Newcastle United Members and Season Ticket holders – Disconnect has never been wider | OneFootball

Newcastle United Members and Newcastle United Season Ticket holders support the same team.

Obviously.

However, that is where the similarities pretty much end, certainly in terms of what they are experiencing in terms of ticketing.

I don’t just mean getting hold of tickets, that is self-explanatory.

Season Ticket holders guaranteed to get into every home match if they want to, so long as they buy the guaranteed cup tickets when offered, as well as the 19 Premier League matches their STs automatically entitle them to.

For Newcastle United Members, not so guaranteed… especially with the way the ballot system has gone this season and no limits on how many memberships sold. The Newcastle United owners compounding the situation, those feelings, with a refusal to be in any way transparent. Refusing to give an up to date total of exactly how many Newcastle United Members there are, how many apply for each ballot of tickets for home matches, a refusal to say how many tickets had been available for any match to members, a refusal to say what the success rate had been for any home match ballot. Other Premier League clubs, such as Arsenal, giving their fans stats after each home match as to success rates for their members in getting tickets for a game.

However, as well as this lack of transparency from NUFC, the big thing I wanted to talk about was this disconnect.

The disconnect between Newcastle United Members and Season Ticket holders, when it comes to price of tickets.

For me, this issue has been brought into sharp focus once again, ironically due to away ticket prices that have been announced.

To me, it just totally sums up just what a bubble most Newcastle United Season Ticket holders are living in, totally oblivious to what Newcastle United Members experience.

Manchester City have announced that the FA Cup quarter-final prices are up to £37.50 for adult tickets and cheaper for concessions.

I think fair to say that if you said to any group of Newcastle United Members they could get to see their team play for £37.50 they would be over the moon. Not just because they were getting tickets BUT also due to the fact they were only paying £37.50.

However, a lot of Newcastle United Season Ticket holders have been outraged, a disgrace that Manchester City are charging Newcastle United fans up to £37.50 for an FA Cup quarter-final. A number of NUFC fan groups have commented in a similar fashion, saying what a disgrace it is etc etc.

I get the feeling that there aren’t many Newcastle United Members involved in these groups.

On the NUST Board are there any Newcastle United Members who are board members? There doesn’t appear to be when they ever comment on ticketing issues such as this. As for the club’s recently announced official NUFC Fan Advisory Board, from what I read from the nine appointed, only one of the nine is a Member.

It is all a little ironic, considering just how much Newcastle United Members outnumber Season Ticket Holders now. From my understanding there are around 32,000 normal seat NUFC season ticket holders these days (The club never ever sold more than around 41,000 season tickets back in the days of a ST sell out, with needing to keep match by match tickets for both home and away fans, plus then the thousands of corporate / hospitality seats. Then when so many season ticket holders said enough was enough and boycotted to try and get Mike Ashley out, he was forced to give 10,000+ free season tickets away, hence only around 32,000 ST holders these days, as the current owners want to maximise the cash coming in via football tourists, tickets sold as packages by partners, as well as of course selling to Newcastle United Members….).

So, Manchester City away in the FA Cup.

An away allocation of around 7,800 and as I say, so many season ticket holders who are buying them, outraged by the (up to) £37.50 price tag.

They point to the fact that in Premier League matches, there is a cap on prices for away fans, whereby the 20 PL clubs can’t charge more than £30 for a ticket for those away fans. This though of course was never a generous gesture to the travelling fans, instead it was simply the owners of Premier League clubs worrying that the fortunes brought in from international TV rights might end up suffering, as a big attraction of Premier League football is the atmosphere that comes through the TV screens worldwide, thanks largely to a healthy number of away fans at almost every PL match. With ticket prices rising so much at so man PL clubs, if away fans had had to keep paying what home fans are paying, then on top of rapidly rising travel costs, the numbers of away fans at games could eventually drop and thus the atmosphere generated through the TV screens dropping, leading to a less saleable product when it comes to international TV rights.

