Leicester fans embarrassment – Struggling to sell a thousand tickets for Newcastle United quarter-final

At the request of the away club, Newcastle United set aside 4,800 seats for Leicester fans.

Tuesday 10 January seeing the two clubs meet at St James’ Park for a place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

Newcastle United initially only allowed season ticket holders to buy their own seat.

Then on Tuesday (3 January) it was the turn of members, with season ticket holders also able to buy extra seats as well.

With seats quickly selling out, Tuesday afternoon saw seats originally reserved for Leicester fans, now going on sale to Newcastle supporters, block by block.

At 10am on Wednesday morning, a general sale started for Newcastle fans.

However, there were only a small number of tickets still available, as yet more blocks of tickets left unsold by Leicester fans had been available to NUFC supporters. It took less than an hour for those tickets to be swiftly bought up.

Of the original 11 blocks set aside for Leicester fans, the away club keeping only three – LS L7K, LS L7L and LS L7M, the three blocks up in Level 7 of the Leazes, nearest the East Stand.

That looked to be that.

However, on Thursday morning Newcastle United made an announcement (see below) that a further ‘small number of tickets’ had now become available for NUFC fans.

Once again these have been very quickly bought up.

When looking at the club’s official ticketing site, it looks clear that Leicester City had given up yet another block of seats, LS L7K.

Only leaving Leicester fans now with LS L7L and LS L7M, two of the original 11 blocks they had been allocated.

Looking at comments from Leicester fans, they are estimating that only around 850 tickets have been sold to away fans so far.

The two blocks they have been left with, will hold around 1,200 fans I think.

Fair play to the very few 850+ who are coming on Tuesday night but dear me, very likely less than 1,000 Leicester fans up for a cup quarter-final???

I know they have lost their last three Premier League games but before that had won six out of seven matches (all competitions) and even if on a downer, all the more reason to relish a bit of potential cup relief.

Anyway, great news for those extra thousands of Newcastle fans who managed to get tickets due to the ‘generosity’ of the Leicester fans opting to stay at home, Tuesday night set to see 51,000+ NUFC supporters inside St James’ Park, as one of the very smallest away followings of recent times turns up at SJP.

Newcastle United official announcement – Thursday 5 January 2023:

‘A small number of tickets for Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Leicester City are now on general sale.

Tickets for the last-eight clash at St. James’ Park, which kicks off at 8pm on Tuesday, 10th January, initially went on sale at 10am on Wednesday, 28th December, with season ticket holders able to purchase one ticket per qualifying supporter number. They had until 8am on Friday, 30th December to secure their usual seat only (lower bowl areas only) online.

From 10am that day, season ticket holders who were unable to purchase their usual seat were able to buy in the lower bowl. United opened the Milburn Level 7 (NOT Leazes West Level 7) for sales of own seat to season ticket holders. As sales progress the club will sell this area without any limitations and not exclusively as a family area for this match.

From 10am on Tuesday, 3rd January, season ticket holders could buy alternative seats plus extras, while tickets were also released for Member sale (maximum of two per qualifying supporter number), exclusively online at book.nufc.co.uk.

And now, as of 10am on Thursday, 5th January, a small number of seats are available for Magpies supporters to purchase on general sale.’