The huge demand for tickets to see Newcastle United in the final of the Carabao Cup was always going to see some disappointed fans.
Newcastle's first cup final appearance in 24 years has been the biggest talking point on Tyneside since they beat Southampton in a two-legged semi-final on January 31. The two weeks since has seen speculation over who would get their hands on one of the prized Wembley tickets.
The club, in a no-win situation, had to come up with a process by which tickets could be applied for. Their solution was to split the fans into seven priority groups.
Newcastle had been allocated just under 33,000 tickets for the game against Manchester United on Sunday, 26th February. The club hasn’t revealed how many season ticket holders it has, but estimates suggest that there are around 35,000, including corporate and sponsors.
For those supporters in the final priority group, Period 7, it meant an anxious wait yesterday to see if they had been successful in the ballot. Fans in this group had to have a purchase history showing they'd attended at least one Carabao Cup home game this season.
The wait for an email to drop in their inboxes was agony - and not all were happy, with social media awash with both tales of heartache and ecstasy as the ballot winners were revealed. For many season ticket holders in ballots 4-6, missing out on a ticket to a non-season ticket holder was unfair.
Amid the anger, the Newcastle United Supporters Trust sent out a statement on Twitter. It read: "After seeking clarification from @NUFC the club today confirmed that 97% of tickets available for Wembley through the #nufc ‘period’ process went to current season ticket holders. We are emailing members an update with further information from Newcastle United on the matter."
Here's a pick of some comments from fans on social media:
@Lips1982: I find that very hard to believe, I know loads of season ticket holders that have gone for years that didn't get a ticket
@Susan_NUFC: Every ST holder who was in 4 that I know of including myself never got one. Yet people in 5 6 and 7 did. Instead of torturing people for days for ballots which obviously weren't priority ballots they may as well just done the ballot on the Thursday and saved thousands the agony
@KeithFenwick10: Never going to please everyone but I think a season ticket holder should be held in higher regards to a 20 pound member
@BenHolden_: Thought NUFC had nailed it with the ballots...until the allocation. Aye, I'm bitter that someone with a membership has been allocated over me with a Season ticket. That seems ridiculous. Well done to all those who got one!
@ShaunyFin_NUFC: What have @NUFC done here man. Me and my boys who are all season ticket holders aren’t going but some in period 7 who aren’t even members, never mind season ticket holders who can prove they have been to 1 game are. Got to devastate my lads when they get in from school now
@NufcJC1: Absolute disgrace from @nufc with this ballot. People with season tickets for years missing out to others who’ve been to 1 cup game this season.
@JonhanG: Feel for #NUFC supporters who have narrowly missed out on cup final tickets. It was impossible to keep everyone happy though and the club had to draw the line somewhere.
@Dale9Spencer: No matter what #nufc decided to do for the final tickets, there was always going to be unhappy people saying they deserve the ticket more. The real problem is only having 33k tickets per club in a 90k seater stadium. should've been 45000 each which both clubs would've sold.
What do you think about the way tickets were allocated? Have you missed out on a seat at Wembley, or were you one of the lucky ones? Leave your comments in the section below.
