We looked through the minutes of the second Fan Forum meeting that was held on Monday night, and quite honestly we didn’t learn too much more about Newcastle and Mike Ashley, that we didn’t already know.
Mike Ashley – free world-wide advertising for Sports Direct
However, we’ll focus on just one question and answer that we think is enlightening.
And the question was fr0m NUST representative Peter Fanning – so we suppose the NUST have been included again in the Fans Forum after being banned after the first meeting for publishing their minutes before the club published theirs.
Here’s the question and answer
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Question from Peter Fanning “Do Sports Direct pay the going rate for advertising, their adverts are all over the stadium?”
Answer: The club explained that the advertising boards in question were installed with Sports Direct branding as a showcase for unused space. Sports Direct don’t pay, but it would be sold if other advertisers wanted the space.
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That seems to just a ridiculous answer to us – and how do advertisers even know the space taken up by Sports Direct is even available?
Why don’t they put on the advertising boards something like – this advertising space is available – and who to contact.
And who knows the club may get some interested parties enquiring.
The image you get on TV when you watch the Newcastle home games is fa too many Sport Direct.com signs which seem to be everywhere – even along the walls where the two teams gather before they walk out onto the field just before the kick-off.
So this is a less than a good answer – and basically what seems to be happening is that Mike Ashley’s other company – Sports Direct – are getting free world-wide advertising and certainly in the US – this would not be allowed.
Compare this with the Manchester City club naming their stadium The Etihad, and they have a £400M deal over 10 years for that from Etihad Airlines.
But Etihad are owned by the Abu Dhabi government, and the airline has very close ties with Manchester City’s Billionaire owner, Sheikh Mansour, who is himself a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal family.
It would be nice (and it would be fair) if Sports Direct paid Newcastle United say £10M each year, for that word wide advertising they are currently getting for free.
Or another way of pricing it would be to understand what Newcastle will be asking for the advertising – and have Sport Direct paying that amount – backdated to when they started the advertising.
And who knows, maybe our commercial income will rise significantly from the pitiful levels it is at the moment.
Comments welcome.
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467 comments so far
p
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:23 PM
Comment #441On Everton. depends on Martinez. If he finishes top 4 and I think he might, he may be off to the big league of management – perhaps one of the Spanish giants or, even Manure
Our Toon
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:23 PM
Comment #442Tiantoon
Delafeuo hasn’t started that many games for Everton this year, Lukaku is a big help and will be very difficult for any to replace will be interesting but I think Martinez is a class act!! Swansea still play the style he incorporated into the club
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:24 PM
Comment #443IITianToon
Happy New Year to you too!
I try to stay positive. Sometimes not easy in the face of a barrage from certain people! Fine when they’re open to a discussion but pretty hard when they’ve already made their mind up!
I wouldn’t worry about the 8 year contract, there will be clauses galore. And there’s also the rumour that he’s on a £500k basic salary. Either way, it wouldn’t cost more than normal to get rid of him.
The problem with a new manager is that he would have to work within certain constraints. Also MA doesn’t want to take a risk and get a manager who has to be sacked after less than a year.
Pardew is a solid manager who hopefully will be able to stablise the club in the top 8, then we can hopefully progress from there. But if he doesn’t get top 10 at least this season then he will simply have to go as he’ll have failed twice in a row.
I predicted 8th in the summer and I’ll stick with that though.
Rijkaard would be good but would he want to manage us? Surely he’s in the Middle East for the money?
belgrade fan
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:25 PM
Comment #444WHAT HAPPENED IN TODAY MA-JFK-AP MEETING AND WHAT THEY DECIDED? you talk always about NUFC money like MA tells you everything
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:28 PM
Comment #445JB
We know there’s already significant investment going into the youth set up though. It’s not about throwing money that way, it’s about getting the right plan together and then executing it. Youth players join clubs all of the time, including ours.
Where is your brother in law’s club?
Jail for Ashley
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:29 PM
Comment #446Belgrade,
Dobro Viche,
Nobody knows what happened in the meeting, it was probably an informal meeting in Mikes cheesy eighties bar in his front room drinking Mikes homebrew watching transfer centre and having a larf.
IITianToon
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:30 PM
Comment #447battles this weekend:
Willo v Dzeko : Willo 😀
Mbiwa v Negredo : close, but Negredo
Santon v Nasri : nasri
haidara v Navas: Navas
Tiote v Silva : if Tiote puts some crunching ones early on, then him; otherwise Silva
Anita v Yaya: LOL
Sissoko v Fernandinho: fernandinho
Gouff v Zabaleta: Zabaleta
Ben Arfa v Kolarov: this is one area where we can indeed take the game to City
Remy, unfortunately, in Kompany’s pocket
Prediction: 1-3 or 0-2
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:31 PM
Comment #448Our Toon
You’re way off now:
1 – we didn’t tell the world that De Jong is our top target! We’d never do that.
