Club officially make public how many Newcastle United season ticket holders there are now

The club have revealed how many Newcastle United season ticket holders there are now.

The NUFC CEO David Hopkinson declaring: “Supporters are at the heart of everything we do and we recognise the importance of maintaining open and transparent communication.”

In this official release, the club’s chief executive officer going on to say.

David Hopkinson adding: “We are committed to ensuring our ticket processes are fair, accessible and trusted, and we will continue to communicate and engage with supporters as we evolve our approach.”

Newcastle United stating that their approach to ticketing is ‘underpinned by three key principles.’

Those three ‘key principles’ claimed to be (System and process) ‘We follow a process to ensure consistency is applied with all ticketing decisions’, (Access and fairness) ‘We ensure a fair approach when selling tickets’. (Consultative evolution) ‘We consult with supporters on ticketing changes.’

So how many Newcastle United season ticket holders?

Back in the day before we got Mike Ashley as club owner and indeed for many years this continued under him, this is how I remembered the split inside St James’ Park being.

The 52,000+ capacity made up as follows:

For Premier League matches, the club needing to make available at least 3,000 tickets for away fans, keeping then around 3,000 tickets for sale match by match, around 4,000 to 5,000 corporate tickets (including those in boxes, the various lounges, those buying on a season basis, those buying match by match etc etc), with Newcastle United season ticket holders (for what would be considered ‘normal’ fan areas, not corporate) limited to a maximum or around 41,000 to 42,000.

This is the information the club has now supplied on how many Newcastle United season ticket holders there are and where the rest of the tickets go…

The club release stating: ‘We currently have over 35,000 season ticket holders. This equates to approximately 70% of home fans at a typical Premier League match at St. James’ Park. Of the remaining 30%, the vast majority of these tickets are reserved for our Mags+ and Mags members’ ballot. Remaining tickets are allocated to hospitality clients, club and competition delegates and commercial partners.’

It is all very confusing and no idea whether that is on purpose. It is certainly not ‘transparent’ to me.

If 35,000+ Newcastle United season ticket holders is 70% of home fans, then the other 30% is then roughly 15,000 to 16,000.

What about the 3,200 places that are available to away clubs for Premier League matches?

There are certainly many more corporate tickets these days as well, so which pot do the 4,000, 5,000+ of those corporates come out of? Do all the corporate seats come out of this 15,000+, or do they come out of the 35,000+ Newcastle United season ticket holders pot?

Or are they split between the two pots? With say box holders who have bought for a full season and individuals who have done the same for corporate areas counted as season ticket holders, with corporate seats sold math by match coming out of the ‘other’ pot?

The club say: ‘Of the remaining 30%, the vast majority of these tickets are reserved for our Mags+ and Mags members’ ballot.’

If they really wanted to be transparent, why don’t the club simply tell us the actual number of tickets that are made available to members each Premier League match?

They obviously know exactly what these numbers have been for each match, which in reality should be the same number each PL game, plus any extra sections of tickets that any away club doesn’t take.

The percentages and numbers presented by the club are beyond confusing and if they wanted to make things clear just give a number to everything, telling us what the splits are…

How many season ticket holders in ‘normal’ fan areas.

The total number of seats in corporate areas, boxes, used by the club for hospitality and entertaining etc.

How many tickets for away fans.

Then how many tickets available match by match for Newcastle United members.

Season ticket waiting list?

The club release also mentioning: ‘Season ticket waiting list – The Fan Advisory Board is leading the work on creating a season ticket waiting list scheme, with support from Newcastle United. Updates will follow in due course.’