Think a pint at the Cheltenham Festival is pricey? Think again - we compare drinks prices at major events

Racegoers were left reeling at the drinks prices at the Cheltenham Festival, and rightly so, having to fork out a whopping £7.50 for a pint of Guinness, lager or cider.

Expensive, eh? I'm sure you'd call me mad if I told you that might be good value.

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending the Premier League Darts Finals at the O2 in London, a night made extra special by witnessing a nine-dart finish. It was something I will never forget and it was right up there with the best sporting moments I've witnessed live.

We all know what follows a nine-darter, limbs and beers flying everywhere. But those beer showers burnt a pretty sizable hole in one's pocket.

Budweiser and Stella were the cheapest lager options, selling at an eyewatering £8.95, while there was not much value in buying the two-pint option either. In fact, none at all, it was simply double the price of a pint. If you wanted to upgrade to Camden Hells it would set you back £9.50.

Given there were 14,000 people singing "don't take me home" and "I want to stay here and drink all the beer", pricing clearly wasn't a massive deterrent. It got me thinking, though.

Spectators at such events seem to adopt a 'when in Rome' policy when it comes to things like drinks, but that allows venues to charge ridiculous prices knowing full well punters will pay.

I tweeted an image of the O2 prices on X and it received over 1.5 million views with the vast majority of commenters outraged by what they were seeing. However, as much as we like to moan about prices at these major sporting events on social media (myself included), the majority of people will still partake (myself included). Just about everyone I spoke to while queuing for a drink moaned in some capacity about the prices. I witnessed none go back empty handed. I imagine it is exactly the same at racing's major festivals.

The question is, even with the extraordinary drinks prices, did I feel like my night was worth the expense? My ticket cost me £45 for a decent seat in the stands – nearly the price of the first round of two two-pinters – and I had one of the best nights at a sporting event for some time (I must stress being a Sunderland fan means the benchmark is not very high). I would go back next year in a heartbeat.

How beer prices compare at major sporting events

FA Cup final at Wembley
Cheapest pint: £7.25

Cheltenham Festival
Cheapest pint: £7.50

Six Nations
Cheapest pint: £7.50

Premier League Darts final at O2
Cheapest pint: £8.95

Conclusion

I'm sure there are some racegoers who feel the same, but racecourses have a responsibility to ensure that if they insist on charging mega prices for meetings, the experience of the event has to warrant that added cost.

Paying £7.50 for a pint at the Cheltenham Festival is clearly a lot but, as you can see from the above graphic, it is par for similar live events so it is difficult to argue with such a pricing policy from a business perspective.

My argument would be that racing is not in the luxurious position of some of sport's other major events and if you make racegoers feel they are getting a little more value at the pumps compared to the prices listed in the above graphic, that only makes their experience more positive, making them more likely to return. Punting is all about finding the value at the end of the day.

Read these next:

The Racecourse Prices Index: £7.50 pints and £10.50 burgers at Cheltenham 

The Racecourse Prices Index: how much for a pint of Guinness at Aintree? 

The Racecourse Prices Index: how much for food and drink at York? 

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