Carlisle United want 14,000 tickets for Final

CARLISLE United are seeking an increase in their 14,000 allocation of tickets for Saturday night’s Nationwide Conference play-off final against Stevenage.

United, who will make an immediate return to the Football League if they win at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium, are expecting a huge demand for tickets from the Blue Army.

General manager George Thomson travelled to the Britannia Stadium this morning to meet league chiefs.

The Britannia Stadium has a 28,000 capacity Stevenage, whose average attendance is barely a third of United’s, have been handed just under 14,000 tickets.

Carlisle, who are 4-6 odds-on favourites with the bookies to win, are confident they can sell more tickets after 10,803 watched Friday night’s dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Aldershot.

United owner Fred Story told News & Star Sport today: “I think we can take 15,000 to Stoke. We got 10,000 on Friday night but we took 25,000 to Wembley.

“People are ringing us for tickets from all over the country. Kids and families are going. It’s the occasion. People want to be there for when we go back into the league.”

Tickets went on sale at Brunton Park yesterday to season ticket holders. Supporters’ club members were able to buy them today. They will be available to the general public tomorrow from 10am to 7pm.

The club is also applying for an extended drinks’ licence at Brunton Park for Saturday night so that Foxy’s, the Sunset Suite and the Sporting Inn can all stay open until the early hours, allowing players and officials to celebrate with fans when they return to Carlisle.