I entered the ballot for Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.
The ballot was drawn on Tuesday (yesterday).
As usual, it was an “Unfortunately…”
It is worse these days for Newcastle United members.
In the past you could see the “Unfortunately…” without even having to open up the club’s email. Now though they have rearranged the order of the wording, so you have to open the email to find out the inevitable. Which simply feels all the more depressing, due to the fact you have been given that extra tiny piece of false hope, rather than knowing instantly as soon as logged onto your emails.
The good news is though that as usual, the ballot rejection email came with the usual don’t worry, members have another chance when the queue sale for the other small pot of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets happens, which is on Thursday morning.
Even even better though, I received a further email from the club on Wednesday, whereby I can GUARANTEE Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.
Only one ‘minor’ issue…
This is that Newcastle v Barcelona tickets email I received as a Newcastle United member this morning:
Newcastle v Barcelona
Secure round of 16 hospitality
Experience Champions League football at its finest.
Tuesday 10 March, 8pm
Don’t miss out, it’s your final opportunity to secure matchday hospitality for our Round of 16 clash against Barcelona. Be part of an unforgettable night under the lights at St. James’ Park.
Experience excellence with premium padded seating, gourmet dining, drinks, and access to our exclusive hospitality lounges. Feel the roar of the Champions League atmosphere from the best seats in the house.
BOOK NOW
Interested in an executive box?
Secure an exclusive, unforgettable matchday experience.
You can call our hospitality team on 0191 201 8444.’
There are numerous hospitality options now at St James’ Park.
I went to the club’s official ticketing site after getting their email.
These are amongst the various Newcastle v Barcelona hospitality tickets that are still available…
LS-L2SB
£502.74 (Wings)
LS-L6B
£435.60 (Park Grill)
LS-L6C
£435.60 (Park Grill)
MS-L3D
£540.54 (Club St James)
MS-L4H
£469.85 (Shearer’s Hospitality)
The Rooftops
£935.55 (Park Grill)
Reality check
The ‘normal’ Newcastle v Barcelona tickets start at £74 for members (having already paid a yearly £37 just for the right to try and buy tickets via ballots etc.
That is stretching it a bit for me and so paying £435.60 for a guaranteed Newcastle v Barcelona ticket, via hospitality, is a definite no.
I do find it all a bit unnecessary the club repeatedly targeting Newcastle United members with these hospitality emails, it feels a bit like they are rubbing our noses in it. Tempting ordinary fans to spend money that they really shouldn’t, on hospitality tickets where the value of what you get over and above your seat, is negligible.
For those of you who are also Newcastle United members, you will no doubt have experienced that moment when having joined the queue to try and get tickets for a particular match, then you get to the front of the queue and they have sold out, BUT the club this season have now put hospitality tickets in there as well. So you get to the front of the queue and see no normal tickets left on sale BUT the club saying give us hundreds of pounds more and you can still get one.
Plus of course, these hospitality tickets are put on sale long before members get their chance of the ballot and queue sale, so whenever you visit the ticketing site in advance of any match, you will see these hundreds of pounds per ticket packages trying to lure you in.
As for Sunderland…
The members ballot and queue sale for Newcastle v Sunderland have already been and gone, no luck with those.
However, hospitality tickets still available…
This is where it is really driven home for me.
The club are continuing to turn ever more seats from normal fan tickets, to hospitality ones. Changing over sections of seating that once had been normal fan price, to these kind of prices, £720 for Newcastle v Sunderland. The club might give you a padded seat and not be incredibly cramped in that seat with actual room for your legs, BUT they don’t even have the capacity to feed you inside St James’ Park due to the sheer number of seats they have turned over to hospitality, so you have to go to a city centre restaurant and have your hospitality pie and chips, or whatever.
This is one of the many serious worries if a far bigger new Newcastle United stadium is not built. That the Newcastle United owners will cynically use basic supply and demand even more, raising normal ticket prices ever higher and higher due to the overwhelming demand from fans, as well as turning over ever more normal fan seating areas into hospitality ones, charging people hundreds of pounds more for those areas of SJP and justifying that price by sending them down to MacDonalds or wherever in the city centre to get their official NUFC hospitality food.