Newcastle United tickets scandal – Why isn’t our club taking action? | OneFootball

Newcastle United tickets, the holy grail for fans these days.

Getting hold of Newcastle United tickets has become ever worse.

The club refusing to give any details on membership ballots for home games, how many have applied for a game, how many tickets were available, what the success rate was. Other clubs such as Arsenal DO give this kind of information to their members after each ballot.

We know there are a lot more members this season, with the club refusing to cap the number of memberships sold, unlike the 2022/23 season. The Newcastle United owners though also refusing to say how many memberships have been sold.

So basically, you have zero idea how many other Newcastle United members there are and how many of them are entering the ballots each match.

The other side of the equation is also of course how many tickets are available in these ballots for St James’ Park matches.

So a double whammy.

The same with the later queue sale for a small additional pot of tickets for each home game, no idea how many tickets the club make available for those.

My ‘luck’ in the home ticket ballots was woeful for Premier League matches last season and that has continued into this season.

The latest ballot of Newcastle United tickets saw members informed this Wednesday (20 November 2024) morning as to whether they have been successful or not, for the Aston Villa game on Boxing Day.

Another blank for me when I got the club’s email.

We all understand that demand exceeds supply and that Newcastle United need a far bigger capacity stadium, whether that is an enlarged St James’ Park or on a new site.

However, surely Newcastle United members deserve at least some transparency from the club’s owners and senior employees, when it comes to how many members are applying for each ballot and how many tickets there are for any particular game.

The disappointment and frustration of not getting any Newcastle United tickets yet again for this Aston Villa match, is then compounded when you see stuff like this, after the ballot has ended (I have written about similar before after previous home ballot).

This is from a business called ‘Live Football Tickets’, who have been established since 2006 and offer for sale (resale) tickets for football matches all over the world, including all Premier League clubs.

As you can see above, they are listing 616 Newcastle United tickets for this Aston Villa game.

Live Football Tickets describe themselves as…

‘We’re a leading secondary marketplace for football tickets. Prices are set by sellers and may be above or below face value.

We have created an online marketplace to make hard-to-get tickets available to anyone providing quality customer service. Ticket prices on our site are determined by supply and demand (market value) by ticket specialists (the sellers). Since supply and demand are what drive the prices, today the prices can be low and tomorrow they may be higher, it can always change.

Fans need to place orders with LiveFootballTickets not only because we have a friendly customer service, leading security and a money back guarantee – they also come to us since it’s so difficult to get tickets from the primary sources – especially for the biggest matches. So this is why those hard-to-get tickets are listed by the sellers above face value.’

The only thing that raised a laugh with me was when they stated for those interested in buying tickets at St James’ Park…

‘Buy your Newcastle United tickets securely online and support the team in their battle to stay in the English Premier League. Live Football Tickets offers you a wide range of Premier League tickets for the season 2024-2025.’

Really giving it the hard sell, come and see Newcastle United in their relegation struggle!

I am never going to use one of these reselling sites myself but I clicked in and started the process of buying a couple of Newcastle v Aston Villa tickets…

So my understanding of how their system works at Live Football Tickets (and other reselling sites), is that those in possession of Newcastle United tickets list them on this site and decide the price they are up for, that money they then bank if the tickets are sold, not sure if the website gets a percentage of that. However, what does seem clear is that the £62.96  (2 x £31.48 ‘Booking fee’) does go to Live Football Tickets. Whilst the Newcastle United ‘fans’ selling their tickets on, are at the very least more than doubling the mone they paid for these tickets.

A very lucrative business if you are being the conduit for trading thousands and thousands of tickets every week for matches around the world.

So what are the Newcastle United owners and senior staff doing about all these Newcastle United tickets for SJP matches ending up on reselling sites?

Well, not a lot, indeed nothing it would appear. I certainly haven’t heard anything of members or season ticket holders getting in trouble this season, or last season, for selling their tickets on via these reselling sites for prices vastly over the top of what they paid.

On the other hand, I HAVE heard of countless instances of so many Newcastle United away fans having issues with the club’s draconian policy of trying to prevent away tickets getting passed on for face value…

Not only have I not seen or heard of any action taken by the Newcastle United owners against those touting Newcastle United tickets for home matches, senior figures at the club have actually claimed in the past that these resold tickets don’t even exist!

Hmmm. Whilst I have no time at all for sites such as Live Football Tickets, I don’t believe that they have existed for close to 20 years if their business model is to put on sale fake tickets and take money off people.

Indeed, many Newcastle United fans have said before and after this Aston Villa ballot ended, that they themselves have bought tickets on reselling sites, including Live Football Tickets.

So what exactly are Newcastle United doing about it?

Other Premier League clubs are certainly doing plenty about it.

‘Last season the club issued more than 2,000 ticket touting related sanctions following intelligence gathered by our dedicated team. This work included tracking tickets listed on a variety of websites and social media platforms, as well as targeted activity at both home and away matches.’

A number of years ago, Man U even created a special dedicated role for somebody to head up the battle against those reselling Manchester United tickets at a profit, the current person in that role appears to be Ryan Wood.

The likes of Liverpool and Brentford are amongst the other clubs also employing staff specifically to try and battle against this reselling of tickets at vast profit.

So are the club seriously claiming that Newcastle United tickets on reselling sites are all fake, that they don’t exist?

Well if that’s the case, then it is surely ludicrous, as why would Manchester United (and others) be employing staff specifically to try and track down those fans and others touting tickets on reselling sites and elsewhere???

So, the question is.

What exactly are NUFC doing to track down and punish those fans and others that are touting SJP tickets far above face value? To try and ensure that instead far more Newcastle United tickets are available for genuine fans via member ballots and so on?