Newcastle Increase Season Ticket Prices

Anger as some supporters see a jump of over 60% in the price of their season ticket whilst others face a 5% rise for the 3rd consecutive season.

Ian Smith

Mar 07, 2025

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Revenue Up, Ticket Prices Up

Just two days after Newcastle United revealed an impressive 28% increase (up to £320m) in their overall annual revenue, the club unceremoniously slapped substantial increases on season ticket prices.

For many supporters, for the third season in a row, they’ll be hit with a 5% increase in their season ticket price. However, for the thousands of ‘price freeze’ season ticket holders - who have been paying the same amount for their ticket since the Mike Ashley days - the increase is substantially higher.

Take my own season ticket in the Gallowgate End. For many years I have paid £464 for a ‘Category Two’ seat. From next season, this will jump an incredible 64% to £763. This includes the additional 5% rise across tickets for the 2025/26 season.

Don’t worry, this post is not going to turn into a ‘woe is me’ type post. Far from it actually.

A price increase to my ticket was fully expected, and to be perfectly honest I’m a bit surprised this hasn’t been implemented by the club sooner. £464 was quite obviously a massively suppressed price, when you consider the average price of Premier League season tickets.

Above Average

For context, the average price of all the Premier League club’s lowest priced season ticket is £598 for this season. In comparison, Newcastle’s ‘Category Three’ tickets in 2025/26 will be £695 - well above that average.

So, whilst I am not inherently upset by a price rise (the bean counters at NUFC were always going to come knocking eventually) I do have some issues with how and why this has happened.

Firstly, in terms of supporters like myself on the season ticket ‘price freeze’, why have the club waited until now to implement a 64% rise in one go? The club have had more than enough goodwill on their side, since the day of the takeover, where they could have increased prices steadily. Fans aren’t daft, most of us were ready for this, and dare I say prepared to pay a bit more. But why did the club not take the opportunity to spread these hefty increases over a 2 or even 3 season period, to bring us in line with other supporters who were not ‘price freeze’ season ticket holders? Additionally, with so many season ticket holders being on the ‘price freeze’ why the need for the additional 5% rise this year as well?

Darren Eales, Newcastle’s CEO said:

“Raising ticket prices is a decision we make reluctantly but it is one that is unavoidable if we are to keep pace and build towards our collective ambitions,”

In other words, Newcastle United need every penny they can muster because of PSR. And again I think most supporters understand that. However, if every season ticket holder was already paying full price for whatever category they are in (and not on a ‘price freeze’), a 5% hike would only bring in somewhere between £1m and £2m over the year. Yet the club currently has no training ground sponsor, as an example, which would surely bring in a much larger sum of money each year. There are other ways and means to generate cash for PSR purposes.

As we know though, there are a significant number of season ticket holders on the ‘price freeze’, so taking that group off the freeze should see ticket revenue jump significantly on future financial reports, and will of course aid with PSR.

All of this opens up the debate around what is fair for supporters to pay. Just because you can sell tickets for ‘x’ amount doesn’t necessarily make it right. Unfortunately, until rules are put in place to say otherwise, clubs will keep pushing fans for every penny they can.

The Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) have been campaigning for the club not to increase tickets again, however with a third annual 5% rise, those requests have fallen on deaf ears within the club.

Stadium Expansion Over New Build?

There’s a cynical part of me that wonders whether all of this is giving us some clues. Clues that point towards the clubs owners opting to expand St James’ Park rather than relocate and build a new state of the art stadium.

An announcement is due imminently as to whether the club’s majority owners, Saudi PiF, are prepared to fund the building of a brand new stadium or simply expand St James’ Park. The latter would be much more restrictive with capacity expected to max out at around 60,000. Even more problematic with that scenario is the club not being able to significantly expand their corporate hospitality offering, which is the real money spinner for the big clubs.

A new stadium would naturally generate bigger income due to increased hospitality and of course thousands more regular fans too, in a stadium with a capacity of say 65,000. However, the outlay to build such a building is a massive commitment and the return on investment would take far longer.

So what if, the club are trying to reduce demand? What if 60,000 seats could be enough at St James’ Park, for what the owners need the club to do for them?

If the club price many fans out with even more rises in the future, and still add 8000 seats on the Gallowgate, the huge ticket issues we currently see will be reduced. That, in turn, would mean the need to invest hundreds of millions (or more) in to a new super-stadium simply wouldn't be there.

Perhaps then, the decisions made regarding ticket price increases for the third time in three years are a clue as to where the club is deciding to head in the future?

I actually hope I am wrong on this one, as I believe a new stadium is the only way to future proof the club for future generations. You can read my thoughts on that here.

But for now, I’m remaining sceptical on this one.