Ashley sitches us up with the new shirts.

Posted on July 20th, 2010 | 53 Comments |

Cheap cheap!
Cheap cheap!
The new Newcastle kits have been out for a while now, but still the debate rages on as to whether or not people like them or not.

Personally I like the white shirt, and I am pleased to see that the badge on it is not like one of those bubble-gum transfer sticker things that many first feared it would be.

But none of that really has any relevance to the point I am about to make.

The question is, are we being ripped off with these new shirts? Particularly by the amount that is being charged for them? On the face of it I would have to say yes! It is something that has really been bugging me for a few days, ever since I stumbled upon the price comparison between shirts on sale at the NUFC club shop and shirts on sale at other stores, namely SportsDirect, and here is why.

Basically, you buy the new shirt from the club shop and it will set you back £45. Go to SportsDirect and buy the same shirt and it will only cost you £35, plus you get the Premier League badges for free at SportsDirect whereas they would cost an extra £5 from NUFC. So for the same shirt with the same badges you can save yourself £15 by going to SportsDirect.

So why is that? I understand the free market and competition and how it works in retail, but isn’t a bit strange that Mike Ashley would undercut one of his businesses with the other?

I have my own cynical reasoning for it though mind. If you think about it, where would that money go to if people went and bought the shirt from SportsDirect? Who would benefit from it the most? Hmm…. Mike Ashley and his shareholders perhaps? With more money going in to that business then surely the answer would be yes?

One thing is for certain and that is that Newcastle United will lose out because of it, £15 quid saved is £15 after all, especially in these tough economic times. Business will be taken away from the club by this manouvre, not all of it of course, but certainly a fair few people will be sucked in by the bargain price.

Not me though, I will buy it from NUFC, if I ever do buy it of course. Sure it may be more expensive, but I would prefer it if the money that I spend on a shirt went directly into the club to be used on something or other, whether that be running costs or wages or whatever. It most certainly won’t be going to towards the profits of SportsDirect and proportionatly to it’s shareholders.

I know people will say that Ashley’s bank account and Newcastle United are one and the same, and they are to a point. But the underlying difference for me is that the money I spend on a shirt will stay within the club, and I can check on that through the accounts that are available (I have a copy of last years accounts).

You see, Ashley hasn’t taken any money out of Newcastle, and this can be proven by loooking at the accounts since he got here. He can’t just smuggle money out of NUFC, it needs to be documented somewhere if he was to withdraw any money from us, and that would leave a paper (or ink) trail. If it didn’t then there would be something wrong and the books wouldn’t have been signed off.

It’s your choice where to buy the shirt from, but for me, keeping my money going into Newcastle is the most important thing.

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by toonsy in category: General miscellany and Mike Ashley and Toonsy and Transfers , with tags: ,
Comment on this post

53 Responses

  1. Sports Direct is a low cost, low quality shop – What do you expect? It’s like comparing Tesco to Aldi.

  2. Football shirts have always been a rip off as admitted by fat fred…

    It’s interesting they’re cheaper in sports direct cos it would compromise the clubs income. I’m with you, buy from the club…

  3. I don’t think that’s it. Sportsdirect would be able to buy in bulk. The club shop which is a standalone but affiliated business would not be able to by the same degree. The club will get a small cut of every shirt bought from any source.

  4. Well I live in Cyprus & I was in the Sports Direct shop just the other day & they didn’t have any Toon stuff to buy, not even a scarf or hat :( I would buy direct from the shop but living 2500 miles away it’s a little bit costly for me but even if I order it online, I’ll be paying another £15 on top of the extra £15 for the shirt, so it would cost me around £60 for a shirt & I know the money would go to the club but it’s not going on players is it, it’s going on paying off the debt, so I’m stuck as to what to do, geta shirt from Sports Direct for £35 or pay £60 from the club!!!

  5. Another point is, how much are Sports Direct selling other teams shirts for like Manc Usa, Arsenil, Chelski… etc etc….

    The reason I’m asking is, don’t their shirt cost more from there clubs than ours do anyways, so it may not be that Ashley is ripping us off, it could be the clubs are ripping all the fans off by selling them so expensive!!!

