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Newcastle United Reveal Where Rest Of £200,000 Away Fans Fund Will Go

10 years ago
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Newcastle United have today revealed where the rest of this season’s £200,000 away fans fund will go.

United have confirmed that £10 will be knocked off tickets for the away matches at Stoke and Arsenal, though they will still add on their embarrassing own £1 surcharge per ticket.

This follows the club admitting in recent weeks that they’s used money from the fans fund to pay for the reciprocal £20 tickets with Swansea and West Brom, having previously let Newcastle fans believe that those discounts had been subsidised by the club.

A trip for disabled fans to Hull was also paid for out of the £200,000, while the club claim an unspecified amount has also been spent on facilities for away fans at St.James’ Park.

The away fans initiative sees all 20 Premier League club receive £200,000 per season for three years, in an attempt to stop a slide in away fan support across the Premiership.

(Club statement below)

NEWCASTLE DISCOUNT AWAY TICKETS AS PART OF FANS FUND

Newcastle United can confirm that the club will heavily subsidise match tickets for two upcoming away fixtures following supporter feedback on how it should spend funds as part of the Premier League’s away supporters’ initiative.

The initiative was introduced by the Premier League at the start of the current season to arrest declining visiting supporter attendances, with £200,000 per top-flight club earmarked to be spent for that purpose across each of the next three seasons.

While United’s preferred route would be to enter into reciprocal price deals with clubs, driving down the original price of tickets for both sets of fans, Newcastle will firstly discount £10 from all tickets purchased by its supporters for the trip to Stoke City on Saturday 12th April, with the club expected to take its full allocation of almost 3,000 tickets at the Britannia Stadium.

With Magpies fans facing an arduous 560–mile round-trip to Arsenal on Monday 28th April, with a later kick-off time of 8pm, the club has also discounted tickets for its Premier League fixture at the Emirates Stadium by £10.

Tickets for juniors travelling to Arsenal will now be effectively free of charge, with only a standard £1 administration charge per ticket remaining payable.

Tickets for both matches are on sale for season ticket holders with 50+ loyalty points from 10am today. Remaining tickets will go on sale to season ticket holders with 25+ loyalty points from 10am on Friday and all other season ticket holders from 10am on Monday.

The members’ sale period for Stoke City will begin on Friday 28th March should there be tickets remaining. The members’ sale period for Arsenal will be confirmed in due course.

As well as views expressed in supporter correspondence, the club has also taken advice from its official Fans Forum, which features two supporter groups and twelve individual fans – including a dedicated away supporters’ representative.

Thomas Concannon, the away fans representative on the Newcastle United Fans Forum, said: “It’s great to see that the club have taken fans’ concerns on board. Subsiding the cost for Stoke makes it that little bit easier for fans for what will hopefully be another huge away following.

“With Arsenal being our fifth midweek away game this season, it’s also a good reward to those who are making the journey to the other end of the country once again. Along with the reciprocal deals earlier in the season, this is a nice way to end the remaining away games for loyal travelling fans.”

Newcastle fans have so far benefitted from an innovative reciprocal price arrangement, in which the club dedicated funds to lower ticket prices in partnership with West Bromwich Albion and Swansea City. As a result, Newcastle fans paid just £15 for adult tickets at The Hawthorns on New Year’s Day – a saving of 61.5% on the previous season – and just £20 for a midweek away fixture in South Wales – a saving of 42.3% on the preceding campaign.

With the funds intended to be spent on other clubs’ fans at St. James’ Park as well as the club’s own travelling supporters, the club has also invested significantly on the away areas at its own stadium, with extensive refurbishments taking place in recent months.

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