Have the Newcastle United owners got too greedy when it comes to Newcastle v Barcelona tickets?
I wrote something that appeared on The Mag last week, regarding this.
I failed to get Newcastle v Barcelona tickets in the ballot (as usual!).
At the point when I wrote that article and it went up (on Wednesday 4 March 2026) on The Mag, I was waiting for the Newcastle United members sale for the Barcelona match on the Thursday (When I was again unsuccessful, my queue number 97,000+!!).
Anyway, when I wrote last Wednesday, it was due to receiving an email from the club that day (Wednesday 4 March), whereby I could GUARANTEE Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.
This is that Newcastle v Barcelona tickets email I received as a Newcastle United member last Wednesday morning:
Newcastle v Barcelona
Secure round of 16 hospitality
Experience Champions League football at its finest.
Tuesday 10 March, 8pm
Don’t miss out, it’s your final opportunity to secure matchday hospitality for our Round of 16 clash against Barcelona. Be part of an unforgettable night under the lights at St. James’ Park.
Experience excellence with premium padded seating, gourmet dining, drinks, and access to our exclusive hospitality lounges. Feel the roar of the Champions League atmosphere from the best seats in the house.
BOOK NOW
Interested in an executive box?
Secure an exclusive, unforgettable matchday experience.
You can call our hospitality team on 0191 201 8444.’
There are an ever increasing number of hospitality options now at St James’ Park, many of them in areas that have been turned from sections where normal fans sat in return for normal match by match and season ticket prices.
I have just went to the club’s official ticketing site on Monday morning, the Champions League game at St James’ Park only a day away now.
These are amongst the various Newcastle v Barcelona hospitality tickets that are still available…
LS-L2SB – 41 seats unsold
£502.74 (Wings)
LS-L6B – 4 seats unsold
£435.60 (Park Grill)
LS-L6C – 22 seats unsold
£435.60 (Park Grill)
MS-L3B – 22 seats unsold
£761.12 (Sir Bobby Robson hospitality area)
MS-L3C – 22 seats unsold
£540.54 (Moncur hospitality area)
MS-L3D- 29 seats unsold
£563.98 (Heroes hospitality area)
MS-L4H – 2 seats unsold
£469.85 (Shearer’s Hospitality)
The Rooftops – 37 seats unsold
£935.55 (Park Grill)
Reality check
So again, my question is, have the Newcastle United owners got too greedy when it comes to Newcastle v Barcelona tickets?
Their plan of taking away ever more seats from normal Newcastle United fans, in order to instead repackage them and sell for hundreds of pounds more as hospitality ones, have they taken it far too far?
From a fairness point, I don’t think this can be in doubt. Newcastle United members having ever less tickets to compete for.
However, with the prices they have raised these Newcastle v Barcelona hospitality tickets to, when so many are now going unsold, it feels like it is a lose-lose situation ahead of this huge Champions League night.
It should be a win-win situation with everyone simply looking forward to it, but just imagine if you are a Newcastle United member who couldn’t get a ticket, then watching on TV on Tuesday night and seeing empty seats?
The ‘normal’ Newcastle v Barcelona tickets start at £74 for members (having already paid a yearly £37 just for the right to try and buy tickets via ballots etc), so nobody can say any of the ticketing options are cheap..
I do find it all a bit unnecessary the club repeatedly targeting Newcastle United members with these hospitality emails, it feels a bit like they are rubbing our noses in it. Tempting ordinary fans to spend money that they really shouldn’t, on hospitality tickets where the value of what you get over and above your seat, is negligible.
The same now this Monday morning for Newcastle United members, going on the ticketing site and hoping season ticket holders might be putting theirs up for resale, then instead getting to the ticket site and seeing all these unsold hospitality tickets.
Plus of course, these hospitality tickets are put on sale long before members get their chance of the ballot and queue sale, so whenever you visit the ticketing site in advance of any match, you will see these hundreds of pounds per ticket packages trying to lure you in.
As for Sunderland…
The members ballot and queue sale for Newcastle v Sunderland have already been and gone, no luck with those.
However, hospitality tickets still available for that derby match…
This is where it is really driven home for me.
As I said, the club are continuing to turn ever more seats from normal fan tickets, to hospitality ones. Changing over sections of seating that once had been normal fan price, to now currently a number of unsold ones at £720 for Newcastle v Sunderland. The club might give you a padded seat and not be incredibly cramped in that seat with actual room for your legs, BUT they don’t even have the capacity to feed you inside St James’ Park due to the sheer number of seats they have turned over to hospitality, so with those currently unsold derby match hospitality tickets, there are three different city centre restaurants being used to feed you, if you buy these £720 tickets.
This is one of the many serious worries if a far bigger new Newcastle United stadium is not built. That the Newcastle United owners will cynically use basic supply and demand even more, raising normal ticket prices ever higher and higher due to the overwhelming demand from fans, as well as turning over ever more normal fan seating areas into hospitality ones, charging people hundreds of pounds more for those areas of SJP and justifying that price by sending them down to the city centre to get their official NUFC hospitality food.
The thing is, everything has a tipping point.
So whilst the demand is still incredible for match by match tickets, the recent queues for Barcelona and Sunderland tickets had Newcastle United members getting queue positions as high as 150,000+. Remember, adult ‘normal’ tickets were a minimum of £74 for Barcelona.
As is shown though, only 24 hours ahead of the Barcelona match, so many hospitality tickets costing £435-£935 remaining unsold.
Whilst for the Mackem match less than two weeks away, £720 hospitality tickets still unsold.
The Newcastle United owners have also just announced further rises in season ticket prices for next season.
We all know that the club needs to drive revenues in order to compete BUT at the minute, it feels like it is Newcastle United fans who are the ones asked for ever more cash.