    The more team shirts that are brought from Sports direct mean Ashley has more money & you never know, he may use it to improve the TOON :)

  6. What a BS article. Normally I like this site but that is just I’ll thought of tripe. What was Ashley supposed to do? Raise the prices of shirts at sportsdirect or lower them at the club just because two seperate business entities have the same boss.

    Blame the man for whatever you want, but at least be reasonable.

  7. This has gotta be one of the worst articles I’ve ever read about newcastle. It’s crammed full of illogicality and at times plain stupidity.

    You do realise that NUFC get money from sales regardless of the shop sold in? You do realise having one supplier selling shirts at £35 will result in far more sales than everywhere selling them at £45? Similarly, not everyone has access to an official club store and how could MA possibly justify selling Newcastle shirts more expensive than every other shirt in Sports Direct? That would be ripping fans off!

  9. 19 Jul 2010 23:36:40
    To the person who wrote this
    Newcastle have got Benjani training with them on Tuesday . And if all is well he will sign a 2year deal worth 15000 aweek.

    Has everyone heard about this like ? its from “Lesh” Site..

  10. I am a realistic newcastle fans , we do have money to spend £15m i reckon , i personally thinks we should go for the following players.

    Already done deals
    James Perch £1.5m – notts forest – good signing
    Dan Gosling Free– everton – good signing

    In
    Sol campbell – free arsenal – help youngstars + experience , lives in the area. appoint captain

    Micheal Carrick – £10m – not the best of season but if Man utd are willing to sell i can honest see the lad wanting to play for his home town club , hes has won everything he can with man utd , new challenge hes after now.

    Robbie Keane – £5.5m – Goalscorer and can’t get in the tottenham team good deal all round.

    Juan Albin – Free – pacey winger also and play as a forward.

    Tulio – £500k –Good world cup , get him as a squad player

    Peter Whittingham – £2m Cardiff City – Premier league class player i beleive and if a bid if put in a can’t see why the lad wouldint come. He wants to prove to people that he is a premier league player as he didint get the chance at Aston Villa. Good on the ball , confident in his ability , whips in a good cross , scores goals , and can take a good free kick.

    Geovani Dos Santos – £4m – Tottenham – skillful , and takes plays on , can see him being a fans favourite , also the lad wants to prove himself as he hasint been given a fair chance at spurs.

    the only problems i can see is carrick and keanes wages.

    Outs

    Ryan Taylor –£3.5m
    Xisco – £2m
    Shola Ameobi – £2.5m
    Fabio Zamblera £500k
    Leon Best – £1m
    Nicky Butt – Free
    Fabrice Pancrate – Free

    Totals In – £23.5m Outs £9.5m
    Total of £14m spent

    Team
    GK – Harper, Krul , Forster
    LB– Enrique
    RB– Simpson
    CB– S.Taylor, Cambell, Coloccini, Williamson
    Versitile – Perch , Tulio
    W–Routledge.Gutierez, Whittingham, Albin
    AM–Nolan, Vuckic, Dos Santos
    DM–Smith , Carrick
    Playmakers – Guthrie, Barton
    Versitile – Gosling
    FW– Carroll, Lovenkrands, R.Keane

    Plenty youth, experience , pace and flair to keep us up also give good healthy competition and leaves the spirit of last season

    Remember injuries and suspension will reduce the squad size so its good to have a big competitive squad

    10–12th place finish

    TOON

    This fan must be on drugs or something like.

  11. Again, I have to agree. This article is really poor.

    Firstly, the manufacturer of our kit ‘Puma’ would make the shirt and then sell it to both Newcastle United and SportsDirect.

    Now think about this, Newcastle United operate only one store as well as selling online. SportsDirect also sell online, but operate around 500 stores. This means that SportsDirect have the ability to buy in much larger numbers because they have huge warehouses to store stock and also have the ability to reach a wider number of customers (Fans don’t just live in Newcastle e.g. Me).

