United managing director John Nixon spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Tuesday evening, Nixon talking about the allocation of 1,710 tickets that Carlisle have been given for the away game at Leeds on the 12th of April :
" We did hope for more than we were given although some three or four weeks ago we were advised that the maximum would be 2,000. Under Football League rules of course Leeds were very much working in line with the West Yorkshire Police and were offering us only a 2,000 allocation at that time.
" The first thing that West Yorkshire Police did was to review the match at Brunton Park in November. Although there weren't a great deal of problems inside the ground there were obviously a significant amount of problems in the town and city centre. The West Yorkshire Police actually insisted on a 12.15pm kick-off and they were very much involved in the allocation of tickets to Carlisle and the supporters because of those incidents in November.
" We've very disappointed with the allocation because the first thing we did was write to Leeds three or four weeks ago and say that we gave them 3,350 and that we would like the same allocation. Of their first offer of course 1,400 of the 2,000 were adult only tickets and we felt that was really disadvantaging a lot of our supporters because that is a high price to pay at £25 a ticket.
" So we literally appealed to them and didn't get too far on that appeal but we did get them too to give us a full allocation of child, junior, concessions and adult tickets. We probably could have gained another 290 tickets but, and I quote from the letter that we had from Leeds, they said that : "the first 600 tickets had to be sold to our season ticket holders and members, (Nixon - many of whom are families), and they will be in an area adjacent to our supporters who, in that area, can be quite vociferous."
" So we didn't feel it safe to put a lot of our supporters in an area adjacent to some Leeds supporters because of the problems in Carlisle. So we accepted the 1,710 allocation in a completely segregated area.
" The Football League rules stipulate that the minimum number that they can give us is 2,000. They can give us more but for grounds that are less than 20,000 then they have to give 10%, and a good example of that was earlier this season when we went to Hartlepool. I think their ground capacity is about 9,000 and we got about 850 tickets. So Leeds have worked very much within the rules of the Football League and so there isn't a recourse to go back to the Football League.
" I've got to tell you that the Football League have been copied in all our correspondence so far and understand the situation. I think the most that we have taken to an away match was probably 1,800 or 1,900 to Nottingham Forest during last season. This would be probably the second biggest away support if we take all 1,710 tickets, so we have been taking anywhere between 750 and 1,000 people travelling away. "
" The tickets will be on sale on Wednesday the 2nd of April and they will go on sale initially on the 2nd and 3rd of April to memberships only. We have about 3,500 members at Carlisle now, there are some come through as season tickets holders, some through being Premier Club members and some who are just standard ordinary members, so they will get first choice at one member one ticket.
" A big screen isn't something at this stage that we have considered. We've got to take account that we could look at that but at our last home game, having gone twelve league home wins in a row, and we had 5,500 supporters turn up, which was less than the previous match. So we've got to be a bit careful about opening our own ground and the costs associated with that and stewarding etc. Which would just be very, very similar if we had a big screen there before we incur a lot of costs for probably a very small handful of people that could come in, but we'll certainly look into it. "
" I think it's generally across the board that attendances are down, I think that we've got to take into account the situation in the UK as a whole in terms of the availability of money and the credit crunch, along with one or two other things. I think it's interesting to note to date that Rotherham have gone into administration again for the second time in 18 months and one of the reasons they quote is that there are less people coming through the turnstiles than they had anticipated at the beginning of the season.
" We are no different to a lot of other clubs in the country, we are trying to cut our cloth accordingly of course and we are trying to keep a tight ship. At this point in time there is a shortfall in our attendances obviously, but it's difficult to tell because there is normally a lift up in gates between now and the end of the season.
" This happens every season and the last three or four matches we can get in excess of 8,000 - 10,000, so that can affect the whole average of the season. So let's hope for better things and keep our fingers crossed for the matches coming up. Of course we've got teams like Swansea and Nottingham Forest coming up so we would look to bigger and better gates at that time.
" We would go into the Championship obviously with our eyes open. We have got the basic infrastructure there to take us forward, again I've got to repeat that we keep a very tight ship. We'd move forward into the Championship and we'd take all the necessary steps that a team has to take moving into that league. Of course we face it very much with our eyes open though, we've done our homework, we've done our estimates and forecasts and we know exactly where we are if it happens. "