I got the letter from SJP this morning inviting me and my son to apply for a seat in the upper Milburn stand, Upper SJH stand , Sports bar or Bar 1992. YES, no more years of begging and borrowing others for spare tickets I am SO HAPPY , but a little worried that there may still be not enough to go around. The letter said that all applications would be dealt with on a first come first served basis. If I don't get one now I'll throw mysell off the Tyne bridge. How am I gonna sleep for the next few weeks?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Answers

Stop posting and get yer letter in fast then if it's first come, first served :))

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Congratulations Rik!

If the rest of the ST's are being released on a first come first served basis it begs the question as to how many Season Tickets are to be sold?

Away allocation is/should be 10% under EPL regs so thats about 5190 leaving 46710 for NUFC fans. I hope everyone who wants one gets a season ticket.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I got a letter on Saturday so they don't seem to be working down the waiting list in order if you only got yours today.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Mine came Saturday as well and I've only been on the list for about 6 mths.....you'd better hand deliver the application Rik....

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

hANDS UP WHO REALISTICALLY THINKS WE WILL SELL ALL THE ST ALLOCATION ?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Unlikely, Sting, but you never know.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Has a number been allocated to Season Tickets or is it every ticket other than away sections?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Congrats, Rik!!!

Hopefully I'll be getting a letter sometime this week then. I've been on the list for just over a year. Of course by the time I get anything and reply, they'll probably tell me they've only got the expensive seats left. *sigh*

btw...Steph, I've emailed you. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

This just isn't fair is it? No disrespect to ayone but if you've been on file for 7 years you would expect to get first choice of seatsover those on the list for a year or two. The way it's looking I'll be way down the list as they will only get my applications tommorrow (we posted them off this morning)and now I may even not get one. The letter was dated 6th July and it only arrived today, Strange innit? Where is everyone applying for? I've applied for two in the upper Milburn. Last year the club said there were 16,000 on the waiting list. This will have rissen by the likes of Gav and others who only applied in the last few months, So if there are 20,000 chasing 10,000 seats then there could be a 1 in 2 chance. This morning I was soooooo happy , now I've Sooooo depressed. What a Fucking pathetic way to allocate new seats, they go on about trying to start to get on better with the fans, then they do this...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Yeah but Rik, you've seen at least 3 postings on here today (me, softie and Steph) who've all received one of these letters but will not be taking the offer up cos we've gone and bought someone else's tickets :(((

I'd say your chances are pretty good tiger...I think mine are in the Upper Milburn as well....

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

A wild shot in the dark which may rely on common sense, sorry better make that very wild.

But they might want to get all the applications in from the waiting list and then allocate them on the relative position from the waiting list.

Rik if you want tickets for the Upper Milburn, they may group you with the rest of those applicants that want the Upper Milburn. You would probably have a number which would indicate how long you've been on ther list, so they'll bang these numbers on a spreadsheet and do a sort and give them to the people with the smallest numbers. i.e. No. 1 would be the first person on the waiting list.

Nah can't be that simple can it? I haven't though about this much so there are probably a few flaws in this method!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I would have thought they'd sell the crap seats first then be left with the better ones which would be more marketable. Hence the box office line of you cannot see where you being seated because of the building work.

By the way Rik what is your number? mine is 33244 which has changed from 33242 since Feb last year. I 've been on the list since May 1994 having been able to pay on the day before that. Did anyone else slip a tenner at the turnstile in the gallowgate when it became all ticket?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

33244!!!! Surely not the number of people on the waiting list?!!!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Thers a lot of people boycotting their tickets thi season over the SOS camapign ... every chance of getting one in my eyes .

