Donate a Ticket makes a “huge difference” at Newburgh

With clubs making no income over the past couple of months owing to football being put into cold storage, Donate a Ticket, which was created to allow fans to pay an imaginary entrance fee to scheduled league games, has provided a lifeline. To date, it has generated £1158 for Newburgh.

The East Shore Park club are now on board in its extension from league tickets to a virtual Scottish Cup.

A Newburgh spokesman said: “We were drawn in the first round against Pollok FC who are one of the biggest sides in junior football.

“The tie took place over the four days, Thursday to Sunday, with the team selling the most tickets progressing to round two. We pushed Pollok all the way losing out in extra time, 148-158 tickets sold.

“Our tie was close all the way and, in the end, we sold a fantastic number of tickets and raised a fantastic sum from the campaign.

“The total tickets sold between us in the tie was the fourth highest total of all of the 16 first round fixtures.

“Losing the revenue from our last two home games meant we were having to dip into our reserves to keep our overheads in check.

“The income from the donate a ticket campaign has really made a huge difference to the club and we can’t thank the team behind the scheme enough.”

Donate a Ticket creater, Ruaridh Kilgour, is delighted to hear of the impact his programme is making to the local club.

Ruaridh said the cup tie with Pollock was one of the most exciting games to be held so far since the platform was created.

“Newburgh were leading until the last 10 minutes but a late flurry of 34 ticket donations saw Pollok take the lead and come out overall winners of the tie 158-148,” he said.

“That £740 raised from their Donate a Ticket Scottish Cup first round tie is included in their overall total of £1158 raised on the Donate a Ticket platform since they signed up on April 10.

“The Donate a Ticket campaign has raised £90,000 between 95 clubs throughout Scotland.

“I launched the platform at the end of March to help clubs fundraise in the form of virtual ticket donations with no real expectation of how popular it could become.

“I’m delighted to provide a platform for clubs to raise much-needed funds when all other options are currently limited or unavailable due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Donate a Ticket is free for every club and we don’t take any commission from supporter donations.”

For further info visit donateaticket.com/