Fan ownership campaign startsThe Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) has launched its ‘Yes We Can’ campaign, which aims to raise enough funds to finance a fan buy out of the club.
The NUST’s plan, which has been dubbed ‘Barcelona on the Tyne’ by the financial community, aims to democratise the club and ensure that the ‘current situation at Newcastle United does not repeat itself’ (NUST’s words).
Fans will be able to invest in the club via a number of ‘financial opportunities’ and the money will be held in Escrow by local solicitors to provide proof of funds to Mike Ashley.
Fan ownership is of course popular on the continent, perhaps most notably at places like Barcelona and Real Madrid. At Barcelona fans pay £139/year to acquire ‘socio status’ and for that you get the right to buy the best season tickets and take part in the club’s decision-making process. There are about 172,000 ‘socios’ whose fees raise approximately £24m/year before selling any season tickets, television rights, merchandise etc. (more…)
Llambias: no. NUST: Yes We CanEver since Mike Ashley first put Newcastle United up for sale there have been rumours of various fan buy-out schemes for the club. The latest of them was probably that Graham Roberts nonsense, which I took a particular dislike to and refused to waste electrons on. However, it seems that the results of the Keegan tribunal have prompted a second stream of enthusiasm for these schemes.
The Newcastle United Supporters Trust is launching on Wednesday 7th October at the Newcastle Civic Centre and it claims to have £20m in pledges with which it hopes to buy a stake in the club.
The NUST is also backing the ‘Yes We Can’ campaign, which has the support of City financial institutions and has used new pensions legislation to entice 483 x £20,000 of investment (nearly £10m) and has a further 202 members committed to signing up.
Neil Mitchell, Chair of NUST, said:
“Realistically, we’re looking to buy a stake in the club, though we don’t think buying it outright is unrealistic in the long term. With the takeovers at an impasse, we’re looking to raise funds to help a new buyer. We want to give supporters a voice, something they’ve not had in the past.” (more…)
Barcelona-style Toon.Remember Graham Roberts and his plan to put Newcastle United in the hands of the fans?
I thought that had faded into oblivion. In fact I thought it was a complete non-starter and imposed a reporting embargo on myself about it, but I’ve lifted it in the interests of amusement.
It seems this bid is still simmering away and Sky Sports are reporting that Graham Roberts thinks his chances of turning the Toon into a Barcelona-style club are 75%. Things didn’t get off to a good start though. Roberts said:
“There’s a few people who have put some money together, we went to meet the Newcastle board but they didn’t turn up. [Derek] Llambias didn’t show up, we had the financial director and the club secretary.”
That doesn’t sound too promising, although I suppose they could have sent the tea lady. (more…)
