Fan Advisory Board Member - The need to join outweighed public risk

Grace met with her representative on the Fan Advisory Board to ask him what he goes to achieve and why he puts up with the criticism

Facing constant scrutiny from the people you’re supposed to represent can be overwhelming, but the youngest member of Newcastle United’s Fan Advisory Board is up for the challenge.

“I've not put myself out there for the sake of it,” says Thomas Symonds, 22. “I felt something needed to be done. Young people needed a voice within the club and I felt I could do that effectively. I felt like the need to do it outweighed the public risk.”

Symonds is the Young Person Representative, covering the issues of supporters aged 25 and under. He is one of nine inaugural members of Newcastle United’s Fan Advisory Board, which launched in November 2023. The board conduct bi-monthly meetings with club officials, giving feedback on fan-related matters.

Since its launch, the board are frequently met with criticism from some of Newcastle United’s supporters. Whenever the club announce a decision, particularly in relation to matchday tickets, the majority of negative comments are directed towards the board. Their capability to accurately represent the voices of an entire fanbase is frequently questioned.

“People are entitled to their opinion,” says Symonds. “If I’m putting myself in that position to advise the club and I’ve got to put myself in the public eye, there’s no getting away with that. I’ve got an influence over how young people are perceived and how their voices come across, so I can’t not be receptive to criticism, however harsh that could be.”

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Originally from Consett, Symonds is an International Business, Finance and Economics student at the University of Manchester. He captains the university’s football team, where he participates within their performance programme. Despite his busy schedule, Symonds is a season ticket holder, attending most Newcastle United home and away matches since 2008.

What sparked Symonds’ main motivation to join the Fan Advisory Board was the lack of tickets available for young people. As we all know very well, the successful seasons following the takeover dramatically increased ticket demand, impacting a significant amount of the fanbase.

“People that are turning 18 to 21 are coming into an era where demand is absolutely through the roof and access is very, very hard,” he says. “What I really want to work on with the club is ‘how do you give young fans a leg-up, so that you can access those tickets, and go and build that relationship?’”

Allowing young fans to sustain a relationship with Newcastle United is high on Symonds’ priority list. Considering he bought his season ticket with his father, he believes that the inter-generational ties between family supporters are being lost due to the increased demand.

“Your dad or your mam would go, then when it was their time to have children, they would take them and it would carry on,” he says. “This next generation is not going to have the chance to do that, which is really sad.”

Symonds also hopes to allow young supporters to access away game tickets. He is critical of the club’s decision to introduce ID checks at these games, which meant that fans couldn’t pass tickets onto each other. A lot of young supporters relied upon this, as most do not have as many loyalty points as their older peers.

.“I felt like the new system isolated young fans,” says Symonds. “I’ve done it before, where I’ve used a friend’s ticket to go to a game when I didn’t have enough loyalty points – that was just common practice. When the ID system came in, it was almost like, some fans were demonised.”

For both home and away matches, one of the fanbase’s main concerns is that local fans are being priced out. This leaves the door open for wealthier fans, particularly those from international countries. The Fan Advisory Board’s international fan representative, Natalie Noyes, has faced heavy criticism personally, after she claimed to have only supported the club since the takeover in 2021.

Symonds stresses that the Fan Advisory Board members work together like a team to ensure they can represent as many fans as they can, citing Noyes as a hardworking and invaluable member of the board. However, he makes it abundantly clear that his number one priority is the accessibility for younger fans.

“I've got to represent my own demographic, really,” he says, after a small pause. “I like to think I’m a local lad. You need that strong fanbase from the locality, that’s essential. Does that mean you don’t want international fans? No, all fans are still welcome. But, there needs to be an acknowledgement that to keep the club sustainable, the locality needs to be accounted for.”

Looking towards the future, Symonds hopes that he can bring as many young fans to St. James’ Park and to the away games as possible, using his position on the board to influence change.

Grace Laidler @gracewillhuntin