This has broken me – Now dreaming of Newcastle United Monday night TV matches | OneFootball

I remember a time when Newcastle United Monday night TV matches were the very worst thing I could imagine.

A case of spending all weekend without any football to go and watch.

Then on a Monday night, having been at work and knowing you had to turn in again there the next day, having to drag yourself up to St James’ Park when a large part of you was just thinking I wouldn’t have minded instead getting my tea and watching rubbish on the TV whilst falling asleep.

For countless years, Newcastle United Monday night TV matches were the very lowest of the low for St James’ Park Premier League games.

If United had to be on TV, then for match going fans I would say for most, the preference would be Saturday 5.30pm slot as the best (least worst), then in falling order it would be Sunday 4pm (which last season turned into 4.30pm), odd game Friday 8pm we’ve had, then Sunday 2pm, Saturday 12.30pm, I think we have also had the odd one earlier than 2pm on a Sunday, but the very very worst was always the Monday night 8pm ones.

Not any longer.

What made them the very worst has now gone a full 180 degrees.

The inconvenience is what we are talking about.

You see, after boycotting Mike Ashley and giving up season ticket and loyalty points etc, I now find myself relying on getting tickets as a member.

Or should that more correctly be termed, NOT getting tickets as a member?

As others have commented on The Mag, what appeared to be manageable a lot of the time last season when it came to getting tickets for SJP Premier League matches, is now shaping up to be almost impossible.

I don’t know anybody personally, who got a ticket for Aston Villa via the ballot.

Again, as others have testified already, it just feels like a crazy number of memberships have been sold and continue to be sold, with at the same time an ever decreasing number of tickets made available by the club for the match by match member ballots.

It is a funny one because I know what it was like as a season ticket holder back in the Kevin Keegan 90s days, I knew loads of mates and family who went on and on about how impossible it was to get tickets (SJP only held 36k back then as well), but as a season ticket holder, it was impossible to really step into their shoes. There was no membership scheme back then, just a physical queue from what I remember, for very few tickets match by match. Other than that hoping friends or family would occasionally not be able to use their season tickets.

This (Tuesday) morning, us members who missed out on Villa tickets, had a second bite at the cherry. At 10am the tickets put up for re-sale by season ticket holders went on sale.

Just like used to happen last season when tickets went on sale match by match via an online queue, I went on the NUFC ticketing site around 9.30am and got informed I would get a place in the queue at 10am.

A couple of my mates were also logging on ahead of 10am, we said we’d get all three of us tickets if we got through.

I knew it was a hopeless cause but not quite how hopeless. My mates ended up with queue places in the 19,000s and 28,000s, I was the ‘lucky’ one with one in the 8000s.

Seen as I expected there to be around ten tickets up for re-sale, fair to say my hopes had been non-existent, but when I saw what places in the queue we had got, it was beyond a joke. What a waste of so many people’s time, when we entered the ballot you should have just had an extra box to tick saying you would take any season ticket holder’s re-sale ticket if you were allocated one.

Out of curiosity I still went on the ticket site when I got to the front of the queue this morning, there were a handful of single seats remaining… but these were in the family enclosure and you to be aged 14-17. I say these were the only ones, there was a £74 one in the Milburn but when you clicked on it, it just flashed on and off but wouldn’t go into your shopping basket. I persevered for a few minutes trying different things, but same result. It turns out that everybody (who I’ve talked to anyway) was seeing / experiencing the same thing, a cruel glitch offerings tens of thousands of us false hope.

So anyway, when the next announcement is made by Sky and TNT about which live games they have chose, I will be eagerly be checking for Newcastle United Monday night TV matches at St James’ Park. As I think this will be by far the best (only?) realistic chance of getting tickets this season.

The most inconvenient kick-off time and day to give us members the best chance of a ticket.

Far more season ticket holders will choose or be forced to put their tickets up for re-sale.

More importantly though, many of the other members will find it far more difficult / impossible to get to SJP compared to a weekend game, plus most important of all… the football tourists who appear to be hoovering up ever more tickets via the club allowing their business associates / partners to sell ticket and travel and hotel packages, won’t be anywhere near as keen when not falling on a weekend.

Desperate times call for desperate solutions.

What really winds me up are the minority of season ticket holders who dismiss the idea that a far bigger stadium capacity is absolutely essential. Back in the 1990s that could have been me when I had a season ticket in the KK seasons BUT it wasn’t, I had every sympathy for the countless NUFC fans who couldn’t get into SJP back then.