Newcastle
Chances of Newcastle United members getting Premier League tickets in ballots
If you are not one of the 100,000+ Newcastle United Members, you may wish to look away now.
Not this again, I hear you cry.
Yes, the ongoing tale of Newcastle United Members trying to get tickets for Premier League matches at St James’ Park and… failing miserably.
What are the odds of Newcastle United members getting tickets for Premier League matches?
Last season, match by match tickets went on sale at 10am on a particular day, Newcastle United Members logging on beforehand and then allocated a random place in the queue at 10am.
It wasn’t ideal as there will always be people who miss out when demand exceeds supply but it appeared to work pretty well for non-season ticket holding Newcastle United members, even though season ticket holders (who were also automatically members) also had an equal chance of buying an extra ticket on top of their ST seat. The Newcastle United owners had also stopped selling Newcastle United memberships for the 2022/23 season once a certain sales figure was reached.
For the 2023/24 season, prices for Newcastle United memberships were raised to £37 for adults (Chelsea charge £35) and £20 for kids, whilst at the same time the club stopped sending out a member pack, even for the kids.
The club changed it so ST holders were no longer automatically members and so they couldn’t automatically compete with members and apply for an extra ticket each match, unless they paid separately for a membership.
Great, so more chance of Newcastle United members able to get tickets for Premier League matches… not quite.
Last season, as an NUFC member I managed to get tickets to over 90% of the Premier League games I tried for, pretty much all of them. It was only one or two where I failed.
This season, not quite so many.
The Tottenham match ballot for Newcastle United Members was drawn on Friday and this is my updated ‘success’ rate, having entered all of the 17 ballots for SJP Premier League tickets so far:
12 August 2023 – Newcastle 5 Villa 1 – FAIL
27 August 2023 – Newcastle 1 Liverpool 2 – FAIL
16 September 2023 – Newcastle v Brentford – SUCCESS
30 September 2023 – Newcastle 2 Burnley 0 – FAIL
21 October 2023 – Newcastle 4 Palace 0 – FAIL
4 November 2023 – Newcastle 1 Arsenal 0 – FAIL
25 November 2023 – Newcastle 4 Chelsea 1 – FAIL
2 December 2023 – Newcastle 1 Man U 0 – FAIL
16 December 2023 – Newcastle 3 Fulham 0 – SUCCESS
26 December 2023 – Newcastle 1 Forest 3 – SUCCESS
13 January 2024 – Newcastle 2 Man City 3 – FAIL
3 February 2024 – Newcastle 4 Luton 4 – FAIL
17 February 2024 – Newcastle 2 Bournemouth 2 – FAIL
2 March 2024 – Newcastle 3 Wolves 0 – FAIL
30 March 2024 – Newcastle v West Ham – FAIL
2 April 2024 – Newcastle v Everton – FAIL
13 April 2024 – Newcastle v Tottenham – FAIL
With seventeen Premier League match ballots completed so far this season I have a one in six (17%) success rate.
Earlier this season, NUFC CEO Darren Eales claimed Newcastle United Members were having a roughly one in three chance of getting tickets for Premier League matches in ballots.
I know a lot of Newcastle United Members and I don’t know a single one who has had a success record in ballots, in line with what Darren Eales claimed.
In fact, considering Darren Eales made this roughly one in three success claim at the end of November when Newcastle United had been doing really well and a lot of attractive home matches, it leaves me wondering…
The drop off in form and results due to so many players missing, yet I haven’t had a single success since the Forest ballot was drawn at the start of December. Darren Eales claiming Newcastle United Members were having a one in three success rate when we’d had ballots for the likes of Liverpool, Man U, Villa, Chelsea and Arsenal, yet now in 2024 NUFC ballots have included the likes of Luton, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Wolves, as well as Spurs and Man City, yet I and many other Newcastle United Members haven’t had a single ticket for a match in 2024!!!
There are only the Sheffield United and Brighton ballots to go and as things stand, it has cost me £173 for three tickets.
The £37 membership fee and then tickets costing £44 for each of Brentford and Fulham, then £48 for the Forest match. All three tickets in the least desirable part of St James’ Park, up in Level 7 towards where the away fans are.
So the £173 spent so far means each ticket has cost me on average £57.66. Even if by some miracle I was successful in both of these last two Sheff Utd and Brighton ballots, that would still be just a one in four (around 26%) success rate in Premier League ballots and each ticket having cost an average of £52.20 (assuming both these last two games were in the cheapest match category, not the more expensive glamour games such
After the 2023/24 Newcastle United memberships went on sale ahead of this season, Newcastle United Chief Commercial Officer Peter Silverstone revealed that there were over 50,000 memberships sold after just the opening first day of sales.
The club refused to put any limit on how many Newcastle United memberships would be sold for the 2023/24 season and so they have simply sold more and more.
Most estimates put the number of Newcastle United members as between 100,000 and 150,000. There were massive online queues on the day the memberships went on sale and I can quite believe Peter Silverstone when he says 50,000+ were sold on that first day of sale. I find it impossible to think less than 50,000 have been sold after that initial day of sale, so that is at least 100,000 Newcastle United members. I very much think the 150,000 is a more realistic figure, certainly closer to that than 100,000.
When I look at how difficult (impossible!) it has become to get tickets as Newcastle United Members, I have to think these figures I am assuming, are on the mark.
The Newcastle United owners and senior officials have refused to show any transparency whatsoever, which is disappointing to say the least.
Their refusal to say exactly how many memberships have been sold this season, their refusal to say how many tickets are available to Newcastle United Members in each ballot, their refusal to say how many Members have applied in each ballot.
It makes Newcastle United Members such as myself and many others that I know, question why the NUFC owners and senior staff are so secretive.
Sadly, it just makes fans think that there must be something to hide, something they don’t want us to know.
Are they selling off a lot of match by match tickets by a different route?
These rumours will persist unless the club are honest and transparent with Newcastle United Members.
Will I get a membership next season?
The answer is yes, it has been an absolute shambles and disgrace this season the way the club have treated Newcastle United Members, BUT if you want to get into any matches at St James’ Park, then what choice do you have???
However, I think a lot of other people who bought memberships this season will have doubts on whether they should buy one again for the 2024/25 season.
I know a fair few members who have been successful in only one ballot this season and so that one match has cost them over £80 to go to, including the membership fee.
Interested to hear from other Newcastle United Members in the comments below.
What kind of success rate have you been enjoying for Premier League matches at SJP this season and will you buying a membership again next season?
As for this new Newcastle United Fan Advisory Board, the official minutes were released this week of their first meeting with Darren Eales and other club officials. If those minutes were a true detailed record of everything that was asked and what the replies were from Eales and others at the club, then you have to ask exactly what is the point of this new Fans Forum type set-up? Honestly, back in the days of Mike Ashley we got more out of those NUFC Fan Forums (before Ashley banned them!) than what was detailed in these minutes of the new NUFC FAB set-up. If the club aren’t reporting everything that was said because the questions and replies would embarrass them, then I think the fans on the Advisory Board need to be speaking out and telling us so.
