While we still think the news that Indian Billionaire Anil Ambani is on the brink of buying Newcastle United is untrue, it’s also interesting what his people are saying about our club – some good stuff and true too.
Mike Ashley – owner of Newcastle United
The sixth richest man in the world was reported yesterday to have given a one week deadline to Mike Ashley, for him to accept a £260M offer for the club.
Ambami and his company denied this was true, only this morning.
Ambani is said to be worth £21B and a source close to the proposed deal told The Daily Telegraph today:
“Ambani has twice as much money as [Roman] Abramovich and his intentions are deadly serious,”
“His people will put a set of proposals to Ashley and if they don’t like them they will say ‘that’s it’ and turn their attention elsewhere.”
“They won’t be messed about.”
It is understood that English clubs with large fan bases, have attracted interest from Ambani, and Yorkshire clubs Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday are also interesting the Bombay-based Billionaire, and Everton are also said to be within his sights.
But it looks like Newcastle United, with their terrific and passionate fan base is his number one choice, as the source continued:
“They see Newcastle as a massive club with vast potential,”
“They know they already attract 50,000-plus crowds and wonder what would happen if they get back into the Champions League.”
” But they also see India as an untapped market as well.”
This billionaire seems to know what he is talking about, doesn’t he?
Now let’s think – wonder if there is any truth in this story? 😀
Comments welcome.
241 comments so far
Dondatta13
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:23 PM
Comment #41Black and White Blood, as I said at the bottom of comment #10. “Poor Ashley, he’s darned if he does and he’s darned if he don’t”
On the other point on KK not throwing a hissy fit, spitting his dummy out and walking away, I said pretty much the same as you.
Take a look at my comments yesterday on the subject (Comment 167)
http://nufcblog.com/2008/08/03/newcastle-news/ashley-talking-to-asian-businesmen-about-investment/
Matt
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:23 PM
Comment #42Coloccini is coming over for his medical later today, calm down you embarrassing bunch.
ANON
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:23 PM
Comment #43ASHLEY OUT!!!!!!!!!
Davies
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Comment #44ANON – Is that you Fernando?
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:26 PM
Comment #45Sirjasontoon – you just made that up. How do you know Keegan’s intentions, moods, feelings except from the interviews we have. From the interviews he is cheery and optimistic and looking forward to the new season – so what you said is a complete fabrication of the Daily Mail kind – not based on fact.
Nick Dryden
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:26 PM
Comment #46Abramovic has set up a minimum200M trust fund for Chelsea for when or if he ever decides to leave.
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Comment #47Wake up and smell the coffee angryman – the club is not a profitable entity. Not unless we get into europe at least.
antz
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Comment #48ok, ive watched and watched the comments regarding this and i now feel i have to say something, after listening to that prick rob shepherd, from the NOTW being interviewed yesterday he said some valid points, (even though i still think he’s a c*nt!!) the main one being that they have had dialogue and they have also signed a non/disclosure agreement (someone please feel free to correct me on the terminology of that) now by signing that, this means that neither party can comment upon it or dicsuss it in any form regarding details of a takeover as is stated by the city in such circumstances, yes i know we are no longer a publicly owned company but these things still happen within the private sector to stop any other bidders becoming aware/making counterbids, so if we are to believe this then neither of them are LEGALLY allowed to give anything away
Punk Skunk
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Comment #49Sounds ominous!..
Dondatta13
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Comment #50Davies, I dont think for one second Ashley has, as you put it “poured £280 Million into the club”
He bought NUFC for £130 Million and he discovered we had £80Million debt (because he apparently DIDNT do due diligence, checking the books).
You seem to be £70 Million over on your estimations.
Graham
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:32 PM
Comment #51well said B&W blood.
Angry Man – Other thanSteve Gibson at Boro and Abramovich, name me another owner / chairman that isn’t in it for the money?