What is also laughable about many of those moaning about these Man City ticket prices is that they say how shocking it is targeting NUFC fans like this. The truth is that whilst 7,800 NUFC fans are paying up to £37.50, over 40,000 Man City fans are also having to do the same! It is also a fact that with the money from ticket sales for this match, the NUFC owners would have had to agree the prices with Man City AND Newcastle United will bank exactly the same amount of money! This is not Newcastle fans getting ripped off by Man City, it is the two clubs having agreed these prices for ALL fans going to the match, that is how the FA Cup and League Cup work. Not like Premier League matches where the home club banks all the cash from ticket sales.

Anyway, I said earlier about how most NUFC Season Tickets are living in a bubble and oblivious to what Newcastle United Members are experiencing, let me explain.

These are the prices of the 2023/24 Newcastle United season tickets:

If you look at category 2, the proper price this season is £692 for adults. This is the most common price / category covering most of the Gallowgate and Leazes ends.

However, most season ticket holders in both the Leazes and Gallowgate are paying £467 this season on the Mike Ashley deal and will do so again next (2024/25) season, before the Ashley influence ends.

So the majority of season ticket holders paying £467 instead of £692, a saving of £225. Indeed, for some ten years or more, these season ticket holders have been paying only £467, as that was how Mike Ashley bought them off, to keep them going to matches, pay the same price every season with no increases, just so long as you stuck with him..

The £467 works out over 19 games per match:

Ashley long-term deal – £24.57 per Premier League match.

At £692 full price – £36.42 per Premier League match.

However, for those Newcastle United Members who rely on buying match by match through their memberships, including those who sacrificed their season tickets (and loyalty points) to boycott and help force Mike Ashley out, they are paying…

If getting a ticket in the Gallowgate or Leazes (including Level 7), it is £44 for the cheaper matches and £48 for the more expensive (which included the Forest home game on Boxing Day).

If you say an average of £46 when successful getting a ticket as a member in the Gallowgate / Leazes, you then need to take into consideration the £37 membership fee for the season just to be able to apply.

Nobody I know has got more than a 25% success rate in the ballots so divide that £37 membership by five (five tickets out of 19 PL ballots, if lucky!), so £46 plus say £7.40 (£37 membership divided by five), gives you a price per ticket for a member of at best £53.40 per ticket, fully £28.83 more per ticket than those on the Ashley season tickets (in Leazes and Gallowgate) are paying!

So when I say most Newcastle United Season Ticket holders are living in a bubble where prices are concerned, this is what I mean.

Paying less than £25 for each home Premier League match and moaning about Man City charging up to £37.50 for an FA Cup quarter-final.

Whilst at the same time seemingly totally oblivious that Newcastle United Members are paying effectively around £55 minimum for a ticket up in Level 7 say, for a game such as Forest at home.

So what can those on the long-term deals expect to shell out, when finally having to pay full price for 2025/26 Newcastle United season tickets?

Well the full price for the adult 2022/23 Newcastle United season tickets in Category 2 (Leazes and Gallowgate) were £659, which meant a price rise of £33 for this current 2023/24 season.

If you then assume price rises of at least the same, of £33 for next (2024/25) season and then 2025/26 the same…

That would mean adult Newcastle United season tickets in the Leazes and Gallowgate ends (Category 2) becoming £758.

Those on the Ashley long-term deals paying £467 this season and next, then rising to £758 for the 2025/26 season.

Which in match by match terms, would / will be a rise from £24.57 to £39.89 per Premier League game.

As outlined above, I reckon this season, members applying in every ballot will end up paying around £53.40 per Premier League match they are successful for, including pro rata their £37 membership fee. Of course, the vast majority of members will get less than five tickets this season, so when adding on the pro rata membership fee, they will have actually paid £60 / £70 / £80+ for any Premier League tickets they have managed to buy.

I wouldn’t like to guess what that member price for ticket might be by the time we get to the 2025/26 season!

What I do though know, is that in comparison, if season ticket holders in the Gallowgate / Leazes are still paying less than £40 per match in 2025/26, then that will still be a massive bargain in comparison!!

I don’t resent what NUFC season ticket holders are paying at the moment on the cheap BUT I think they should stop their moaning about paying £37.50 for an FA Cup quarter-final ticket, take into consideration all those Newcastle United Members who pay twice as much as you do for home games WHEN they can get a ticket.