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Newcastle announce they’ll charge fans £5 extra for friendly if don’t have season ticket

Newcastle United have announced details of tickets for the friendly at Sheffield United on Sunday 26 July.

Despite all Newcastle supporters being able to buy tickets for the friendly at Gateshead, for this game in Sheffield the club have once again reverted back to only allowing fans who have a season ticket or membership to buy tickets for the match at Bramall Lane.

However, in an even more bizarre move, the club have announced that they will charge their members £5 more than season ticket holders to buy a ticket.

This is part of what appeared on the official Newcastle United website this morning:

The fixture is a testimonial for Sheffield United coach and former defender Chris Morgan, and prices are just £10 for adult season ticket holders and £5 for concessions – over-60s, full-time students aged 18-21, and under-18s.

Tickets will go on sale to Members on Monday, 13th July, and prices for non-season ticket holding adults will be £15.

Tickets will only be sold to 2015/16 season ticket holders and valid club members.

Bear in mind that members pay £35 to the club per season just for the chance to buy tickets, it is pretty shocking how they are being treat as second class citizens.

Without any explanation from the club, it certainly appears that this is a brazen attempt by Mike Ashley to try and force more fans to take up season tickets, to reinforce the idea that if you don’t have a season ticket you will be getting ever reducing access to tickets home & away and/or paying more for them.

Last season saw Ashley choose to leave thousands of tickets empty for the visits of Arsenal and Manchester United as he refused to allow unsold tickets to go on sale to the ordinary fans. Instead, trying to force fans to pay £35 to buy a membership in order to buy a ticket.

Recent revelations that around 30% of season tickets appear to be unsold, looks to have led to a major offensive launched by Mike Ashley, using carrot and stick in an attempt to try and get fans to purchase the thousands of season tickets that are going spare.