped fees for mascots
‘Considering the millions Premier League clubs get each year from TV deals, how can they justify charging for what for many is a childhood dream? They should be ashamed.’
Forest and Brighton defended their pricing, insisting multiple free mascot places are handed out every matchday – often through community schemes.
‘On a matchday, Nottingham Forest invite a minimum of two match mascots, with one of these being a participant invited from our Community Trust programmes and offered free of charge, and the other as part of a hospitality package which we can’t put a price on as it is sold as a wider package,’ Forest said in a statement.
‘Consistently this season we have provided multiple free-of-charge mascot places for each home game, with as many as five catered for at some games. All these go to deserving children and/or young participants from our Community Trust programmes.’
Meanwhile, Brighton say they provide two free mascot places at every home game, as well as free spots at all away games. ‘Where we only have one mascot this package is free,’ the club said.
For those that are sold, packages cost up to £415, which the club says is ‘largely due to the fact that we were regularly asked for this service to be provided, prior to us offering’.
‘Packages tend to sell out within a few weeks of them being made available,’ Brighton added. ‘We feel they represent value for money and give children an unforgettable experience.’
By contrast, lower-league clubs like Tranmere Rovers offer free mascot spots to kids who buy a kit – a gesture critics say puts top-tier greed to shame.
The controversy comes as pressure intensifies on the Premier League ahead of the introduction of a new football regulator, with many calling for stricter rules to protect fans from exorbitant charges.
