Not sure why anybody should be upset with new Newcastle United season ticket change | OneFootball

I have seen a fair bit of talk after this Newcastle United season ticket change.

Most of the reaction very negative.

I can’t really understand why.

The Newcastle United season ticket change for the new 2025/26 season has seen a new clause added in the terms and conditions (see below) that you sign up to.

The 2025/26 Newcastle United season ticket terms and conditions now include…

‘4.6 Further, your Season Ticket shall not be eligible for renewal and shall be terminated for the subsequent season if your Season Ticket has been unused for 5 (five) individual Matches in the Season (these need not be consecutive).

Your Season Ticket shall be determined as having been used for the Season if you have met any of the following criteria:

(i) you have attended the individual Match in person by successfully scanning in at the turnstiles at the Ground;

(ii) you have successfully transferred your ticket for the Match in accordance with clause 4.4; and/or

(iii) you have requested a re-sale of your Season Ticket for the individual Match in accordance with clause 4.2 of these Terms and Conditions (regardless of whether your ticket was then sold by the Club as a result).’

So the bottom line is that if your Newcastle United season ticket seat is left empty for more than four of the 19 Premier League matches across the 2025/26 season, the club say they will take your season ticket off you.

The thing is, if you let family or friends use it, or sell it to other fans via the club’s reselling process, then you are fine.

I don’t know why anybody would think it was acceptable for a Newcastle United season ticket holder to leave their seat unused on a regular basis? Why would anybody think this was an ok thing, especially when so many other NUFC fans are so desperate to get into St James’ Park.

We have all seen how woeful it looks at stadiums like the Emirates and Etihad, when so many times you see thousands and thousands of empty seats, as Arsenal and Manchester City season ticket holders simply can’t be bothered coming to so many matches and don’t even then allow others to fill that seat. Especially a problem at Arsenal, a club with a lot of wealthy season ticket holders who want the convenience of being able to go to games when they choose to do so, but have no scruples about leaving their seat empty even though they have paid for it.

I actually wrote an article (see below) on The Mag ten months ago about this issue and how clubs such as Man City, Arsenal and Man U were threatening the same, to take season tickets off fans if the seats were left empty on a regular basis.

Newcastle United simply copying these other Premier League clubs and to be honest, I don’t think it is an issue at St James’ Park currently, unless you know different? However, if for no good reason any Newcastle fan was doing this, leaving their season ticket seat unused match after match, I wouldn’t have any sympathy if they then lost their season ticket(s) and instead had other fans filling it match after match.

My article that appeared on The Mag – 22 September 2024:

Manchester City and Arsenal struggling to convince their fans to turn up on a regular basis.

Both the Emirates and the Etihad notorious for how many empty seats that are on show at so many matches.

The two clubs taking drastic measures, threatening their season ticket holders that if they don’t turn up for more games, they face the possibility of losing their season tickets.

Manchester City used to require their season ticket holders to turn up to only 10 of the 19 Premier League matches each season, now that has been raised to a minimum of 14.

For Arsenal season ticket holders, this season their four league matches in the Champions League are included in their season ticket, their club has ordered them to use their seat for at least 19 of the 23 Premier League and Champions League (league) matches.

Manchester United season ticket holders are also under orders to turn up more. Previously they had to turn up for at least 14 Premier League matches, now that has been raised to 15 of 19 this season.

It is a disgrace.

Modern football gone mad.

So many fans of these clubs would love to have the chance to go to matches, yet other fans happy to leave their seats unfilled on so many occasions.

I saw this story on the Manchester Evening News (see below) and their report was sparked by so many Manchester City fans failing to turn up for their 4-1 win over Ipswich in August, their club sending them a warning/reminder after not bothering to turn up.

The thing is as well, this was a 3pm on a Saturday non-televised match, not an 8pm on a Monday night Sky Sports game. Obviously, so many Manchester City fans not bothering to turn up because it was ‘only’ Ipswich.

I would hate to see this ever happen at Newcastle United. There will always be occasions where some Newcastle fans end up finding it impossible to get to matches and use their season tickets, for all kinds of reasons. However, when you are talking thousands of fans it clearly isn’t the case at the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

‘Manchester City season ticket holders who missed the Ipswich game swiftly found an email waiting for them from the club.

The message noted that they had not attended Saturday’s match and reminded them that they must use their season card for at least 14 of the 19 Premier League games at the Etihad if they want to keep their ticket for next season. That number has been bumped up from 10 in recent years, meaning fans now must attend more than two-thirds of matches where they used to have to attend just over half.

[Manchester] City are one of a number of Premier League clubs to have introduced minimum quotas for fans to use their season tickets. [Manchester] United moved their threshold up from 14 to 15 this season, while Arsenal require fans to use their ticket for 20 out of 23 matches (including four Champions League games).

Some fans feel that they should be able to attend as many or as few games as possible once they have bought an annual ticket, although the quota is in place to ensure the atmosphere is as good as it can be as often as it can be as well as to stop people using season tickets just so they can ensure a seat for certain matches.