Parkway expecting Plymouth Argyle sell-out for pre-season game

Parkway are expecting the game on Saturday, July 11, which will kick-off at 3pm, to be a 2,300 sell-out as the two teams meet for the first time in pre-season since 2023.

The ticket sales and extra revenue that will come staging the game will provide a substantial financial boost for Parkway ahead of their 2026/27 Southern League Premier South campaign.

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It will also be a good opportunity to put Parkway in the spotlight and showcase their facilities at Bolitho Park and the quality of their team to a wider audience than usual.

Karl Curtis, a former Argyle academy coach, has been appointed as Parkway's new manager and the visit of Tom Cleverley's Pilgrims will be his first home game in charge.

Parkway's head of operations, Mike Parrish, told Plymouth Live: "It's obviously brilliant for the football club. It isn't necessarily about the football, it's about the exposure of the Parkway name and the brand to the Plymouth community.

"The game itself, probably everyone knows what it's going to be. It's probably going to be kind of attack against defence but it's great for the boys, for Karl, to test themselves against Argyle.

"At the same time, I think it's more about what it will do for Plymouth Parkway Football Club as a whole."

Parrish continued: "We are Argyle's first pre-season game, I believe, it's on a Saturday, it's in the summer, it's hopefully going to be a boiling hot day.

"We have got so much work to do to get ready for it so fans enjoy the experience and come back. It's probably going to be a 2,300 sell-out and there won't be any tickets available on the day.

"For us to be Argyle's first (pre-season) game is massive, and on a Saturday in July in the sunshine it's going to be a great day for the city."

It will take a team effort at Parkway off the pitch to get Bolitho Park ready to welcome so many football supporters on July 11.

Parrish said: "It stretches the club. I would love to say we would get 2,000 fans down here every home game but we are not quite there yet, we are still trying to find how to get a 1,000 people here.

"We will pull together as a club to get a band volunteers in who are going to help on the day. It is going to be all hands on deck but when it's all said and done it's going to be a very special day, and it isn't just the day.

"It's that after effect of you might pick up fans when Argyle are away, you might get people coming down to watch us on a more regular basis. It means a lot more than just the football match on the Saturday."

On the financial boost for Parkway of playing against Argyle, Parrish made an interesting and revealing comparison.

He commented: "I think you could look at it in terms of if we were to go on a good FA Cup run and we would reach the first round, it's probably as lucrative as that for us a football club. I honestly think so.

"I said all hands on deck because you want to try and generate as much revenue as you can on the day because we would be silly not to.

"For a spectacle it's brilliant, for the brand it's brilliant but to have that insurance we have got a little pot of money coming to us at the start of the season is massive for the football club.

"We have got to travel 6,704 miles next season so you have got to think of how much that is going to cost before a ball is kicked!"

Tickets for Parkway's game against Argyle can be bought online (click HERE). They cost £10 for adults, £5 for over-65s and under-16s, and it is free for under-10s when accompanied by a paying adult.

The last time the two teams met in pre-season was in July 2023 when Argyle won 2-0 after goals from Ben Waine and Ryan Hardie.

Parkway almost beat their EFL visitors the previous year, leading 2-0 into the closing stages of the game until the Pilgrims scored late on through Hardie and Joe Edwards to draw 2-2.

Parrish said: "Historically this fixture, we haven't promoted it as early as we have this time and I have been amazed by the response in ticket sales. We are up to 1,620 now.

"I'm hopeful that we can say it's going to be all ticket with no pay on the gate available because it would be easier for the football club and the way we are going I think that's going to happen."

Curtis was previously at Parkway as assistant manager to Lee Hobbs until leaving in March 2020 to take up a lead age coach role at Argyle's academy.

Most recently, he led Torpoint Athletic to a second place finish in the Western League Premier Division in 2025/26, which has now led to his return to Bolitho Park.

His first game as Parkway boss will be away to Torpoint on Saturday, July 4. Parrish said: "I think it's special for Karl because when he was with us first he left to go to the Argyle youth academy.

"It will be nice to play Torpoint and try and get our foot on the ball and play football before we probably won't see the ball for 70 minutes when we play Argyle.

"I think for Karl it will be a special day for him and his family to return to Bolitho Park and on his first match play Plymouth Argyle. What a wonderful occasion."

You can read more of our Argyle stories from Plymouth Live by clicking HERE

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