2 – there’s a whole month of transfer window, you can’t judge yet
3 – MA’s goal is to make NUFC self-sufficient so it’s the club’s money that is spend, not MA’s. MA being stingy (or not) is completely irrelevant.
Transfer Sage
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:31 PM
Comment #449blackley
i don’t accept that analogy at all….as the club could exist under a different owner, we did before and will do after, ashley is not crucial to the survival of NUFC
he may own the club but he should still pay if he wants one of his other companies to use our clubs space.
belgrade fan
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:32 PM
Comment #450Jail
Hvala puno druze/
I thought they decided that our squad more than good enough, we need nobody and AP received money bonus for FA cup elimination
Transfer Sage
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:35 PM
Comment #451TDS
i won’t get chance to reply as i am going to bed now but just a though, might pick up in the morning if still on this article
Have we invested a lot in the youth set up? i don’t see/hear that at all, they still havent got cat 1 status like sunderland and boro
we have signed the off player, thats it. the coaches are the same, the training ground is the same (will be improving overall for all age groups and senior players….but not pitches they said, just medical, so won’t help develop players that much more, just keep them fit)
I’d like to know what else they have done for the academy to improve it.
Ancientcoptic
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:43 PM
Comment #452IITianToon, Man City appear to have problems dealing with set pieces, I would not be surprised to see Ameobi playing. (Just a shame we are rubbish at set pieces)
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:43 PM
Comment #453TS
Goodnight then.
We’re certainly investing in a new training ground, so that will have an effect. It’s hard to judge the success of a youth programme because obviously it takes a long time to see the results…
Someone came up with a good point yesterday, that maybe the cat 1 status is on hold because the club won’t invest more in training facilities when they are doing a thorough overhaul soon.
jimmysmith
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:52 PM
Comment #454That free advertising for SD appears very naughty at face value and I don’t quite follow the integrity of the logic of it being in return for paying off the debt, when he surely agreed a fee for the club in consideration of the existing debt anyway, unless of course you came down in the last shower and believe otherwise, and even then, good grief!
He at least apparently thinks it’s reasonable though and perhaps on balance, it is to some degree, at the end of the day, so long as profits elsewhere get pumped back in responsibly.
And it’s business, everyone is out to turn a quid one way or another, so it’s hard to know how precious to get about it, if it isn’t illegal. Even so, it does seem to be an area where the owner is openly vulnerable and so where the fans forum and fans groups can hammer away to keep him playing with a relatively straight bat overall, if that’s at all possible.
p
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:53 PM
Comment #455At least we are passed out Alladyce phase, pity West Ham
Taking the Papiss
Jan 8, 2014 at 10:59 PM
Comment #456Transfer Sage
Haven’t read all of the following comments but just wanted to put you right on the interest issue. I work in the city and am particularly involved in Finance.
The situation is this – when you have a large loan and you want to repay it early, you pay a) the amount of the loan, b) the interest due up to the next interest payment date and c) a “break fee”. Essentially (without being pointlessly technical) banks granting large loans don’t only loan their own money, they syndicate a loan (get other lenders to lend them some of it) and pay fees to those lenders. These normally are measured / timed in the same way as the original loan so the interest payment date is the same. There are still costs associated with the lender “breaking” his funding with other banks and so you pay a break fee. Given that Ashley repaid debts (some of which were long term and had high levels of interest) he would have saved the clubs millions of pounds (anywhere between 50% and 75% of the full value of the loans if i had to guess.
Also in terms of player instalments, the full value of each instalment will be agreed at the beginning and the amount paid will take account of the fact it is paying over a period therefore no interest will be payable.
I think Ashley has done good and bad for us, but a lot of people don’t truly understand just how much his decision to pay off the debt saved us. I am not trying to be condescending just trying to give a bit of context.
TtP
Ciaran
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:02 PM
Comment #457Hooray for Ashley.
Taking the Papiss
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:11 PM
Comment #458I haven’t been on here much and thought now might be as good a time as any to give a brief half season round up.
Generally, I believe we are doing alright. The performances in the cups have been disappointing but we pushed Man City all the way in the Cap One Cup and so I’m ok with that. I am annoyed about the FA Cup but for me the blame is with the players and not with Pardew as he fielded a strong team.
League wise we are about where we should be. I know we have had a couple of poor results but to be fair, we have over performed in other matches. For me, Pardew on the whole has got tactics right especially against Chelsea and Manchester United. I would think we will get a 7 placed finish.
