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Newcastle Turn Down Extra Cardiff Tickets As Away Support Continues To Be Decimated

Further evidence of Newcastle United’s short-sighted and misguided policy on away tickets has seen Cardiff City announce that they are putting on sale 500 tickets for our match that should have see Newcastle bums on them.

Cardiff report that Newcastle have turned down the full allocation they were entitled to and so 500 extra home fans will be supporting their team.

Yes we have mentioned it before countless times but we will continue to do so time after time, Newcastle United’s/Mike Ashley’s stance on Newcastle’s away support is a disgrace.

Newcastle United were once famous for the away support and the rare times the club takes a half decent allocation and sells them, the players and management rave about the support. Aston Villa a case in point with 2,800 black and whites helping to bring back 3 points.

For those of you unaware still; Newcastle very rarely take all of the tickets they are entitled to because if you take the full allocation then there is some risk that unsold tickets will have to be paid for by NUFC. Smaller allocations mean less people travel away and get out of the habit and so it erodes the away fan base.

In addition, the other massive barrier to regular large away supports is the disgraceful policy of making anybody wanting to buy an away ticket, also have to join as a member and pay £30 for a year’s entitlement.

The very shallow justification for this is that Newcastle United then have the details of everybody who buys an away ticket and so it will help to stop trouble at away matches. Obviously this is a total load of rubbish as regularly fans don’t sit in their allotted seats and of course somebody could throw their ticket away in the ground and then of court misbehaving Newcastle would have no idea who they’d got the ticket off. On top of that, at home matches such as Leeds and Fulham, Newcastle fans could pay at cash turnstiles and the club didn’t have a clue who was coming into the ground – the whole thing is shameless.

So with the example of the Cardiff match, if you are a Geordie living in the Cardiff area and it is the one match you are going to be able to get to; for two tickets in the away end it would cost you £70 for the two tickets, £60 for two memberships and another £2 thanks to the equally shameless practice of NUFC charging their own fans an extra £1 an way ticket administration fee.

A grand total of £132 for two of you to watch Newcastle, or £66 each if your maths is a bit slow.

This is I’m afraid yet another way that Mike Ashley is strangling the future of the club, whether it is on purpose or not. How can we hope to retain and grow our fanbase when our own club is putting so many barriers between Newcastle fans who want to keep a connection with their club. Not being able to watch their team leads to fans being alienated from their club and interest waning in buying merchandise, as well as brainwashing their kids into the Newcastle United way of life.

Unfortunately, this kind of slow strangulation of interest only really registers for most people when it is too late, now is the time the club should go back to trying to ensure that as many fans as possible are there to back the team and ensure the long-term health of the club, both home AND away.

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