The tickets came courtesy of my mate Dave, the Fulham fan, for our match at Craven Cottage on Saturday 6 April.
We are just next to the official Newcastle United away section, adult tickets priced at just the £71 (plus booking fee), the cheapest(!) match by match ticket price at Fulham (Those NUFC fans with official away tickets paying only £30 for the same view in the Putney end at Craven Cottage as ourselves paying £71, due to the Premier League price cap for away supporters).
Fulham are a bit of an odd club and not really big enough for Premier League status in my opinion.
I did work with youngsters in Hammersmith and Fulham once but most of the working class kids were QPR or Man U and that was some twenty plus years ago. I think the only kid I have met who claimed allegiance to Fulham was my mate’s son Albert.
So how do Fulham justify the ticket price without a decent Premier League fanbase?
Maybe because their lack of fans means relying on football tourism that will pay the price for a Premier League experience. Or maybe their owners are experimenting and chancing it on people willing to cough up the big money for a big game.
This though is clearly not a way of gaining new supporters through attracting young people, who will feel attached to the club and follow them when times are not so good.
Back in the eighties me and my mates would turn up and pay to stand in the pen next to the away supporters in the Leazes end. We would have had a few beers around the Haymarket (The City Tavern, Farmers Rest etc) but even if you missed the pre game beers, you knew where the lads would be on the terrace to catch up with them.
When I look back on that time, I am sure we were just as obnoxious and unpleasant as the teenagers who now inhabit Level 7 at St James’ Park these days. My son refuses to have a haircut, purely on the basis that I tell him he needs one AND he is not even a teenager yet!
However, times change and some forty years after my teenage years, youngsters’ life experiences are different.
So, what is going to stop youngsters being priced out of the game and hence alienating the next generation of working class kids attending the people’s game?
There have been articles and debate on The Mag recently about a new stadium. We now know St James’ Park is not fit for purpose and anyone who has been to the new Spurs stadium will concur.
We need a new stadium that can accommodate everyone.
When the small “c” conservative liberals start to petition against a new stadium being built on a miniscule area of rundown freehold land, compared to the vast area that there is, we need to rally the people against them and ensure Newcastle United have the best stadium in this country.