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Softie, I wouldn't mind your application after all if your offer still holds. That way I'll get to sit next to someone I know, it's more enjoyable that way.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I don't know who that one will be next to Tony, as it's just the general offer to everyone on the waiting list, so don't choose it on those grounds! I have already got a spare that was offered to someone via the Connect Club and will be in Row M of the Leazes extension. If you are interested anyway, e-mail me and I'll send you the forms.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Thank God for that, it means the rest of us can listen to the webcast and log on here in peace and quiet. Cancel the posse's boys and girls!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Hahahaha I hadn't thought of that!! It's gonna be absolutely deserted on the bbs next season ;))

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Maybe it'll be as quiet as this!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I'll be here!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

haha...strangely enough I'll probably still be here as well....even though I've got 2 tickets, it'll depend upon where I'm working as to whether I can get up for the games or not :)

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I'm sure DeBuiler is right Rik - they will wish to get in all the applications in at once to assess total demand. The 'allocation' of tickets can then be done as they feel appropriate. If the number of applications is less than the number of available seats, then there simply isn't a problem.
I'd be amazed if your application wasn't successful.
When I was at SJP selecting my 2nd seat in April, they told me they were hoping to keep 3,000 seats/tickets available for sale on a match by match basis, but I'm sure this could be reduced somewhat, as necessary.

BTW, ALL of the best seats had already been allocated back in April - including all of the front few rows and all the way to the back of the Milburn top tier on the halfway line.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Is there a system to the waiting list numbering? I'm 314918.

Anyway, Rik, I don't think you have to worry. Was it Debuilder that made the point that the club may just be getting all apps in, then allocating based on list number? Makes sense since there isn't very long before the season starts. They probably don't really have time to send out one wave of letters, wait for response, allocate tickets, then send out the next wave, etc.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Well, there's probably an alphabet and surname issue....

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I am concerned because I got my application form 3 days after most other people. It says on the bottom. "I must stress that tickets for all our new facilities are limited and are being sold on a first come, first served basis (the new family enclose for instace is sold out) So please send in your application as soon as possable ...blah....blah....blah... because the number of seats is limited we can't guarantee you a seat, but the sooner you apply the greater chances of success." signed Russell Cushing.... SO I get my aplication in 3 days later than someone on the list for 6 months rather than 6 years and I don't get a seat? Fair? Rogan Taylor will be hearing about this....

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Tell SOS not to hoy them plastic buckets out yet!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Rik, if it`s any consolation, I have been on the list for over four years, and Yelli for at least 18 months, so far we haven`t received our applications. Mind you, when everyone was given bar code numbers, we didn`t get them either, and had to write to them again for ours. (which no doubt shuffled us back to the end of the queue!)

Having said that, and after long and soul searching discussions, we have both decided that we just wont be in a position to take up the option, when and if it arrives. Yelli`s new job is going to entail quite a bit of travel, and I am campaigning a dog this year, so quite a number of the home matches would be out for us anyway. I think the best thing we can do is play it by ear this year, and hope we can get tickets for the games we are free to attend.

Biggest disappointment so far is that Yelli will be at an exhibition the weekend of the Southampton - Newcastle match. Truly bad timing!

So, ITK, I expect I will be joining you on the Matchday threads for a little while yet!(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Galaxy,

You'll still be joining us all for the Southampton match even though your beautiful daughter can't.....won't you?

I promise that we will look after you...*no smut the rest of you!*

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Well it would be rude not to! (:o)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

EXCELLENT!!! :))

Don't bring any pies though!! ;))

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Chicken!!!(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I'll have chicken pies if you've bought them especially but I ain't eating anything that you or "Fingers" Pete has cooked.....gives me the shivers just thinking about it :))

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

They can't possibly be as clueless as they appear, can they ?

I've been on the list at least 4 years, and no sign of an application form. And my num's up in the 70odd thous, so where the logic is in the number system is beyond me.

On the strength of some of the postings on here, I rang to check why no form. The guy asked my number, checked his screen or whatever, and, with no prompting from me, came back with exactly the right details, and the bleat 'Sorry mate, there doesn't appear to be any reason why you should have been missed out. Your best bet is to get a hand written application in ASAP, cos there's only the back of the SJH extension left now.' So I knocked off work sooner than I intended to get to the ground before they shut up shop with a hand written application.

