Newcastle United has stated that they have “a view to enhancing supporters’ experiences”, following concerns presented to them regarding transparency over numbers of tickets, memberships/ballots, and ID checks. Featuring comments from the Chair of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust and Premier League Network Manager of the Football Supporters’ Association, Daniel Wales reports.
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00:00 Chair of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust, Paul Carter, voiced his concerns over ticket numbers transparency prior to the first FAB meeting with Thomas Concanon of the FSA, outlining his thoughts at a later date.
00:14 The amount of tickets that go to non-Newcastle United fans, so corporates let's call them, and families etc, are potentially too much.
00:25 There is concern in Newcastle about a way ticket, as to how many are disappearing elsewhere, without knowing exactly what that split is. It's going to start the conspiracy theories and ultimately the club can put a stop to that.
00:37 We want, and one thing we've been advocating all season, is transparency on where tickets go, how many tickets go, you know, Arsenal do it, England do it, Scotland do it, I think Man United do it. They'll announce how many people have applied for tickets, how many are available, what the breakdown of corporate tickets, we'll call them corporate, or non, let's call them non-Newcastle United tickets are.
01:01 We know roughly what an away allocation is, but then when you go on the website to buy a ticket at 2 o'clock in the afternoon when they now go on sale, let's say it's a 3,000 allocation, you might only see 2,400 tickets on there. So you don't know what's happened to the other amount of tickets, and I think if the club could just be transparent about that.
01:19 We don't understand the reasoning why the club are being so coy with where these tickets are and where they're going, if there's nothing to hide. We'd like to see a breakdown, as you said, every game. We'd like to know how many tickets are available for season ticket holders with relevant loyalty points to purchase and how many are going elsewhere.
01:40 Starting off with that level of transparency, I think, is crucial to ticketing when it's so in demand and we pay so much.
01:47 Given the right of reply, the club outlined their position as being committed to reviewing their feedback with a view to enhancing supporters' experiences.
01:56 Points of contention regarding unlimited memberships and ballots, as well as ID checks at away fixtures, were also raised by Con Cannon of the FSA.
02:05 I think one of the disappointing things that I think even the club might admit themselves is that the unlimited membership has really made an impact here. Yes, OK, it's good for revenue for the club, but it hasn't been good as a supporter experience.
02:21 We've seen the ID checks at away games. I think they can be of benefit if done in a certain way. I think the current method of it, of going through the security check, going to the turnstile, your ticket going red, then having to come back out and go and get your duplicate ticket and show ID, that's not a great match day experience.
02:38 The Supporters' Trust also made clear that they were broadly in favour of ID checks in some capacity, but not in the current format via the issuing of DUD tickets, highlighting that it led to supporter anxiety.
02:50 To this, the club acknowledged the concerns raised and committed to listening to supporters' views and review how this can inform improvements.