30,000 bid for 1,000 Toon tickets

NEWCASTLE United truly is a club reborn after more than 30,000 supporters queued for a limited number of season tickets.

Following an unprecedented level of renewals from existing season ticket holders, the club released an additional 1,000 season tickets to fans with a previous purchase history on Tuesday.

These tickets were available to supporters who had bought a season ticket, a single match ticket or membership at any point in the last three years.

The tickets were sold online on a first-come-first-served basis at 10am yesterday and only one could be purchased per supporter number.

It will not come as a surprise to find these tickets were quickly snapped up within around 20 minutes - and at one point there were 30,070 fans in the queue.

To put that figure into perspective, that is a greater number than the capacity of Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth’s stadiums while only seven teams in the Championship can accommodate more supporters at their home grounds.

That incredible demand brings back memories of the height of the Entertainers era and serves as a real contrast to the final years of Mike Ashley’s ownership.

Ashley, in contrast to the club’s current owners, never realised what a force a united and engaged fan base could be as thousands of fans walked away and made the painful decision to give up their season tickets.

10,000 half-season tickets ultimately had to be given away in 2019, which was an unimaginable prospect for a Premier League club.

Now, in contrast, supporters are struggling to get a ticket. Is it any wonder the club’s owners plan to exhaust every avenue to expand St James’ in the long run? The demand is certainly there.