Manchester football stadiums sell the Premier League’s cheapest pints, study finds
Meanwhile, a beer will set you back over a fiver (£5.10) at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium whilst London Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium charge a steep £5.
Aside from the end result, there are many things that can make or break a match day. From the cost of a pint to quench your thirst to the mood of other fans around you, there are simply some stadiums that do it better than others – and apparently, Manchester is up there with the very best.
As much as Manchester United fans hate their owners, it’s possible the Glazers may have done one thing right: namely, selling the cheapest beers in the Premier League.
According to a new study by Betting.com, Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium offers the cheapest pints of beer in the whole of the Premier League with thirst-quenching pints costing football fans just £3 a pop.
But whilst reds fans might be feeling smug at the news, it’s good news for blues supporters too as Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium comes in a close second-cheapest with pints for home and away fans only costing an extra 40p more.
Old Trafford stadium came top of the table for cheap pints according to the new study. / Image: Commons Wikimedia
Third on the list is Leeds United’s Elland Road, where fans typically pay £3.60 for a pint, followed by Newcastle United’s St James’ Park and Nottingham Forest’s The City Ground.
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The most expensive pint in the Premier League, meanwhile, can be found at King Power Stadium, home to Leicester City, where a pint will set fans back a steep £5.10 a go.
As well as conducting research on the cheapest pints, Betting.com has also revealed the best and worst football stadiums in the UK based on online reviews, the cost of a match day pint, as well as food and atmosphere ratings.
On top of this, they’ve also revealed the stadiums home to the most and least expensive tours for fans looking to walk in the footsteps of their heroes.
With an average rating of 4.7 stars out of 5, matched only by Anfield (Liverpool F.C), and The City Ground, (Nottingham Forest), Tottenham Hotspur Stadium comes out on top as the best football stadium home to a Premier League club.
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The Etihad Stadium came in a close second with pints for just £3.40. / Image: Commons Wikimedia
Spurs’ ground boasts 82% of its reviews being 5 star, tied with Craven Cottage (Fulham), and a 4 star rating by fans for its food, matched only by Amex Stadium, home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
In second place overall comes St. James’ Park, followed by Anfield in third, The City Ground in fourth and Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium in fifth.
On the opposite end of the scale, London Stadium is revealed to be the worst stadium home to a Premier League club. The home of West Ham United, the stadium scores a measly 2.5 out of 5 for its atmosphere and charges fans a high price (£5) for a match day beer.
Fans love to get a sneak peak behind the scenes of their team’s ground, but how much can a tour set you back? Stamford Bridge, home to Chelsea, is by far the most expensive stadium to see through the eyes of your heroes, costing £40 a head, followed by Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (£27) and Emirates Stadium (£27) in joint second place whilst Anfield (£25) comes in third.
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Meanwhile, King Power Stadium (Leicester City), Amex Stadium (Brighton & Hove Albion), Elland Road (Leeds United) and The City Ground (Nottingham Forest) have the cheapest tours on offer at £15 a head.
You can now get Deep South-inspired BBQ dishes on Manchester’s Deansgate
Daisy Jackson
There’s a brand-new menu of smokehouse-style BBQ dishes being served up on a sunny terrace on Deansgate.
Motley, the neighbourhood bar and restaurant on the corner of John Dalton Street, has added an authentic smoker to its kitchen.
That means they’ve got a whole load of new dishes, slow-cooked over hickory wood, that are bringing a taste of a Deep South BBQ to Manchester city centre.
The smokehouse-style meats are all seasoned in-house and cooked for hours, for a perfect fall-off-the-bone experience.
It might be an authentic American smokehouse menu, but it’s firmly British too, with most products locally sourced.
You can now get Deep South-inspired BBQ dishes on Deansgate / Credit: The Manc Group
Motley are calling on local suppliers like Althams Butchers (established since 1856) for their meat, plus greengrocers R Noone and Son, and Cheshire Farm for their real dairy ice cream.
Signature dishes on the new menu at Motley include slow smoked brisket, seasoned in Motley’s signature rub before being slow-smoked for more than eight hours.
There’s also a beef short rib with a chimichurri sauce, and a pork belly strip that’s seasoned with sage and onion and finished with a panko breadcrumb crust.
And for the veggies, there’s a vegan smoked veg kebab with courgette, mushrooms, bell pepper, sweet corn and red onion drizzled with homemade BBQ sauce.
Motley has added an authentic smoker to its kitchen / Credit: The Manc Group
Prices across the board start from just £16, served with beef dripping fries, rainbow slaw, pickles and homemade beef gravy.
As for small plates, you can expect short rib bonbons, homemade corn bread, spicy chicken wings, bang bang cauliflower, mac and cheese, and frickles.
House favourites like steak, vegetable hash, salads, and burgers will remain on the Motley menu.
Victor Gonzalez, food and beverage manager at Motley, said: “Our new signature smoked dishes are all crafted and seasoned in-house then slow cooked for hours over hickory wood to create rich and smoky melt-in-your mouth flavours.
“From our slow-smoked brisket to our home-made sides, everything has been carefully crafted to bring an authentic taste of the deep south to Manchester and we can’t wait for guests to try it.”
Motley can be found at 2 John Dalton Street on the corner of Deansgate in the city centre.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
Food & Drink
First-ever JD Wetherspoon pub to open at Manchester Airport
Danny Jones
In news that we feel many Mancs and travellers all-round have been waiting on for a long time, the well-known British chain, JD Wetherspoon, will be opening its first-ever pub at Manchester Airport.
That’s right: soon that first airport pint of the holiday could actually be a relatively cheap one.
While Wetherspoons are no strangers to popping up in terminals across the UK and Ireland, they’ve never done so here in Manchester despite having three, yes THREE, in Gatwick alone.
Not for much longer, though, as soon T2 will be lending more than 3,000 square feet of its prime leisure and retail real estate to a new Greater Manchester ‘Spoons’.
Posting on social media, the airport wrote: “Wetherspoon comes to Manchester Airport this September! The pub will be located in the Terminal 2 Departures lounge and will have more than 300 seats.
“This will become the final major food and drink venue to open its doors as part of our decade-long £1.3bn transformation of Terminal 2. It will be named ‘The Belle Vue’, in a nod to Manchester’s historic showground [now a sports complex and leisure hub].
“It was a focal point for social life in the city from the Victorian period up until 2020, when the final event was held at Belle Vue stadium. The design of the pub is inspired by the history of Belle Vue and the sporting culture of the North West of England. We look forward to welcoming you all in September!”
While a lot of money has been pumped into T2’s refurb as a whole over the past few years, it remains unclear just how much this particular new addition will cost; we do know that great sums were set aside for the launch of the Great Northern Market last year.
The inaugural Manchester Airport Spoons is just the latest in a series of major renovations.
As mentioned, the company already operate several up and down the country – 10 airport pubs, to be specific – but this will be the first in the North West.
Speaking on the news, JD Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said in a statement: “We are looking forward to opening at Manchester Airport. We believe our new pub will prove popular with travellers of all ages and be an asset to the new terminal.”
With Manchester Airport adding a dozen new routes to its roster this summer, you can expect to see even more people flying in and out than ever – no doubt having already polished off a cut-price pint or two beforehand.
Georgina Pellant -
9th March 2023 
