Sunderland owner announces how many tickets Newcastle United have requested for Checkatrade Trophy derby
Stewart Donald has revealed how many tickets Newcastle United have requested for the Sunderland first team v Newcastle United Under 21s derby.
The Checkatrade Trophy rules state that away teams are allowed up to 10% of a stadium’s capacity if they request it.
Stewart Donald now announcing that Newcastle have done exactly that, meaning Rafa’s kids are set to have the backing of up to 5,000 travelling fans, around 10% of the 49,000 capacity.
Sunderland announced ticket arrangements for their own fans on Wednesday, with details for Newcastle supporters to follow.
What we did find out though were the ticket prices, with Sunderland raising their Checkatrade Trophy prices from £3 to £15 for Newcastle’s visit.
Stewart Donald saying he was left with no choice due to the extra costs involved with this (unusual) derby game…
Stewart Donald:
“I appreciate it (price of Checkatrade match tickets) has gone up but Newcastle have asked for a lot of tickets and the police bill, stewarding and general cost of the game etc is so much more due to that than the other games.
“We have tried to keep it sensible and we are certainly not likely to make much money based on costs. Just simply the cost of the fixture.
“Unlike all the other games with the volume of Newcastle fans expected to travel according to them then we have to police, steward and staff accordingly.
“That is I’m afraid, a completely different cost to opening one stand.
“We have tried to price sensibly.
“Opening one stand for a low risk game has a completely different cost base to a game against our biggest rivals who want their full allocation regardless of who is in their team.
“I have never been to a Newcastle v Sunderland game but judging by the security planning I can see why it is so expensive to stage and you can not unfortunately cover that at £3 a ticket no matter how much we would like to.
“As soon as Newcastle requested their full allocation the costs for Police, stewards, etc etc went boom understandably.
“It won’t be a payday with our costs.
“Although it is their youth team as you say, as soon as they requested their full allocation the costs involved in staging the game have become huge.
“We can’t cover that at £3 no matter how much we would like to.
“Opening one stand just isn’t the same cost base.
“Under competition rules they are entitled to 10 percent of our capacity so just short of 5000 tickets potentially.”
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