Effing typical. They must have somebody monitoring this and have got a pet lip on over my frequently expressed loathing of filthy fred.

For the good it'll do, I'm following up with a snotty letter. I know. I know - it'll be a complete waste of time, and if it wasn't for the fact that the players have nowt to do with how shitty the organisation is, I'd be tempted to tell them to stick their season ticket.

That would show them, and no mistake. Useless bast@rds.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Have to say, Pit Bill, it does make a total mockery of bothering to have a waiting list. May as well just make it a free for all each season! If our applications come through, you`re welcome to them, I think we are no more, or less likely to get season tickets next year, if it becomes feasible for us to do so.(:o|

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Woah! only 1 row left?!?!

Shit I hope Rik got his seats or there'll be trouble.....

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Pit Bill,
I know Rik has already written a 'sharp' letter to Rogan Taylor over what is beginning to shape up as yet another farce. Could I suggest you do likewise - I'm sure Mr. Taylor will be thrilled to know that nothing appears to have changed, despite all the rhetoric, and that he faces climbing a mountain of Everest proportions in his new job.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I have to say, NUFC could go a long way to help foster good relations with their supporters if they tried to occasionally keep them in the 0picture! They have an official site that has had the same season ticket information on for months and months now. The site is dreadfully impersonal, and needs to be a lot more pro-active. An update on the season ticket situation would have been very useful. Anybody looked on their chat page lately? I find it so tedious I never bother. (:o|

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Clarky,
In my naivety, I decided to write in the first instance to the manager of the box office, but I think I'll run off another copy of the letter and send it to this Rogan Josh guy.

Galaxy,
Thanks for the offer, I'll hang fire for a couple of days though, to see if there's any response to what I've already done. Agree wholeheartedly with your comments on the official site, and it would be so easy for it to be otherwise. They appear to give just lip service to wanting good relations with the fans. Trouble is, it's like being in the trenches - you're sorry for the guy next to you who gets blown away, but over the moon it didn't happen to you. And I'm starting to feel blown away. Just hope Rik's not celebrating prematurely.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Rik won`t be a happy bunny - that`s for sure! {:o|

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Another fine shambles brought to you by NUFC. *sigh* Good luck to Rogan in trying to sort the mess out. Someone's got to do it. I'd really love to spend a few days as a fly on the wall in the offices to see what is really going on. It seems like nobody is really in charge of non-playing matters, or else they do things without thinking it through and planning. The ST allocation and the web site. Neither one is brain surgery so it really boggles my mind that they appear to make such a hash of basic supporter relation tools. :-/

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Ciara, why don't you write to them and offer to do the web site for them? It would get you a job and we would have a site worth visiting!

PS I dropped the application in at lunchtime - fingers crossed!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

At least people are panicking that they might not get a seat, rather than about the club not selling all their tickets (as they are at some clubs not a million miles away). It's almost certainly part of the problem and always has been - complacency because of a captive audience/inflexible demand.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Actually, I have been meaning to write to Rogan Taylor about it. I've offered suggestions and my services to the club and got nowhere. Maybe this guy can at least take all the suggestions on board and make one solid case to the club. I doubt I'd get a job with the club. And if things really are as disorganized as it seems, not sure I'd really want to work for them. I have very little tolerance for corporate nonsense.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I think NTL will be taking that part of the business in hand and will hopefully make a better fist of it.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

NTL already has taken over the site from Planetonline. They just seem even less inclined to do anything with it. So where's NTL's offices located? I feel another job application coming on..... ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

There's an NTL office in Watford....probably to do with the cable tv.....they've just offered a friend of mine a web managers job and he turned it down cos he said they were a bunch of cowboys...

