Having seen my fairly regular sporting event posts on social media, a number of people often ask me how much I spend on it all. Admittedly, I’m fairly clueless in my responses but knew it was probably far less than many realise as I do usually do it as cheap as is possible. Anyway, I recently went through my sporting year in Japan and painstakingly worked out the total cost.

The majority of live sporting occasions for me in 2025 included my main three sports: football, rugby and tennis. I attended 30 football games; nine rugby matches and also nine days of tennis action. After that, athletics and baseball accounted for three events apiece. That’s already 54 so with all the other various sports included it takes the total to 65.

Before I reveal the total cost, I should add that it won’t be completely accurate as there were sometimes extra fees for the tickets. It also doesn’t include the cost of food and drink on matchdays. The reason for that is that I never buy anything at the venues which is kind of a shame as so many great dishes are available each time. I take my own drinks and snacks each time which does still cost a little money but that is not included.

It was just an empty cup for the thumbnail!

Furthermore, transportation costs won’t be calculated (far too much effort!) either but half of them were done via bicycle with the vast majority of the others by local trains. My sporting calendar saw me watch sport in Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Tochigi, Miyagi and Hiroshima. The latter was a city I was already in for a family trip so it’s not like I went there just for sport. By contrast, the Miyagi day trip was ridiculously expensive and something of a rare treat and the cost of the transportation for that would’ve definitely cost more than the other 64 combined!

This day trip cost me 30,000 yen (£145/$193)!!

Average ticket pricing has been creeping up a bit in Japan but overall it’s still very reasonable when compared to British prices. You could of course argue that the quality back in the UK is better and therefore justifies the higher costs. The most expensive tickets are usually for the so-called glamour friendlies played in the summer when European clubs visit Japan for a money-spinning tie or two. However, this year I didn’t go to any of them.

Therefore, the highest ticket price for me in 2025 was 6000 yen (£29/$38) for each of the evening sessions I attended at the World Athletics Championships in September. Given that my wife accompanied me on the first one I guess you could say I actually paid double that.

The cheapest tickets were absolutely free, and there was a fair few of them this year (15 to be exact!) which certainly helps to bring down the average cost per ticket.

By my calculations, the total cost of sport in 2025 in terms of ticketing was 128,900 yen (£628/$829) which divided by 65 gives an average ticket price of 1,983 yen (£9.66/$12.76). My tally of live sporting action in 2025 may be a little ridiculous but the average price is pretty impressive, and I certainly know many people who spend far more on their hobbies each year.

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Click here to read ‘My Furthest Away Day Trip At A Rather Inconveniently Located Former World Cup Stadium’