General manager Paul Bell revealed today that 1,000 tickets had already been sold for the Cup encounter, the winners of which will go through to meet Leeds United in the third round on January 4. Fears that live Sky Sports coverage might reduce the crowd appear to have been removed by the initial response of supporters. Tickets can be purchased from the ticket office up until Thursday afternoon and will be available from the ticket portakabins on the night. Fans have been asked to buy them early to avoid lenghty queues on Thursday evening. "We have already sold around 1,000 tickets," said Bell. "That is probably three or four times the amount we would normally sell at this stage before a game and we are hoping things will pick up even further as we get towards match day." Ticket stubs should be kept as they will allow regular fans to jump the queues for the Leeds tie if United get through. Stubs from both games against Wrexham last week, the Scunthorpe tie and the Boxing Day clash with Darlington will all qualify for priority treatment in the event of Carlisle qualifying for the 3rd Round. Carlisle and Scunthorpe are already splitting a £200,000 TV payout from Sky, although both have had to agree reluctantly to make a controversial £25,000 payment to Hartlepool United as compensation for their game with Scunthorpe being moved back a day to Saturday. CCUIST pleased with response Members of the board of CCUIST, the United supporters' trust are pleased with the initial response of supporters to their appeal for new members at the home game with Bury last month. Fans received an envelope with an application form as they went through the turnstiles, containing details of the new £1-a-week donation scheme that many fans have already signed up to. CCUIST has passed the 1,100-member mark and is aiming to have as many as 2,000 people all contributing £1 a week to the share fund, to be collected via a £5 per month standing order or by credit card. Existing members are also being asked to consider becoming regular donors, if they have not already started payments. CCUIST need to raise a further £300,000 by the end of 2005 after agreeing to purchase 20 per cent of the shares in United from owner John Courtenay. They have already got £100,000 in the kitty ready to hand over as advance payment for the shares. They hope to finalise the hand over of this money soon and use it as a spur to get more fans on board. The chairman of CCUIST, Alan Steel, was recently elected to serve as the fans representative on United's board of directors. Application forms can be downloaded from the CCUIST website at www.ccuist.org Charity CD now on sale in Club shop The charity single The Eighth of May is now available in the Club shop, priced £5. The CD comes with three tracks, each specially written by local musicians Stephen Dunn and John Chambers, who go under the collective name of The Shopkeeper for the title track. Proceeds from the sale of the single are being split 50:50 between CCUIST and the Eden Valley Hospice. Picture from News & Star |