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Mmm. You're not the only one to offer your web services to the club Ciara. As things started to get sticky early on in the Communicata days, I stepped in to try and exert some pressure, as Tony from Communicata privately asked me for some help. In hindsight we can't take anything away from Communicata and how long they helped us out for. As far as I could see (and Communicata didn't divulge anything to me), the feeling was the club fucked them over.

I put a detailed proposal to the club some time ago concerning all aspects of their web activity, and practical ways to help them with their overall systems. Obviously no acknowledgment.

As for the arse up over the ticket request forms, just how difficult is it to do a 'select from table waiting_fans 1-20000' and then mail those fans? It would take any competent person who'd been near a database about 12 seconds.

F*cking muppets!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

NTL are in charge of all the club's Internet activity and I suspect they will relaunch the websites (I think I read that somewhere like the FT) of the clubs they have bought into...

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Ciara,
Just in case Rik (via e-mail) can't oblige with an address for Rogan Taylor, do you have one ?

Looks like the more the merrier with the snotty letters to try to wake them up a bit. Fat chance, though, on past performance.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

If it makes anyone feel any better (and it won't except to demonstrate that we aren't alone in being badly treated), a Manc mate has just mailed me to say that they are doing the same at Old Trafford. A woman phoned to ask about membership and was told that if she came down to OT that day she'd get two tickets. People who have been members for ages have heard nothing about their new season tickets.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

At least we'll have a full stadium. Metro Radio are advertising tickets for the Stadium of Sh*te!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Actually, I don't have the address for RT, bill. If you or Rik could email it to me at: amenjivar@aol.com I'd appreciate it. :-)

Dunx, sorry to hear there was no acknowledgement of your offer. Especially with having closer ties and a well thought out plan. I don't hold much hope of me making any difference either, just a creative writing exercise more like ;-) Sorting out the mess isn't going to happen quickly, if ever. It seems very deep rooted. And certainly not for lack of effort of some people already in there. Our Club United contact seems quite willing and has good ideas, but gets nowhere near the help and support he needs to do a proper job. I'm sure there are others as well. Just that none of them are in charge. :-(

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Ciara/Pit Bill - You just have to write to him c/o SJP apparently.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Has anyone had a reply to a letter that they have sent to SJP? I certainly haven`t - I`ve always had to chase them by phone. Mind you, at the other extreme, the last time I went to LeMans was when the NUFC car was making it`s debut. There was very little mention of it in the press, and I rang SJP to see if I could get any info. They new nothing about it, but gave me a phone number to ring for information, which I duly rang, and it was answered by none other than Sir John Hall himself! I felt such a twonk!

If only I could have remembered where I put the phone number, we could have had a field day over the past couple of years!

As for your suggestions Duncan - well they just don`t know what they have missed do they!(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Believe it or not, the only reply I ever got was when I sent a letter to RG just before things went completely pear-shaped. It was from his secretary..but at least it was a reply!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I actually got a telephone call from FF in response to one of my tirades. When my Secretary said FF was on the phone for me I assumed it was a wind-up, and I was so gob-smacked when it actually was him that I was completely tongue-tied and only thought of all the things I wanted to say to him when I'd put the phone down! Probably just as well.
I always found SJH and FF attentive to correspondence, even though FF didn't always reply himself - which I happen to believe is incorrect. However, I've written three times to the present Chairman, and never had so much as an acknowledgement - which IMO says everything.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Actually I've always e-mailed the club. And everytime I've got a response. And Mick Wadsworth is a decent enough bloke to correspond with about likely bairns. There you now know my secret into monitoring you english lads.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Softie, Thanks for the forms; they arrived this morning. I think I'll be taking them up to SJP later this morning.

Cheers

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I've sent my letter off addressed to Rogan Taylor, Newcastle United football club, St James' Park Newcastle. I think we should start a new thread on this subject which can discuss our replies (if any ) from St James'.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000