On Thursday, Newcastle United announced their first pre-season friendly.
It will be played in Edinburgh, United to take on Everton at Murrayfield Stadium, home of Scottish Rugby Union.
The Newcastle v Everton friendly to kick off at 5.15pm on Wednesday 12 August.
The Premier League season kicks off on the weekend of Saturday 22 August and this Edinburgh based friendly happening a week and a half before that.
Newcastle United giving season ticket holders and members an exclusive pre-sale opportunity to snap up tickets before it is opened up to others.
So far so good…
The official club announcement on Thursday morning included:
‘TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets start from £35 for adults and £17 for under-16s (plus booking fees).
• Thursday 28 May (4pm) Pre-sale opens for Newcastle United Season Ticket Holders and Members.
• Monday 1 June (10am): Pre-sale opens for fans who registered for priority access.
• Tuesday 2 June (10am): General sale opens via Ticketmaster.
My initial reaction was surprise at how expensive the tickets were.
With booking fees to be added, clearly the tickets were going to cost more than £40 for adults and over £20 for kids.
No (every!) disrespect to Everton but over forty quid to watch a friendly against them??? By the way, I have no doubt the scouse mackems are saying the same about paying that kind of money for a friendly against us!
Newcastle United twelfth in the Premier League up against thirteenth place Everton, how could you contemplate missing that for ‘only’ £40?
It gets ‘better’ though.
I have no idea how many of these from £35 (£17 for kids) tickets there had been available but when I clicked on my exclusive access link to buy tickets, they weren’t there. I am guessing these very lowest priced ones were minimal.
The two options for Newcastle United season ticket holders and members was to sit behind the goal or at the side of the pitch.
Including booking fee the tickets behind the goal are £65.41 for an adult and £44.71 for a kid. So £110.12 for an adult and child, £220.12 for a family of four (two adults, two kids). Alternatively, £130.82 for two adults.
For a seat at the side of the pitch?
This costs £88.41 including booking fees, with no concessions. So £176.82 for any two fans (including an adult and child), £353.64 for a family of four.
These prices are simply appalling and to me, they are simply looking to take advantage of those Newcastle and Everton fans who feel they can’t miss any match their team plays. Plus those who don’t have season tickets and are desperate to see any match, even a friendly against Everton.
To put the prices into context, Newcastle United charged season ticket holders £60 for each of the four Swiss League stage Champions League matches last season, raising the prices to £69 for the last 16 match against Barcelona, kids paying £39. Those prices for all parts of St James’ Park (Leazes, Gallowgate, East Stand, Milburn) apart from premium seating.
I think the general feeling amongst Newcastle United fans was that the club were taking a lend with those Champions League prices, members having to pay a fiver more as well for tickets than season ticket holders.
I have seen some Newcastle United fans wanting to blame the Murrayfield (not so!) friendly ticket prices all on Ticketmaster.
That is like saying the Gallagher brothers had nothing to do with hundreds of thousands of ardent Oasis fans getting ripped off last year with extortionate ticket prices.
Newcastle United (and Everton) have both willingly (and knowingly) gone into this Murrayfield friendly knowing fine well what the ticket pricing is for it (and how much they will benefit from ticket sales), they now have a duty to explain to their fans exactly why these ticket prices are being charged.