    Either way, Newcastle United and Puma will have agreed a contract for the shirts, in which Puma would manufacture the shirts and would profit from sales to Newcastle United or SportsDirect. Now it seems odd, but Newcastle would take a chunk out of the profit Puma make (before sales) and would also generate their own profit in their own store. Likewise any profit SportsDirect make, they keep!

  12. the thing to do is buy the kit from sports direct,pretty daft though as the club shop will loose out when this info gets around.

  13. All official merchandice, tends to cost the RRP price at official stores. I bought Lakers Jerseys in LA last year $80 in footlocker, $115 for it in the Lakers store at the Staples centre. If official stores didn’t sell the shirts at RRP then why have an RRP. It’s then shops like Sports direct undercut them because they would rather get alot of sales for almost zero profit, because when you come into buy a shirt, you then browse their stock and buy other items. The main stores have to sell at RRP to cover costs cause they don’t have a ridiculous ammount of other tat being sold every day.

  14. Pretty sure there’s a set retail price on all replica football shirts. We might not be paying as much to Puma for the shirts as we did to Adidas, in which case the profit margins would be higher, but the extra profit would go to the club, not MA. In which case it’s good business sense from MA.

  15. There will be a set amount of the price of a kit/shirt that goes to NUFC & PUMA.
    Anything else will go to the shop that sold it & distributor.

  16. So it doesn’t matter where you buy it, unless it’s ‘unofficial’ gear, or secondhand.

  19. Completely off thread but apropos the less enlightened members of the Newcastl Untited fraternity who seem to be hell-bent on bringing the club and its fans into disrepute even before the season’s started.

    http://www.metro.co.uk/news/835587-newcastle-united-fans-slammed-for-raoul-moat-chants

    Although a media report, there must surely be a grain of truth in this report – hopefully, those who were at Carlisle on Saturday may be able to comment on the article’s accuracy?

    To think that recent events, both in Northumberland and Cumbria have been tragic and resulted in the deaths of many who have left behind grieving family, friends and relatives.

    If this is true, it’s absolutely shameful behaviour and those responsible who may have regretably been wearing Newcastle United colours ought to be banned from attending any games ever again.

  20. Aye hitman,

    Anyone checked the link @ 17?

    Not that we didn’t already know/suspect.

  21. Aw well!
    I guess not, or maybe no one’s that arsed about who will wear the famous no.9.

    Anyhoo,
    Come on Andy, divn’t let us down son,
    give it y’best shot,
    think of the history,
    the legends,
    & get that ball in the net.
    All the best.
    Howay!

  22. Ah ha. Hidden talent in our midst – CLiNT’s started the poetry reading already.

    Who’s next up? Keats, Shelly, Byron, Wordsworth?

  24. Lesh

    Aye that story is true, had a mate who was there and he told me about the songs yesterday.
    Reminded me slightly of the Mido chants, football banter, aye, taking it a bit far, maybe…

  25. Hey, are Keats, Shelly, Byron & Wordsworth new signings? I hadn’t seen any rumors about them. What positions do they play?

  26. CLiNT – your talents are I’m sure, manifold and your modesty is to be applauded.

    BeeGuy, depending on how much Laudnum they’d imbibed, they’d probably play in any position.

  27. Shit!
    there really is not a lot happening on the news front, is there?
    They’ve started re-reporting Nolan hits out at critics again.
    How many times can they run the same story?
    How many Barton thinks he’s great stories yesterday?
    Blah, blah, blah etc, etc, etc.

  28. But, I love MIke @24, we’re not talking about banter, we’re talking about crass and insensitive behaviour that could impact on many many people.

    The chanting idiots should’ve been tied to a lampost and remained the target for contempt from decent folk.

  32. Lesh,
    it’s a sorry state of affairs, the chants.
    It doesn’t reflect well on the rest of us like, does it?
    Deeply insensitive.
    :(

  33. Look out for a retort from Niall and Biffa in a browser near you soon…

    No doubt they’ll be claiming the “Toon Army” were just exercising their right to freedom of speech! :rolls:

  35. when i was a kid in the 80’s,the chanting was worse than saturday’s chants,nowt was off limits then.

