...for non-season ticket holders:

Wednesday 9th August 2000 Updated 5:40pm BST MAGPIES MOVE IS JUST THE TICKET

Newcastle fans have been handed a pre-season boost with the news that not all of them will need a season ticket to get into St James Park. The Magpies have revealed that they will put 2,500 tickets on general sale for every Premiership.

An estimated 2,000 of those will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, while the remaining 500 will be sold as part of corporate packages.

The news follows on from last seasons acrimonious court case in which Newcastle bond holders lost their battle to save their original seats after being re-allocated to make way for corporate clients.

The development was part of an impressive refurbishment of the stadium, which now boasts a capacity of 52,000.

The Magpies have already sold an amazing 41,000 season tickets for the forthcoming Premiership campaign, a further 4,000 corporate packages for the season and must make 3,000 seats available for away supporters.

And if visiting clubs to fulfil their allocation, even more tickets will be made available for the paying supporter.

"If visiting fans don't take up their full allocation of 3,000 tickets, we will have even more seats available for our supporters.

The redevelopment of St James Park has seen the capacity rise from 36,700 to 52,000.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

Answers

This same story is given a highly negative front-page 'spin' in today's Journal.

The storyline there is that the Club have been unable to sell 500 of the "SOS seats" to corporate hospitality and have needed to offer them for sale on a match-by-match basis at #72 per game.

Heads you lose: tails you don't win!

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000