The Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) issued a very passionate letter to the club in January stating the case for freezing season ticket prices for next season.
In the excellent letter, the NUST highlighted the almost insignificant difference a price hike would make to the bottom line for the club compared to the drastic consequences it would have on the everyday man, woman and child who attends the games.
A large chunk of fans are about to be slapped with a huge increase as the Mike Ashley price freeze finally expires four years later than initially planned.
Newcastle released their accounts yesterday and we saw the significant increase in matchday revenues, but there are more ways to increase revenue without gouging the fans when it comes to tickets. Those fans with the money to absorb those hikes will still likely pump their money into the club by other means such as buying merchandise.
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Newcastle United fans are bracing themselves for ticket price rise
Darren Eales says ticket pricing announcement is coming soon
Darren Eales was in front of the media along with the financial results, and he was asked about the club's position on ticket prices, and while he acknowledged the question, he did kind of push it to one side by telling The Chronicle that an announcement will be coming soon.
"We will be looking to announce shortly. It's always a balancing act with season tickets. When we speak about PSR and we speak about how we're trying to compete with teams that have got much bigger revenues, we always approach it with a balance.
"That balance goes across season tickets, cup-ticket pricing. For example, on Champions League, it was interesting. We weren't in it this year, but we got a little bit of reflected praise because of our pricing that we did the year before.
"So we look at it in the round. We want to be a team that's giving Eddie [Howe] the resources, that's competing on the pitch. We're also aware of where we are in the country so we benchmark against other Premier League clubs, against other entertainments, and we try to strike that balance. That's something that we will do when we make that decision and we will be announcing it in the near future."
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Our interpretation of what Darren Eales said is bad news for fans
Reading what Eales said there it's hard to come to any other conclusion other than the fact that prices will be going up.
It's that final paragraph where he has spoken about providing Eddie Howe with the resources he needs. He's trying to say that the money fans put into the club via tickets is what drives the transfer budget.
It seems that he's ignored the more salient points of the NUST letter. Hopefully I'm reading the vibe wrong, but that is the impression I'm getting. Brace yourselves and gird your wallets.