Michael Vaughan has branded the 43% rise in ticket prices for the 2027 Ashes Test at Edgbaston “really poor”, after the public ballot for next summer’s series against Australia opened on Wednesday with seats in the ground’s famous Hollies Stand listed at £165 — up from £115 when the sides last met in Birmingham in 2023.
The former England captain, who led his side to the 2005 urn victory at that same ground, posted a blunt three-word verdict on social media: “This is really poor.” It is a criticism with weight behind it. Vaughan has been one of the loudest voices in the English game on the cost of watching Test cricket for the best part of a decade, and his intervention lands at the precise moment the England and Wales Cricket Board and its host venues are asking supporters to commit money to a series that is still ten months away.
What the ballot actually costs
The numbers behind the headline are worth setting out in full, because the Edgbaston increase is only part of a broader repricing of the 2027 summer.
- Hollies Stand at Edgbaston: £165, up from £115 in 2023 — a 43% increase
- Cheapest adult ticket across the first three days at Edgbaston: £115
- Warwickshire members: £92
- Best seats at Lord’s: £190
- Best seats at the Kia Oval: £185
- Booking fee: £2.50 on every ticket
The ballot runs until midnight on 29 September, with general sale following on 14 October. The five-Test series begins at Trent Bridge on 18 June, moves to Lord’s on 30 June, Edgbaston on 8 July and the Utilita Bowl in Southampton on 21 July, before concluding at the Kia Oval on 29 July.
Two details sharpen the Edgbaston picture. The first is that Warwickshire’s ground will be operating at reduced capacity next summer because of the construction of an on-site hotel — meaning supporters are being asked to pay significantly more for a stadium that will hold fewer of them. The second is that the Hollies Stand is not a premium product. It is the cheap, raucous, fancy-dress end of the ground, the section that built Edgbaston’s reputation as the most atmospheric Test venue in England. Pricing it at £165 is a decision about who that atmosphere is for.
An uncomfortable comparison down the road
The timing is awkward for another reason. Tickets for next week’s third Test between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston range from £57.50 to £87.50 for adults — and have not sold out. A ground that cannot fill itself at £57.50 in September 2026 is asking £115 as a floor price for July 2027.
The counter-argument from administrators is straightforward: the Ashes is not a normal Test series, and the market has already proved it. The ECB reported that during the 2023 Ashes, which finished 2-2 after Australia won the opening two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s, every single day sold out in advance, with total attendance topping 545,000. On that evidence, the 2027 ballot will be heavily oversubscribed at £165 or £265. Demand, in the narrow commercial sense, is not the problem.
Why the price rise matters beyond one stand
That is exactly what makes Vaughan’s objection more than a grumble about a receipt. English cricket’s stated strategic priority for the past five years has been growing the domestic audience — the justification for The Hundred, for free-to-air highlights, for the entire schools and clubs pipeline. A Test ticket that costs a family of four the best part of £500 before travel, food and a programme sits uneasily alongside that mission.
There is also a sporting dimension the boards would rather not discuss. England arrive at the 2027 series having been beaten 4-1 in Australia last winter, a chastening tour in which Mitchell Starc took 31 wickets and Australia closed out the rubber with a five-wicket win at the SCG. Supporters are being asked to pay record prices to watch a side attempting to recover from its heaviest Ashes defeat since 2013-14. Premium pricing generally assumes a premium product; the ECB is charging on the strength of the fixture’s brand rather than the team’s recent form.
What happens next
Realistically, the ballot will clear. Ashes tickets always do, and neither Warwickshire nor the ECB is likely to reverse a pricing structure already published to the market. The more meaningful test will come afterwards — in how much of each venue’s allocation reaches ordinary supporters rather than hospitality packages and resale platforms, and in whether the concession, family and members’ tiers are wide enough to keep the grounds from thinning out into corporate blocks.
Vaughan has been here before, having called Lord’s pricing for the 2022 New Zealand Test “scandalous” and repeatedly warned that empty premium seats at a full-price Test are an embarrassment for the sport. His criticism is not that the Ashes is valuable. It is that English cricket keeps discovering how much it can charge, and never quite asking what it costs.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
738 articles published
