Newcastle fans in mass protest with 12,000 season tickets left unsold to hit owner Mike Ashley in pocket

NEWCASTLE fans are hitting hated owner Mike Ashley in the pocket — with almost 12,000 season tickets left unsold.

Yesterday the Toon put them on general sale after the deadline passed for existing holders to renew their seats.

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Reuters

And when Sun Sport checked the tickets website, there was a sea of green on the St James’ Park map, with a staggering 11,710 tickets still up for grabs. That is 6,500 MORE than this time last year.

Newcastle usually flog around 42,000 season tickets every campaign and sold out their allocation in 2017.

Fans seem to be voting with their feet in the wake of Ashley’s failure to tie down ex-boss Rafa Benitez — who left largely because of the billionaire’s lack of ambition.

Supporters’ groups are also planning a boycott of the Premier League opener against Arsenal on Sunday, August 11.

That would cause huge embarrassment for manager-in-waiting Steve Bruce — a boyhood Toon fan — in his first game in charge.

Anti-Ashley campaigners last week released a joint statement calling for fans to join their boycott.

They said: “Ashley is wrong for this club and wrong if he thinks he has a future here.

“He does not give or build, he only knows how to take and throw his weight around.

“His bottom-line approach will see this club fail. What we need is a message, that this man is toxic. We need him gone from our club.”

Newcastle are the only Premier League club yet to make a signing this summer.

And they have sold last season’s 13-goal top-scorer Ayoze Perez to Leicester for £30million. The imminent appointment of ex-Sunderland boss Bruce has only increased the anger of the fanbase

And while the Geordie manager is confident he can win around the Toon Army, there is nothing he can do to stop their war against Ashley.