Open your eyes man
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:35 PM
Comment #52Dondatta – as was explained to me – we had an overdraft of some 80 million pounds on the club bank account which could be paid of in some obscure year in the future. However, during the takeover – the bank had a clause in the deal to allow them to demand the loans be repaid within 60 days. Boom, 80 mill gone. Because the income of the club is less than the operating costs, we have a negative cashflow – and so banks will not lend to us either. So it costs Ashley money each year to maintain our wage bill while then adding more cash for transfers.
9 Shearer
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:35 PM
Comment #53As i said earlier, I dont care about Ashley what i care about are his policies. When he goes and that is what I want we should stay to what he has left like Wise and co. , they jst knw how to spot young talent. We shouls stay with the policy of young lads hungry for success not money hungry players. Let KK and OWEN LEAD THE TEAM. Now am in with tthe Indian, without that he should leave.
Graham
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Comment #54Thanks for the info Antz
Macas
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Comment #55It’s a good job no one on this blog has completely over reacted to a few friendly defeats with an injury hit squad. The only person of any note that we have shipped out since last season is an injury prone Emre, and we have added a quality winger, a promising midfielder, and a very promising CB with one experienced CB to come in. And there are still over 3 weeks left in the transfer window. We are surely doomed.
Punk Skunk
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Comment #56Perspective!..
Black and White Blood
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Comment #57Angryman the Angry Fan – Hey mate I completely respect your opinion, although I merely chose to believe that MA will be good for our club long term.
What gives us the right to expect instant success, would it not be wiser to lay a solid foundation which would then allow building over the coming years, as Everton Portsmouth have done so. Can you imagine NUFC run as a stabilised club, like everything else stability will bring success.
Personally, if I had a choice of watching our fantastic club play Championship Football or go into ‘Administration’ through paying exorbitant wages on pre-madonna’s, then it would be Championship Football every time.
What more can MA do, in my opinion, he love the club, therefore doesn’t wish to relinquish control so that he is able to ensure its run diligently, hence he’s looking for investors to inject cash – Good on him!!
antz
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Comment #58no probs graham, im not saying there’s any truth in it, all im trying to point out is that if they are in dialogue, then legally they cant say anything or it will blow the lot!
so really we’re no further bloody forward! lol
Matt
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Comment #59I used to enjoy reading this blog but I can honestly say I’m embarrassed to read some of the stuff that some people come out with on here.
A complete bunch of mongs.
I’m off to Newcastle-Online where people have more than a handful of braincells.
Goodbye.
Paul
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Comment #60well said Davies….wait until abramovich leaves chelsea n they end up gettin removed fromt he league cuz theyre debt and ull see why the billionaire money thign is bad….remember what goes up must come down….
until im a billionaire and buy the club….
valle
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Comment #61Davies… You do have some valid points, but calling anyone who disagree with you for whores is kindergarden discussions… MA only needed to spend a bit to get the supporters fimrly behind him and it seems that he is close to proving his ambition with Coloccini taking our net spend to 10 million. 2 players more of a proven standard and there will be happy faces all over i reckon… HOWEVER… MA making NUFC a good business should please no one but MA’s bankers, so will people please stop using that as a point to prove their case. The 80 million debt was NOT cripling. If that was the case, you could bet your house on the southern press making a meal of it and almost all clubs have debst these days. What MA DID do was to help us get rid of fat fred, make a long term plan that makes sense and get KK back to steer us back. The money he used to buy NUFC got himself his own private EPL club, and that shouldnt be a point to earn supporters trusts and the money he used to clear the debt made sense since he had the money to clear it and thereby wouldnt have to pay rates anymore. But again, that has nothing to do with the team and will neither help us gain a place in Europe or save us from relegation… So when defending MA, keep it to all the football related stuff he does will ya?
Dondatta13
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Comment #62Im sorry Harrier im not in no way shape or form good with numbers.
I was under the impression that :-
We get money from TV revenue (I think we got around £37.5Million this year).
Season ticket sales (I have no clue how much the collates to, but that has to be a huge amount).
Shirt sales …
Sporsorship deals….
Finishing position in the league….
When all that is accounted for, I still dont see how Ashley has injected anywhere near the amount mentioned by Davies.