  36. I Love Mike says:
    July 20, 2010 at 11:43 am
    Lesh

    Aye that story is true, had a mate who was there and he told me about the songs yesterday.
    Reminded me slightly of the Mido chants, football banter, aye, taking it a bit far, maybe…
    —————–

    Somewhere, in a dank cave devoid of sunlight, Louise Taylor is frantically preparing a new article…

  37. No doubt they’ll be claiming the “Toon Army” were just exercising their right to freedom of speech! :rolls

    Fine TC but let them exercise their rights to freedom of speech but make them do it in the confines of a padded room so that the media don’t pick it up!

  38. the utter racism and bigotry that used to exist at st james’ in the 80’s was pretty bad.

  39. Somewhere, in a dank cave devoid of sunlight, Louise Taylor is frantically preparing a new article…

    MDS, precisely my point and no doubt somebody’ll run with the story.

  40. I was there on Saturday and the chant started because a Carlisle player came on who looked a bit like Moat. Some of the fans at the back of the stand started it, I reckon about 10 or so. The boos then started, but they came from within the newcastle section and the rest of the Newcastle fans not involved started telling them to shut up as it was out of order. I never heard any of the anti police chants that have been claimed. There was also a ‘only one Paul Gasgoine’ chant ‘Gazza wave your chicken’ and ‘he doesn’t want your chicken’ I was proud and pleased of that bit, shows the vast majority of us fans are sensible.

    To be honest, that group of fans let themselves down as they had been so funny before trying to make a noise, I think using a comb then started the Geordie Vuvosela (or however you spell it) brought a laugh out of everybody including one Policeman who almost fell of the seat with a big smile on his face.

  41. Ok Trojan..

    the racism and bigotry of the 80s has alomost vanished but dose that entitle these idiots to introduce a substitute?

  42. Newcastle United gains from the royalty carried with the shirt. Even if you buy from a store outside of UK, Newcastle United still profits from it.
    Of course, if buying directly from them, will make them more profit, as there will be profit in retail(Sales – Cost).
    However, that won’t be significant as the official store can only sell that many.

  43. MDS-Spot on, you know her eyes just lit up when she realised this had happened. She’ll run with it no doubt.

    A shame, it’s a pretty pathetic thing to do even if it is “just a laugh” or whatever the oxygen thiefs who started the sing song decide to use as an excuse. That wont stop the media picking it up, hundreds of thousands of football fans across the UK seeing it and our name being dragged through the mud, AGAIN. As we saw with the Mido chants, strangely enough, controversial or racist behaviour doesn’t do you too many favours. Someone needs to start handing bans out.

  44. Simon @40… it appears that it’s been a minority involved in the tastless chanting but it really illustrates how the media pick it up and run with it – ignoring all the good humour.

  45. lesh,no not at all,i dont condone what was chanted.i do however think the pc brigade of nowadays,eventually we’ll not be able to open our mouths.
    anyone remember when we played bradford city,not long after the fire,a chant of”you shouldn’t play with matches”went around the whole stadium,sick as f**k.

  46. Lesh, that’s true but some of the crowd really let themselves down and that then comes back on all of us. It is a shame the reports didn’t pick up on the good bits, but I suppose that’s what sell papers.

    I’ve got to say apart from the one incident that happned by a small group once then I think 2 more people a second time a bit later, then shutting up as they could see the rest of their own fans were NOT happy, it was a good day and atmosphere. The police were all good that day as well, helpful and having a laugh with the fans. Their staff were perhaps a bit over the top, but can’t complain. Just a shame its a small handful of our fans the spoil a bit of it then it hits the press and makes us all look bad.

  48. I always figured he’d get the #9 but figured they’d wait until his legal troubles were over.

  51. BTW,
    i like the b&W shirt.

    It looks tons better than most of the crap the other teams are sporting this season.
    I reckon PUMA have done a decent job, for their first attempt.

    Duck!

  53. 45 quid is a lot for a football shirt especially when it is as awful as the New home shirt. That stuck on badge looks cheap and the material looks like it will click everytime you touch it. Id be happy with just buying last years shirt