Dear members, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year.
The Newcastle United Supporters Trust attended the recent Ticketing meeting with the club. There were 5 supporters in attendance representing NUFC Fans United, the London Newcastle United Supporters Club & the Newcastle United Disabled Supporters Association, alongside box office staff Stephen Tickle, Kim Scott, and Jan Brien.
Here is a list of the main points raised throughout the meeting.
Club admits online ticketing office is overprotective and needs fixing ASAP. This is in relation to supporters experiencing being prevented from buying tickets online for 30 days due to “fraud prevention”.
Club agreed to release info on how to avoid problems occurring on their online ticket account.
Club set aside a certain amount of tickets to ensure fans with 30-day suspensions have access to tickets in person.
At the moment, the club has no access to the system that is currently banning fans, meaning they can’t pre-warn fans before the system locks you out. The club also has no access to the information regarding your ban in order to know how long is left on the ban. It was stressed this needs to change.
Club say they are looking for a permanent solution to the problems, as it stands, the ticketing system is run by an outside source.
Chelsea doesn’t allow general sale which is the reason our tickets never went to the general sale for our visit to Stamford Bridge in October.
Club agrees to look at the situation where season ticket holders don’t get a loyalty point if they buy their ticket in the general sale. Fans in this situation are encouraged to contact the box office if this happens to them.
Club agrees to release numbers of how many fans are at certain levels in the loyalty point system
11 games went to member sale, 8 to general sale in the 2018/19 season, meaning the chance is there for Season Ticket holders to gain more loyalty points.
The club will be looking at the potential of improving the away season ticket scheme and will be looking into the possibility of adding people to the scheme once it improves.
Club follows procedures set by other clubs when allocating seats to fans. Admit it is pot luck at times. It was raised about being able to view a seating plan for away games but given fans in travel groups have different amounts of loyalty points, it would impact on fans getting seats together.
Club has around 30,000 season ticket holders, a drop of around 5000, and around 10000 have taken the free season ticket offer
It was raised that the club has 98% of White British supporters whereas the population of the city is 78% White British. Missed opportunity for the club to release tickets to ethnic minorities to encourage them to come. Concerns over communication between departments of the club.
Ticket office staff in attendance saw the positives and negatives of the free season ticket but offered no real opinion on concerns regarding the claim that the free season ticket doesn’t offer any reward to current season ticket holders, given not every season ticket holder benefits.
Club happy with the system that only allows fans to buy single seats if just purchasing one ticket, rather than buying a ticket next to another empty one as it then leaves single seats, which are then harder to sell.
Club advised by to include the number to report incidents such as discrimination in the ground on the season ticket or in the wallet that comes with the season ticket and to publicise it better through all channels.
Burnley Away
We received numerous complaints from supporters regarding Burnley Away and the facilities in the away end. We have liaised with Newcastle & the Football Supporters Association and will be writing to Burnley to seek a response.
Key Takeaways
• Club to look into new ticket website problems and provide more information on how to navigate the website successfully.
• Club to release numbers of how many fans are at certain loyalty points.
• Club has around 30,000 season ticket holders, a drop of around 5,000 and around 10,000 have taken the free season ticket offer.