Do you think Ashley has injected another £70 million into the club on top of the £130 Mill purchase and £80 Million debt?
Chris H
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Comment #63It’s good to see Ashley getting some praise on here for a change. Things are improving at the club. It may seem slow but he’s only been here just over a year. He hasn’t been given a chance to show his true intentions and I certainly don’t think he’s here for a quick profit.
I’ll be happy to stick with Ashley and I’m sure we’ll see a few new faces before the transfer window closes.
Todd
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Comment #64A nondisclosure means just that. No talking about the matter. Two things strike me about this article:
1. It is in the British Press so it has 5% chance being partially true at best. (If it were in America that number would rise to a good 12% or so)…
2. It quotes a “source close to the deal” which is press speak for “I just made this stuff up.”
Moreover, as the comment above stated, for all the huge crowds at the home games, it certainly appears that the club is money-losing proposition for any owner unless the team gets into Europe and goes far or does well in the three domestic trophy runs. Not that having an investment that loses money is a bad thing if the owner has a holding company for lots of enterprises and loss on one is a tax advantage that sets off earnings on others. Recall that M.A. came out in the press recently and basically stated that
1. He was losing money and not happy about it.
2. He would welcome a small percentage investor.
3. He would prefer that investor come from the Newcastle business community.
None of this squares with “sell entire team right before the season starts to Indian guy who is very savvy at looking for investments that make money.”
On the other hand, what wouldn’t be bad would be a joint venture between the two and an injection of liquid funds as a result. Indian guy gets a brand he can market to 1.1 billion people with ties to English culture already and M.A. gets some relief from the losses and some free advice on how to set up sportswear shops in the aforementioned 1.1 billion person market. That is a lot of Slazenger tennis balls…
JC
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:52 PM
Comment #65http://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/Keegan-backs-exMan-Utd-star.4354651.jp
Dear Jesus…….
Black and White Blood
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Comment #66Todd – Excellent post, Good articulated facts – Thanks!
Graham
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Comment #67JC – I read it before but didn’t want to upset anyone
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Comment #68Dondatta – look at it this way – if we charged all 52000 fans at premium season ticket prices – 800 pounds – then our total ticket sales would be around 800*52000 = 41 million (remember, we only make money for 19 games a season and alot of the tickets are as cheap as 300). If we sell 250000 shirts on top of that (which would require every single person in newcastle to buy one) we would get another 10 million. That is a total of 88 million with tv revenue. We have no more sponsorship money since all the Northern Rock dough paid Michael Owen’s transfer fee.
Michael Owen makes 5.7 million a year alone with lots of players on our books not that far behind. In fact if our 24 man squad had an average wage of 50k a week that would cost us 62 million per year! Thank god for the cheapos on our team like Milner and Taylor. On top of first team wages are things like – electric bills (for a huge stadium) and maintenance costs, as well as the training grounds. Our acadamy teams as well as our staff wages. Travel and other various expenses. It is a costly enterprise. Then you ask where the 50 million for transfers are? Well Mike pays for those himself out of his own pocket.
dick
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Comment #69you forgot sky and setanta money harrier that takes us in profit
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:08 PM
Comment #70No dick – I factored in the 37 million in tv revenue
Ticket sales – 41 million
Shirt sales – 10 million
41 + 10 = 51
Tv Revenue – 37 million
51 + 37 = 88 🙂
Dondatta13
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Comment #71Cheers Harrier, I can see now how the cost of owning a club like NUFC would be a strain on finances, add on the cost of paying the police on match days and the cost rises again.
Im still scepticle that the cost over the year or so Ashley has been in charge adds up to £70 Million LOSS for him, if so, maaaaaaaaaan, NUFC is one big hot potatoe lol
Tom Toon
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Comment #72Its still that hot over here in Espana that I am still sat at the PC with me nadgers hanging oot me troosers!
