How many tickets Sheffield United can expect to receive at Wembley for Championship play-off final | OneFootball

The Blades are one game away from returning to the Premier League

After 48 games in the regular season and play-off semi-finals, Sheffield United are 90 minutes away from an immediate return to the Premier League.

A new-look Blades squad have been one of the three dominant forces in the Championship this season behind automatic promotion winners Leeds United and Burnley, and Chris Wilder's squad proved exactly why against Bristol City over two legs at Ashton Gate and Bramall Lane.

Harrison Burrows, Andre Brooks and Callum O'Hare set the wheels in motion down in BS3 in the first leg, and after a nervy start to the reverse encounter goals from Kieffer Moore, Gus Hamer and the aforementioned O'Hare once again off the bench, saw United run out 6-0 winners on aggregate - the biggest winning margin over a two-legged play-off at this level.

This season has been a breath of fresh air for those in S2 after a dark campaign which yielded just 16 points and an unwanted record of 104 goals conceded, and they will fancy their chances of ending a long hoodoo in play-off campaigns and at Wembley Stadium when supporters make the trip down from the Steel City a week on Saturday.

The Championship play-off final has become one of world football's most compelling encounters, with it garnering global attention as a result of the riches associated with the game that have increased year upon year, and this season, the winners are set to bank at least £220m.

It's also a great day out for the supporters, and with that in mind, FLW looks at the allocation Blades fans are likely to receive at the national stadium.

The total capacity of Wembley Stadium at present comes in at approximately 90,000. It is well-documented that the North London ground is the largest in the United Kingdom and currently the second-biggest on the continent.

When it comes to major finals, both clubs represented in the encounter tend to be handed an even split, such is the high demand and capacity for tickets which can surpass the gates which clubs can fill at their home stadium.

In this instance, that doesn't apply to the Blades as Bramall Lane has a capacity of 32,050 - of which 26,543 seats were filled for Monday's second leg, and it has been confirmed by the club that they have received an allocation of 35,531 tickets at the East End of the stadium.

This is a greater allocation than what the club received for their last trip to Wembley which came in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City in April 2023, where the FA presented United with approximately 34,000 tickets as the attendance eventually came in at 69,603.

For last season's Championship play-off final, Leeds United were given an allocation of 35,796 tickets whilst the winners, Southampton, were roared on by an eventual figure of 36,900 in an 85,862 crowd.

The highest-attended second-tier play-off final at the new Wembley came in 2008 as Dean Windass' famous volley shot Hull City into the Premier League for the first time over Bristol City in front of 86,703 spectators.

Sheffield United haven't been successful at Wembley for 100 years

Not only is United's play-off record well-documented and unwanted, having not emerged victorious in all of their nine campaigns, the club haven't won at Wembley in the past 100 years, and Wilder will be hoping there is no time like the present to set the record straight.

After dispatching the Robins emphatically whilst continuing to show different strengths which run right throughout the squad, Blades supporters will be hoping it is 10th time lucky in the play-offs, having lost to Burnley in the second-tier showpiece event back in 2009 thanks to a Wade Elliott stunner, before losing out to Huddersfield Town on penalties three years later in the third-tier final.

The last Blades player to score a winning goal in North London was Fred Tunstall as the South Yorkshire side defeated Cardiff City in the FA Cup Final back in 1925, so perhaps fate has aligned for one of the current generation to write their own names into history.