Transfers are interesting. My first question is how people would feel if the club came out and informed fans that they will be conducting most of their business in the January window. I personally would be ok with that as it would manage expectations for the Summer. I think that we will bring a couple in – de Jong and Cabella, with Gomis on a pre-contract for summer. This makes perfect sense to me, we are long time admirers of de Jong and when remy goes back in summer we can make the deal permanent. Cabella adds much needed creativity and Gomis would be a direct replacement for Shola providing a ‘different look’ to the team.
Most controversially, I think that I would sell Cabaye this month if we can get £25m. I think it may actually improve the balance of the side if the money is spent correctly. For me cabaye doesn’t naturally fit in the deeper role anita and tiote play or the more attaching role that ben arfa plays. I think playing anita and tiote would allow us to have cabella, ben arfa and sissoke/gouffran in the same time. The addition that I would like to see that I think we missed the boat on is Ince as he seems perfect to replace obertan, is english and gives us more natural width. Don’t get me wrong, I think Cabaye is the best all round midfielder but I think now is the time to sell (especially given that he has a right to buy himself out of his contract in summer).
toonarmydownsouth
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:11 PM
Comment #459I wish football was still about football,, this blogs been like reading accountants weekly tonight with B and B (not the original) asking the same nonsense question over and over no matter how many times it was answered!!!
Taking the Papiss
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:14 PM
Comment #460Ciaran – genuine question –
We all want the best for the club and obviously buying quality is what we all want. Ashley doesn’t want to spend much which therefore grates. But, you may not have a club to support if he hadn’t come in, the debt was unsustainable and we were close to becoming Portsmouth (before Portsmouth). On that basis, do you not think that its wrong to jump all over Ashley for the (admittedly) crazy things he does, without acknowledging that he has done some incredibly important things for the club too?
toonarmydownsouth
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:17 PM
Comment #461TtP
Wouldn’t the debt we currently have be a heel of a lot less though if Ashley had actually done his research into what he was actually buying into and knew the full extent of the clubs debts etc and then offset that against the value of the club?
Basically are we only in so much debt because he didn’t buy the club properly and gave “us” an interest free loan to save himself millions because he’d bought into a duffer?
Taking the Papiss
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:22 PM
Comment #462Toonarmydownsouth
I get your point but I don’t think you can say that, because that assumes that the previous owners would have sold it for £20mish which I don’t think they did.
I don’t think he is a saint by all means but the reason that I will never bring myself to fully hate him is that he undoubtedly saved our club. Think also worth pointing out that the club and the debt cost him 20% of his wealth. That is a LOT of money and yes he is a billionaire but £200m is not a drop in the ocean….
jimmysmith
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:23 PM
Comment #463How is NUFC a duffer at 250 million quid, in a business where Gareth Bale alone is worth 100 million, and TV rights are incredible and where we have gates of 50 000 a brilliant stadium and a squad full of quality players?
toonarmydownsouth
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:30 PM
Comment #464TtP
Well know obviously there not going to knock the whole debt off the club price but if he’d of done Due diligence he could of least surely got price down?
Depending what or where you read the club was in roughly £80-90 mil debt and he paid £150 mil, if he’d carried out the due diligence then surely he could of haggled down to around £100 mil if the clubs was on the brink of “doing a Leeds” they would of torn his hand off?
The rest of the “interest free loan” comes from his sheer incompetence and lack of understanding of the football world and overseeing us drop out the PL, that’s solely on him, why should the fans have to suffer the effects of him personally racking on another £40-50 mil to the “loan”
Graeme
Jan 8, 2014 at 11:39 PM
Comment #465TADS @ 461 – The Illustrious Owner didnt buy a “Duffer” but he bought a business that wasnt as good as he thought it was because he was “Mr Flash” and didn’t do the “Due Dilligence” that every sensible buyer would do.
That would have clearly identified that there was a clause that required certain loans to be repaid immediately, in the event of the club being sold. Mainly for the re-development loans I believe.
The bottom line is MA was caught with his trousers down by the previous owners and paid the price for not doing a proffessional purchase – this cost poor Mr Ashley over £100 million, the dipstick. I think you will find that is the “Loan” we evidently owe him!!
I could well be wrong though – it wouldnt be the first time lol.
stupot
Jan 9, 2014 at 10:54 AM
Comment #466I can think of worse owners and worse situations. If £100millions were available for players we would interest only mercenaries like Owen, viduka etc. as for advertising sports direct…why not, he bankrolls the club and has invested and bought some good players most of which have shown potential. As for AP, he is better than hughton who often played for drawers particularly away. Top 8 is good considering what other teams above have spent and pay in wages. We are about 2/3 quality signings away from Europe IMO. There are a host of players we need to move on…marv, obertan, Jonas, taylor etc to free up space and cash.
stupot
Jan 9, 2014 at 10:56 AM
Comment #467I would love to see an exp euro coach come in but I don’t think ma will pay for it and ap is a safe bet