This is interesting with the Newcastle v West Ham tickets.
Very different to the situation two weeks ago ahead of the Brighton match, the last one at St James’ Park.
A fortnight ago in the lead up, there were hundreds of Newcastle v Brighton tickets available for that match close to the game.
The club allow the Newcastle United season ticket holders to sell their tickets for individual Premier League games. Using the online club system, season ticket holders can make their ticket available for a league match, with Newcastle United members then able to go onto the NUFC official ticketing site (you have to be then logged in as a member to see the tickets that are available) to buy.
The club also make money from this. As I understand it, the fan (season ticket holder) selling the ticket is credited with the pro rata match price of their season ticket and if the ticket is then bought by a member, they are charged the far higher single ticket price, with the club banking the difference.
These tickets are usually rare and very difficult to buy for Newcastle United members.
However, by the morning of that Seagulls match, there were almost 500 unsold tickets still available on the NUFC site, season ticket holders who had been unable to sell their ticket for that game.
The Brighton match was 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and a bank holiday weekend, perfectly timed surely for fans to get to.
This West Ham match is 5.30pm on a Sunday. I know it is the final home game of the season but I can’t believe many/any Newcastle fans see it as a special occasion at the end of this league campaign. When we played Brighton, there was still a possibility of European football for NUFC, there was also a remote possibility of relegation.
This game on Sunday, any chance of European football has realistically gone, whilst relegation is mathematically impossible.
Yet Newcastle v West Ham tickets are so difficult to come by, not many going up on the ticketing site and the ones I have seen go on sale from season ticket holders are getting bought straight away.
Last time I looked (3pm on Thursday 14 May) not a single one available.
Nothing to play for when it comes to Newcastle fans but…
When I had a look, a fair few mentions online from West Ham fans saying they have got tickets in the home sections.
How rife this will be remains to be seen.
Looking on one of the rip-off resale sites, they claim they have 400+ Newcastle v West Ham tickets available for sale, all of them in home areas from what I could see. Is there where many NUFC season ticket holders are selling theirs?
I don’t blame West Ham fans if they buy tickets in Newcastle areas, after all, last away match of the season and they need to win surely to have a chance of staying up.
Interesting to see what the reality proves on Sunday, on the pitch and on the terraces.