City have hit back at a survey which shows them to be the most expensive club to watch in npower League Two.

A pay-on-the-door match ticket costs £20 and, with the price of a programme (£3), pie (£2.90) and cup of tea (£1.90), an afternoon at Valley Parade comes in at £27.80.

That total means the Bantams are not only the costliest treat in League Two but would also put them as equal most expensive in League One (alongside Leyton Orient), 11th priciest in the Championship (equal with Peterborough) and only fourth cheapest in the Premier League.

It is less expensive to watch Newcastle and Blackburn (both £17) and Wigan (£21.60) than to attend Valley Parade.

But City director of operations Dave Baldwin reckons the BBC Sport survey is grossly misleading.

He said: “The figures quoted by the BBC affect less than eight per cent of our spectators – and that has been the case for more than five years. About 92 per cent of our audience come in for £8 less.”

This more realistic admission price cuts the cost of a day at Valley Parade to £19.80, which would rank the Bantams as the fifth cheapest after Yorkshire rivals Rotherham (£16.30), who were the second cheapest overall, west-country sides Torquay (£16.50) and Plymouth (£17.90) and Barnet (£18.70).

“We also have offers every week in Friday’s back-page solus advert in the Telegraph & Argus,” said Baldwin.

“For example, tomorrow. If a spectator decides, having seen the T&A, that they want to go to the Aldershot match on Saturday at a cost of £20 for their ticket, they can retain their match-day stub and with it get a free ticket for another home game later in the season. We give offers like this throughout the season.”

As a comparison, Huddersfield are the fourth most expensive club to watch in League One at £26.60 (match ticket £19, programme £3, pie £2.80, cup of tea £1.80) and Leeds are the 13th most expensive in the Championship at £28.40 (£20, £4, £2.70, £1.70).

The BBC Sport survey concluded that only 11 clubs out of 104 in England and Scotland (four English divisions plus the Scottish Premier League) offered a day at a match for less than £20.

The best in the Championship was Watford (£17.50), with Rochdale (£16.20) and Preston (£17.50) being the best in League One and Inverness Caledonian (£21.90) the cheapest in Scotland’s top flight.

A cup of tea at Crawley will set you back only 50p, while St Johnstone had the ‘best’ pies (£1.50) and programmes (£1).

Nine clubs offered a match-day ticket for £10 – Blackburn, Newcastle, Watford, Rochdale, Preston, Milton Keynes Dons, Rotherham, Torquay and Plymouth.

In general, clubs in the north west of England proved the cheapest for a day out. But Liverpool are the most expensive at £46.95 (£39 – £3, £2.95, £2), followed by Arsenal (£44), QPR (£42.80), Swansea (£42.60), Tottenham (£40) and Manchester United (£35.60).

John Nagle, head of communications at the Football League, said: “Football League clubs are working extremely hard to attract the next generation of fans through a variety of innovative marketing initiatives. As a result, crowds in recent seasons have been at their highest levels for 50 years.

“Much of the focus is on improving the match-day experience for supporters, particularly families.

“This has seen the League introduce a programme of ‘mystery-shopper’ visits to matches in order to assess the experience and the introduction of the Family Excellence Award to reward those clubs that are offering a particularly outstanding day out.”

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters’ Federation, added: “It’s important that football continues to be attractive to the whole cross-section of society, so it doesn’t just become something only middle-class and upper-class families can afford.”