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Comment #73I don’t think it has been 70 mill so far. But alot of people here seem to think NUFC is Mike Ashley’s “cash cow” But making a profit on a football club, especially one like ours which has a history of paying too much wages, is increasingly difficult. If all TV revenue went straight into transfers – then ticket,merchandise, and sponsorship would have to equate to our wage bill just to break even. As you can tell, even with a big stadium we would have trouble. That is why teams like boro, westham, and city have decent youth setups.
antz
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Comment #74also pies and pints! 😀 u think, say 50,000 supporters buy a pie/snack and/or 2 pints/drink, id work an average of £8 per supporter x 50k ppl = £400k if we can say they make 50% profit on aforementioned thats £200k per match x approx 25 matches per season = £5million (and thats without getting into allsorts of merchandise and catering)
just thought i’d put a slight fun side to the math! 😉
cockney magpie
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Comment #75oh man! i rushed back from work hoping i was gonna get on ere and find that Coloccini has signed1 has there been no news 2day at all ?
JC
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Comment #76Thanks graham…. I didn’t want to put it up either because everyone seems to be a bit on edge today. I’m undecided on the takeover thing. The way I see it is that if its true and he does take us over it could go one of two ways he could build us into a ‘Big 5 Club’ or we could experience the ominous ‘Chelsea Fate’ a period of success funded by ridiculous amounts of money spent on big transfers then one day he will pull the plug and want his money back (just like Abramovich could call in his 500m loan to Chelsea and by this time tomorrow Chelsea would be no more) so we will go into debt and ‘fold like a pack of cards’. We wil see ths in the coming yars to Chelsea mark my words…..
harrier
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:16 PM
Comment #77True antz – but remember – i charged 800 pounds for every seat in the stadium, which increases the revenue alot to start with. Drop it down to 600 and we are down to just 31 million in ticket revenue
Dondatta13
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Comment #78It was just Davies comments that got me thinking. Someone making a statement that Ashley has poured £280 Million into the club erks me somewhat because they cannot back it up or prove it. I guess some folks just make some rash statements at certain times. In the heat of the conversation and with the passion that boils below the surface of all NUFC fans
Beatski
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Comment #79i read somewhere that newcastle made a net profit of 11mil last year but dont quote me on that
SteveM
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Comment #80I think all this shows is how broken the premiership has become as a fair sporting competition. There is no relagation system from the top four champions legue places and every season that passes the top for move millions of pounds ahead of the rest of the league. I seriously doubt whether Liverpool could financially survive not getting into the Champions League. The current format was devised to placate the top teams and stop them forming their own super league and unfortunately it has lead to a severe imbalance in the game. It is going to take serious investment – probably around an extra £500 million or more to break into the top four – unless we manage to do it the arsenal way. How many seasons of the same 4 teams being in the champions league are the ‘lesser’ clubs like Newcastle Everton, Villa, Man City, Spurs going to put up with before the penny drops that KK was right. Our club is in danger of becoming a motherwell or a Hearts – team to make up the numbers in a league that is loaded from the start. The best we seem to hope for is for another suger daddy to spend money to make us Newcastle Global Business corperation. I dont want a world where Newcastle win by default because they have soo much money – I want Football, I want the Beautiful game, I want a level playing field.
I have a solution that will reintroduce fairness in the priemier league. All clubs get equal money! Champion goes into the champions league together with the winners of playoff games. 2nd plays winner of (5th v 6th) and 3rd plays winner of (4th vs 7th) all matches with home adavantage. Any team that was in the CL the previous year must win their final playoff or be disqualified form taking part next year (this enforces a reglegation style rotation of CL places) If a decision is needed between two teams that have done equally well in the playoffs is needed the decion is made in favour of the highest placed team in the league.
Similarly the same happens at the bottom of the table – last place relagated. then loosers of the following playoffs ((7th from bottom vs 4th from b) vs 2nd from b ) and (( 6th vs 5th) vs 3rd)) – home advantage on the basis of league position. The league should be rescaled to 19 teams with parachute payments being increased. These propasals would do a lot to making football a great competive sport once again in this country. Please can you post serious comments.