We have Newcastle United season tickets but for how much longer? | OneFootball

In the warm afterglow of Saturday’s win over Fulham, I enjoyed a few beverages on Saturday evening and in so doing, caught up with some old acquaintances (whose names have been changed to protect the innocent), including a number of others who also have Newcastle United season tickets.

The discussion soon moved on from Bruno’s last gasp winner to ticketing arrangements at St James’ Park.

Me and the lad sit in the ‘Family Enclosure’ up in Level 7. He’s turning 20 next month and when he became an adult, I was bracing myself for the club to tell us that we were no longer welcome in that part of the ground. I was expecting this because it had already happened to a mate of mine, although when that occurred, the lad that sits behind us was the exact same age and he and his dad weren’t turfed out.

That was the beginning of the 2023/24 season and there was no rhyme nor reason as to why my mate and his son had been offered more expensive seats in what I consider a worse part of the ground, whilst the two in the row behind me up in Level 7 had been given leave to retain their seats.

When the 2024/25 season came around, with my son at the time now 18, going on 19, I was feeling rather anxious. We were however, off the hook so to speak, there being no correspondence from the club offering us an alternative seat, with the renewal process just happening as it had done for the past decade and more.

I must admit that my anxiety wasn’t just about the possibility of being asked to move. It really concerned whether an alternative would even be offered, in terms of Newcastle United season tickets.

Fast forward to Saturday evening and one of my old acquaintances, let me refer to him as ‘Glen’, was telling me that he and his lad, now 18 and turning 19 in December, were both moved from the Family Enclosure at the start of this season. They’re in the Leazes End now and are paying a total of £1,127 for the privilege, as opposed to the £966 they would have been paying had they retained the seats they’ve occupied for the last dozen years in the Family Enclosure. When Glen’s son turns 22, the price will increase to £1,526 for the two Newcastle United season tickets at today’s prices.

Whilst Glen made representations, first explaining they didn’t want to move, then going on to highlight the inconsistencies in treatment, officials in the ticket office were less than helpful, shrugging their shoulders with the type of response you get when the computer says no.

Glen reckons the view from his new seat is great, but it’s often blighted by the tourists with their mobile phones who are constantly on their feet, trying to capture footage that Sky tends to replicate within minutes of the final whistle. “This is the future, the club don’t give a monkeys and I can’t see it not happening to you”, Glen said.

I then bumped into ‘Ken’ and ‘Martin’, who tell me of their experience.

Their Newcastle United season tickets are in the Milburn Paddock, Level 1 so very close to the pitch. The club contacted them at the start of the season, telling them that for the UEFA Champions League encounters, they’d be moved from their normal seat into the Platinum Club, at no additional cost. Sounds too good to be true. Well, yes if you consider the Platinum Club to be an upgrade on where they usually sit, although perhaps not everyone would.

For the Barcelona match, the pair were sat three rows and at least half a dozen seats apart. Despite their representations to the club, the ticket office was adamant that they needed to move, and that they had no choice in the matter. When they enquired as to the rationale for this, they were informed that their seats were needed for corporate clients. I kid you not.

It gets worse.

Martin told me that he was sat next to someone who openly admitted he was there solely for the experience of watching FC Barcelona, lamenting the fact that Lamine Yamal wasn’t on the park. Ken said the bloke next to him, whilst ‘alright’, left long before Gordon’s goal ‘to beat the traffic’.

For Benfica, Martin said he couldn’t stomach the same palaver so agreed to transfer his ticket to Ken’s daughter. To his surprise, that cost them £15 and once again, their seats weren’t together, Ken’s daughter several seats away from him, also in a different row.

The upshot is that neither are going to bother attending either the Bilbao or PSV games. Martin said if we get into the knockout stage, he might go, but for now, the Champions League just doesn’t appeal.

Where does this leave matters?

Personally, I think it’s the thin end of the wedge. We all know how difficult it is for Newcastle United members to secure tickets in the ballot. We all know about those schools in Dundee. There was a photo on Twitter last week showing a pocket of Benfica fans in what I would consider to be the home end, decked out in their red and white regalia. Season ticket holders can’t pass on their ticket without going through official channels or leave their seat unoccupied more than five times per season without their ticket being cancelled, and if anyone cannot attend for whatever reason, they can’t sell on or transfer their ticket on more than ten occasions, otherwise the club launches a steward’s enquiry, with who knows what outcome.

I consider myself fortunate to have a season ticket. Despite attending most home matches and travelling the length and breadth of the land in the 1980s and early 1990s to support NUFC, I never had one until the lad rekindled my enthusiasm in football and since 2012 we’ve only missed through work, holiday or illness, progressing from sharing a packet of wine gums inside the ground to drinking copious amounts of pints pre and post-match.

Like it is for countless others, it’s habit, with what happens for ninety minutes out on the park only a small part of the ritual, but I ask myself, for how much longer?