As one of the Newcastle United members, I was in the ticket queue on Monday morning for the West Ham game.
This is the final home match at St James’ Park this season.
We entered the ballot as usual, only to get the (as usual) “Unfortunately…” email from the club last week when the West Ham ballot was drawn.
So this Monday morning was the final chance to get tickets as Newcastle United members.
With the team having lost their last four matches, nothing really to play for, tickets a minimum of £55 each for adults, obviously easy to get tickets for this West Ham match.
Think again. My queue position when allocated was 16k+ and by the time I got to the front of the queue and was allowed to enter the ticketing site, the cupboard was bare. Not a single ticket left for the West Ham match.
I got in touch with other Newcastle United members I know and it was the same story, some of them had queue positions far better and some far worse, but it was the same story all round. None of the Newcastle United members I know had managed to get any West Ham tickets in the queue this morning.
For those who don’t believe there is an essential need for a new huge Newcastle United stadium…you honestly don’t have a clue.
The demand is unbelievable and getting tickets so difficult, even when the team is on such a bad run and nothing really to play for.
I don’t comprehend why any Newcastle United fans fail to accept the absolute need for a massive new Newcastle United stadium.
Look back a decade at when the club was still under the ownership of Mike Ashley, had suffered another relegation only seven years after Ashley’s first one, the entire United fanbase hating the owner, yet just because Rafa Benitez gave us a bit of hope by staying, the 52,000+ stadium was sold out every match even though that 2016/17 season we were in the Championship!!!
Split
Of the Newcastle United fans now inside St James’ Park for any match, you are probably talking about something like 65/35 to 75/25 in terms of split between season ticket holders and Newcastle United members.
All very different of course to back in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when many of us started watching our team.
The 1960s were before my time but in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Newcastle United season ticket holders were only a small minority. As to what percentage they made up, it was ever changing, as with pretty much all clubs back then, crowds fluctuated a lot.
In terms of numbers though, you were probably only talking between 3,000 and 5,000 Newcastle United season ticket holders at most. Certainly the late 1970s, I think back then you could only buy season tickets in the seats in the West Stand and East Stand. Maybe you could buy them the centre paddock in front of the old West Stand (now Milburn Stand) as well, though maybe I am just imagining that.
The changes to football as we headed into the 1990s and especially the Taylor report and all-seater stadiums, the resurgence in football generally from around the 1990 World Cup onwards, then especially in local terms the return of Kevin Keegan to resuscitate Newcastle United, the picture changed totally.
It suddenly went from all but a few thousand paying in match by match, to then only a few thousand inside St James’ Park buying tickets on a match to match basis with the rest having season tickets
It now feels almost like a dream that you could once upon a time during our lifetimes, simply wake up on a Saturday morning and decide you would go to the match, almost any game, home AND away!
Boycott
Like so many of you, I went from paying in match by match and handing over cash at the turnstile, to then becoming one of the Newcastle United season ticket holders when it all changed in the early 1990s.
Pretty much all the same people were in the pubs pre-match, only once you had to become a season ticket holder, on reaching St James’ Park you now often saw groups of drinking mates often splitting up to sit wherever their season ticket seats were, instead of queuing together at the same turnstile to go and stand on the terraces.
Like many of you as well, I eventually reached a point where I felt I couldn’t give Mike Ashley another penny, that unless enough of us boycotted, we would be saddled with him for the rest of our match-going lives. It was tough to do, make myself/ourselves stay away, but thankfully it worked. Eventually enough of us boycotted and gave up our season tickets, so Ashley was left with thousands and thousand of empty seats next to his tat empire adverts. Mike Ashley left with no choice but to do a one-off desperation tactic of giving away 10,000+ free season tickets to fill St James’ Park.
The game was up, Mike Ashley was finished and he knew it, instead of pretending for more than a decade that he was trying to sell Newcastle United, he actually did.
Which brings us to now
I am one of the countless Newcastle United members these days who would love to be one of the Newcastle United season ticket holders.
One day hopefully.
The club have just announced that members will now be invited to join a Newcastle United season ticket queue and 250 season tickets will be made available this summer for next season. With more than 100,000 Newcastle United members currently (the club still refuse to reveal exactly how many there are), safe to say that I am not counting on getting one of those 250!
The season ticket queue will only be relevant in any kind of realistic way, when a huge brand new Newcastle United stadium is finally announced.
Anyway, by getting tickets on a match by match basis I think it gives you a great insight into the reality of what the inside of St James’ Park is really like these days.
Basically, if you are a season ticket holder, you sit in the exact same seat, surrounded by all/most of the same people, every home match.
If you are a member, you sit in a different seat every match, surrounded by an ever changing group of people.
Recent years have seen me sit in pretty much every area of St James’ Park.
Now this doesn’t of course apply to every single person BUT I think I have identified the regularly observed massive difference between Newcastle United season ticket holders and Newcastle United members.
Newcastle United members automatically already feel happy when they enter St James’ Park, having somehow got hold of a ticket, through ballots or queue sales, maybe a ticket through family or friends. They already feel like winners and are determined to enjoy themselves.
It isn’t of course all Newcastle United season ticket holders, but wherever I sit in the ground, I see a lot of them (I can tell they are season ticket holders because they clearly sit there regularly, talking to others around them, acknowledging each other etc) who exhibit the same characteristics. So many of them are in a bad mood from the off, slagging off their ‘favourite’ targets in the team, not joining in any singing, moaning all the way through. It is like they think are doing the team and the rest of us a favour by simply turning up, like they are serving a penance, in some cases acting like they would rather be anywhere else but inside St James’ Park.
Many Newcastle United season ticket holders presenting themselves as people who are trapped by having a season ticket, rather than the reality of how privileged they are to have one.
Is it a case of familiarity breeds contempt?
Obviously, when the team are losing matches, this all becomes even more pronounced. Especially when losing a number of home matches. Under Eddie Howe we have been privileged and especially at home, where for a long time it was so rare to lose more than the odd game at St James’ Park.
Back in the days of almost everybody paying match by match, anybody who didn’t want to go to the next match, simply didn’t turn up, didn’t pay their money.
I think this season in particular, I get the feeling that many of these Newcastle United season ticket holders would have preferred not to be there, for whatever reasons. Having thousands of people inside St James’ Park, who would prefer not to be, isn’t good for any of us.
This was very clear on Saturday, I was inside St James’ Park for the Bournemouth match and couldn’t believe the way some fans were going on around me.
Clearly season ticket holders and from the first whistle the abuse aimed at Eddie Howe and many of the players was shocking. This was even early on when Newcastle were playing alright and the game goalless.
All I would say, is if you are a fan inside St James’ Park for any match, whether member or season ticket holder, just appreciate it. Remember that so many other Newcastle United fans would love to be where you are, so get behind the manager and players, you never know, you might enjoy it AND the team might feel the benefit of it as well.