Southampton agree to match Magipes' away ticket prices as fans get set for significant savings



Football fans are set to benefit from lower away match ticket prices for one of their longest journeys of the season after Southampton agreed to an innovative reciprocal pricing scheme devised by Newcastle United.

United's reciprocal pricing deal, which was introduced during the 2013/14 campaign, offers away fans travelling to league fixtures at St. James' Park cheaper match tickets in the visitors' section if their club guarantees the same lower price for Newcastle supporters who travel to the Magpies' corresponding away league fixture.

Deals with West Bromwich Albion and Swansea City led to headline savings of 61.5 per cent and 42.3 per cent for Newcastle supporters at the Hawthorns and Liberty Stadium respectively last season - and now Southampton are the latest club to sign up to guarantee savings for travelling fans, with more clubs set to follow.

Newcastle United and Southampton have agreed to fix away ticket at the lower price of £25 for adults and £5 for concessions for their return Premier League fixtures during the 2014/15 season, with the sides meeting at St. Mary's in September and in the North East in January 2015.

Tickets will go on sale to Newcastle United season ticket holders with 25 or more loyalty points via www.nufc.co.uk/tickets from Thursday morning (14th August), with any remaining tickets available to members from Wednesday, 27th August.

Newcastle's agreement with Saints will produce savings of 32 per cent for adults and a whopping 77 per cent for concessions (under-22s and over-65s) based on last year's original listed prices of £37 for adults and £22 for youngsters for corresponding fixtures at St. Mary's and St. James' Park.

Lee Marshall, PR and supporter liaison manager at Newcastle United, said: "Our reciprocal pricing offer was extremely well received by our partner clubs and the thousands of supporters who benefitted from cheaper tickets last season, so we are delighted to be rolling it out again.

"As recent prices indicate, fans of some clubs - particularly those who traditionally travel in large numbers such as Newcastle United - continue to pay far more than others for their away tickets and we believe agreeing reciprocal pricing is a sensible and fair solution to reverse that trend.

"We would like to thank our colleagues at Southampton for working with us and we look forward to working with more clubs to keep football affordable."

Newcastle United has been named by the BBC's independent Price of Football survey as the cheapest day out in the Barclays Premier League for the last two successive years, with a trip to St. James' Park also cheaper than any other Football League club in the North-East and Cumbria.

Newcastle now have Europe's largest family enclosure with a capacity of 8,200, with significant discounts for a combined adult and child season ticket.

Individual match tickets for Sunday's visit of reigning Premier League champions Manchester City are priced from just £5 for juniors and can be purchased by clicking here.