Newcastle United sell more than 60,000 tickets in 24 hours | OneFootball

Tuesday morning saw tickets go on sale at Newcastle United.

As from 10am, fans able to buy tickets for the Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao friendly games.

A 7.45pm kick-off on Friday 29 July against the Serie A opponents, then 3pm for the La Liga Basque outfit on Saturday 30 July.

Some fans not happy that the new owners were charging £20 and £10 concessions (£35 adult and £15 concessions packages if you buy both friendlies) for each game, as compared to the £10 and £5 pricing for NUFC friendlies under Mike Ashley (the last of his friendlies at home to Norwich in August 2022).

However, when the tickets went on sale at 10am, long queues online and in person at the ticket office, plus supporters could also buy over the phone.

Checking just after 10am this (Wednesday 6 July) morning, Newcastle United have sold over 60,000 tickets in only 24 hours.

Newcastle United initially put just the lower bowl of St James’ Park available for fans to buy, delaying sales in Level 7 until they saw the demand for the lower levels.

However, having checked the ticketing site, it looks certain that very quickly level 7 tickets will be made available for the Athltic Bilbao game, with the Atalanta one set to quickly follow.

My understanding is that the lower bowl at St James’ Park holds around 36,000 seats and at 10am this morning, a quick count up via the ticketing side showed only around 1,500 tickets remaining for Athletic Bilbao and around 9,500 for Atalanta. So over 60,000 tickets sold in total for these Newcastle United friendlies within 24 hours of going on sale, with around 35,000 sold for Athletic Bilbao and 26,000 for Atalanta.

A phenomenal number of tickets sold and the 16,000 or so tickets in level 7 set to go on sale for each of the pre-season matches shortly. Athletic Bilbao was always going to sell quicker with it kicking off on a Saturday night and I would expect the sold out notices for that one will only be a day or two away at the most. Atalanta then taking a little longer.

All revenue streams need to be maximised to help Newcastle United progress as quickly as possible and the ticket sales so far must be now heading towards the million pound mark. When you start and add on additional revenues from official merchandise and then other extra matchday spending inside St James’ Park, easy to see how much more cash can be generated as fans believe now in what is happening at their club. Under Mike Ashley, it ended up with even amongst those still willing to give the previous owner the ticket money, they refused to give Ashley another penny via anything else, such as replica shirt sales and food and drink inside SJP.

With a small minority questioning the pricing of these Newcastle United friendlies, I also had a quick look around yesterday at what rival Premier League clubs are charging for home pre-season games:

Arsenal v Sevilla – Saturday 30 July

Prices – £25 adults and £12 concessions, up to £40 adults and £20 concessions

Liverpool v Strasbourg – Sunday 31 July

Prices – £27 adults and £20 over 65s, under 16s go free

Fulham v Villarreal – Sunday 31 July

Prices – £20 (couldn’t see what discount for concessions)

Man Utd v Rayo Vallecano – Sunday 31 July

Prices – £20 adults and £10 under 16s

Leicester v Sevilla – Sunday 31 July

Prices – £20 adults and £15 over 64s, £10 for 16 and 17 year olds, then gradually reducing different age groups

I think two things very clear now…

The Newcastle United owners at worst not charging any more than rival clubs for friendly matches, indeed less than a number of others.

Whilst also, fans vote with their feet / wallets and 60,000+ tickets sold in 24 hours suggests strongly that the pricing isn’t wrong.