Newcastle United away tickets – An easy solution that needs to happen | OneFootball

With Newcastle United away tickets, it is a never-ending problem.

Demand far exceeds supply and so you will never have enough tickets to go around.

However, there is another easy solution when it comes to one of the other massive issues with Newcastle United away tickets.

How they are distributed.

I wrote about this at length (see below) ten months ago BUT absolutely nothing has changed.

Indeed, the problem is if anything, getting worse.

The Hull City away friendly sums it up.

At the start of this month, the 4,500 tickets went on sale to season tickets with 60+ loyalty points.

The points total needed going down on a daily basis.

We are now down to a reported 1,200 Newcastle United away tickets left for Hull, with the points totals now dropping a point each day, at 2 pm you will need 6+ points to buy one.

It is just madness.

What are they playing at???

Back in the 1990s before things were done online BUT they’d introduced a computer system to control and cope with such things, all season ticket holders applied by a certain deadline by post, including applications from ST holding friends and/or family if they wanted to sit with them.

Then they sorted the applications by loyalty points and those who were above the line got tickets for that match if they had enough points, those who didn’t have enough loyalty points, didn’t get a ticket.

So how come that decades later, these Newcastle United owners and senior staff, are doing this day by day points drop farce???

Somebody from the club really has to explain and somehow justify this nonsense, as it helps absolutely nobody.

If everybody applied by the same deadline, then all of those with the most loyalty points would automatically get tickets. Without having to wait weeks for this points drop nonsense to work through day by day.

My article on exactly this Newcastle United away tickets subject 10 months ago – 7 September 2023:

Newcastle United away tickets is a much talked about subject.

The main problem of course is demand v supply.

Over the years, no matter how badly NUFC were doing, it was very rare for any Newcastle United away tickets to go unsold.

However, the situation has got so much worse now, the demand for Newcastle United away tickets getting significantly greater, whilst the supply stays the same.

Or indeed, gets even worse, as we now have the likes of Bournemouth, Luton and Brentford with tiny grounds under 20,000 capacity. So with away fans only entitled to 10 per cent of capacity for ground under 30k, Newcastle away fans sharing not many more than a thousand tickets for each of Bournemouth and Luton, whilst around 1,700 for Brentford.

Even the massive grounds such as Old Trafford, Emirates, St James’ Park – away fans only guaranteed 3,000 tickets.

Champions League matches are also a far cry from the days of 12,000 / 13,000 going to the likes of Inter Milan and Barcelona. For the San Siro it is only 3,900 tickets for NUFC fans wanting to go to AC Milan, a similar allocation for Borussia Dortmund despite their stadium holding over 81,000 fans, whilst judging by allocations for English clubs visiting PSG in recent seasons, likely less than 2,000 tickets for the trip to Paris.

Unless the supply side of things magically increases, demand will remain massively in excess of the tickets available.

However, there is also another side to the issues fans are facing with Newcastle United away tickets, and that is how the club choose to distribute them.

The system as it is now is quite mad, it only makes things so much more difficult / complicated for both Newcastle United fans AND the club.

The club are leaving it late to start the sales process for starters, but then they set a number of loyalty points when first putting a match on sale, then gradually bring it down until all the tickets allocated for this means of distribution are gone (they have also started keeping a small number of Newcastle United away tickets back, which are then made available by a ballot, after the sale days have finally ended).

This is just crazy, made unnecessarily complicated and long winded, one of the net results of this is that it is ending up ever closer to the matchday, before all NUFC fans know whether they have a ticket or not. This obviously making very difficult to arrange travel (and accommodation if necessary) and of course, everything tends to get more expensive if not able to make travel arrangements etc early.

The solution

They say you should learn from history and they are certainly correct on this occasion.

Back in the days before buying stuff online, when Kevin Keegan came along in the 1990s and transformed Newcastle United, the club introduced a system for Newcastle United away tickets that worked really well.

Ahead of each season, Newcastle United fans were sent their season tickets AND a pad of paper slips to apply for away matches, each pad of slips individual to you, with season ticket number and barcode (I think).

So ahead of each away match, all season ticket holders had to apply by post (or you could drop off at ticket office) by a certain date. If you wanted to sit with other season ticket holders at an away game, then you put the slips together in one envelope. You included payment as well if successful, in the form of your debit/credit card details, or a cheque made out to NUFC with the amount left blank (those were the days!).

So once the deadline passed, all the season ticket holders who had applied were put in order based on their loyalty points. If there were 3,000 tickets, then the 3,000 highest loyalty points holders who applied for that particular match, got the tickets.

If you had applied with other people in the same envelope, if all of them had enough loyalty points then they all got tickets. If some did and some didn’t, those with enough points got tickets and the club only charged for those, the unsuccessful ones not charged.

Which brings us to now

With Newcastle United away tickets decades later, why are the club making it so difficult now for themselves and the supporters?

The thing is, it would be ridiculously easy now, for NUFC to replicate what used to happen decades ago, except doing it online instead of bits of paper.

Give all season ticket holders who want to go to a particular away match, a deadline to apply by online, if they want to go with other ST holders then apply together.

Then once the deadline passes, at the touch of a button (or even simply automated), if say 2,500 tickets have been allocated to be sold based on loyalty points, then the 2,500 with most loyalty points get them.

Instantly, everybody at that point knows whether they have got a ticket or not, if all have enough loyalty points then those applying with friends / family are automatically seated together. Everybody having far more time to arrange travel etc.

As for payment, the club already get members and season ticket holders to provide payment details when entering ballots, so just the same as that.

I simply can’t see any advantages with how the club does this part of the process as things stand, for Premier League away matches the loyalty points totals needed dropping by the day (but only on weekdays, what’s that all about???). Whilst for this first Champions League away game at AC Milan, the points totals are dropping twice daily.

However, I have just checked now (12.50pm Thursday 7 ) and only 12 days before the game, there are still 2,258 tickets of the 3,900 allocation still on sale and currently 35 loyalty points needed, with a third loyalty points total set to be unveiled at 4pm. What a shambles!

The club knew that Saturday morning (2 September 2023) we would find out when the Champions League matches were going to be.

If using what I had suggested, they could then have told all season ticket holders to apply online by say 10am on Monday, then press the button and all AC Milan away tickets allocated to those fans with enough loyalty points AND able to apply with friends and family to sit together.

Then if any AC Milan away tickets left unsold, do a similar process with Newcastle United members, give them until say 10am on Tuesday to enter a ballot or whatever, then as soon as the deadline passed, inform those lucky members who had been allocated tickets.

I think doing things following my suggested way, would also at least help to an extent, the problem of fans trying to build up loyalty points, especially younger Newcastle United season ticket holders.

As things stand, the only people who add a loyalty point are those who get an away ticket. These people overwhelmingly of course for most away matches, the ones who have loads of loyalty points… so they get ever larger totals of loyalty points, whilst those who don’t have enough loyalty points most times, don’t add one.

If giving a deadline for all season ticket holders to apply, the club could then if they chose to do so, give ALL ST holders who applied for a particular away game a loyalty point, whether or not they were successful in getting a ticket. This allowing those wanting to apply for away tickets regularly but unlikely on most occasions to get one, to begin building up their points total for the future.