Archive for category: St James’s Park.

Sports Direct get free advertising, but what about Dunlop, Firetrap, Cruise etc?

November 6th, 2013 | 61 Comments |

NUFC Blog on metro.co.uk
NUFC Blog on metro.co.uk
My latest story on metro.co.uk is now up!

As is usual with the Metro, it now has a veritable cornucopia of titles chosen my their crack team of headline writers, sub-eds or whatever. However, my original title for it was the same as this piece, ie “Sports Direct get free advertising, but what about Dunlop, Firetrap, Cruise etc?” so I’ll stick with that one here.

On the piece itself, well we all know that Sports Direct don’t pay anything for all the advertising at St James’ Park and the club’s Benton training ground. However, some of you who might not follow Mike Ashley’s ever expanding business empire quite as closely as I do may not know that there are several other Sports Direct sub-brands such as Dunlop, Firetrap and Cruise who are also advertising at St James’ Park on a fairly regular basis. (more…)


Newcastle United’s commercial revenue is only half what it should be

October 2nd, 2013 | 57 Comments |

Sports Direct signs at SJP.
Sports Direct: Only using ‘unused’ advertising space.
Inspired by members of the NUFC board saying Sports Direct only takes up unused advertising space at SJP, as well as Newcastle United’s lousy commercial revenue figures, I decided to do a little number crunching and research.

Referring to figures from other clubs using Deloitte’s “Annual Review of Football Finance” and all the other sources I could find, as well as looking at other revenue streams for the club using the club’s last published accounts. I estimate that as per Newcastle United’s last published accounts (for the 2011-12 season), the club is only getting just over half the commercial revenue it should be.

According to my research, if Newcastle United were an average Premier League club with around 27% of the club’s revenue coming from commercial sources such as shirt sales and sponsorship, we should be getting around £25 million per season in total when we are actually only getting only a paltry £13.8 million. Having written that, with the third highest average attendances in the Premier League, some might say that these figures could be skewed somewhat as Newcastle United might be expected to get a higher percentage than normal from matchday revenue. However, they were exactly the same as the average for the whole Premier League, around £21.5 million of £93.3 million, or 23% of total turnover. (more…)


Do Wonga actually pay anything for St James’ Park naming rights?

July 31st, 2013 | 70 Comments |

Wonga.
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“It’s a big statement by Wonga to say: ‘We want the naming rights and we’re going to give it back to the fans and the community’.” gushed Derek Llambias.

Alan Pardew also chimed in, exulting:

“Getting the St James’ name back is fantastic. It is a clever move in terms of getting fans in a good place.”

“For so long, Llambias and owner Mike Ashley were associated with taking unpopular decisions (“We started off poorly,” he admits) but the announcement of a controversial deal with Wonga yesterday was significantly sweetened by news about the stadium name.” purred the Journal’s Mark Douglas.

Yet the sums just do not seem to add up. It was trumpted by Llambias that the new sponsorship deal with Wonga would be the club’s “biggest-ever commercial deal.” and when asked if the total deal amounted to £8 million per season, he acknowledged that sum was “not far off.” £6 million of this is going into the main shirt sponsorship side of the deal. As I pointed out in this earlier piece, this is actually slightly below the mean figure of £7.36 million for Premier League shirt sponsorship. However both Wonga and Llambias have made much of the fact that a further £1.5 million will go into the club’s Benton Academy and the Newcastle United Foundation, where Wonga will be getting involved with future customers local youngsters from underprivileged families. (more…)


Toon fans: Would you like to be a derby day video star?

April 9th, 2013 | 21 Comments |

KSI presenting EPL clash.
EPL Clash’s presenter, KSI, in action.
I have been contacted by Peloton TV’s James Whittaker, who is currently working in partnership with Youtube to make football content. James would like to know if any of you Newcastle United fans out there would like to represent NUFC Blog.org on the show “EPL Clash” and be filmed in a “bloggers battle” at 10am outside St James’ Park?

To use his words:

“The segment itself is pretty much a quirky vlog styled piece, mainly about the stadium, surrounding areas, current rumours, how your season is going and so forth. This piece will be presented by KSI.”

“It will only take 15 minutes to film, and will give the users a chance to plug the website and their own Twitter. It will be a quirky back and forth and give you a chance to pretty much have a go at a Sunderland fan on camera.”

KSI and Peloton TV have a combined following of 1,876,541 YouTube users when I checked, so it would certainly be a great opportunity to put yourself out there! (more…)


Confessions of a Newcastle United fan (Part one)

February 27th, 2013 | 118 Comments |

Old Newcastle United programmes.
Ahhh the memories…
Going against my parents wishes was nothing strange to me, but the day I am about to describe where I did just that definitely set the course of my life.

I was born in Brunton Park, Wideopen, to Cynthia and Bert, a firm upbringing but nontheless loving. I mostly had a carefree childhood ’til my little brother came along when I was 4 and everything was my fault from then on! Then, for some strange reason, we moved to Jesmond and without realising it, that was the start of love and despair following the glorious Black and Whites.

Perhaps my parents fell on tougher times, I never found out or even asked the question. However we arrived at Clayton Park Square, just behind the Brandling Park. I’d settled into my new school, made some mates, and managed to get to seven years old without too many scrapes. As with most young tear-arses, I was up to all kinds when one Saturday morning, I was playing with all me new mates in the Exhibition Park who were all alot older than me because I was always very tall for my age, when they all decided it was time to “nick into the match”. Whats this aal aboot? I’d never even heard of “the match.” (more…)