Making the best of it?Trick or treat? Which one does Mike Ashley have in store for Newcastle United over the next season and a half?
Undoubtedly there are many fans who would like to celebrate Halloween by tying Mike Ashley to a stake and setting fire to him, not least because of his crackers plan to sell the naming rights to St James’ Park.
It’s the sort of plan that will probably have people thinking about demonstrations of one kind or another, often involving bedsheets and references to the “Cockney Mafia” and strange words like ‘boycoutt’. Others suggest that the best way to get the message through to Ashley is to ‘hit him in the pocket’, as demonstrated by this letter to the Chronicle:
ASHLEY must go now. Yes, I know he has the money, he cannot be that daft, you say – let’s face it, he got lucky on the stock market and has dragged us down to gutter level and this is the final insult.
Q. How do you get him out?
A. Get the Geordies to stop going to the ground, all 40,000 of them – no income equals no soul, equals the landlord throws in his hand; 40,000 supporters to see Doncaster Rovers – it beggars belief – that is more than Chelsea get most home games!
There is however a problem with that plan. It’s fair enough asking Ashley to ‘get out of this town’ but where is he going to go? He has just tried to sell the club and failed, so his options are limited. He’s not going to give the club away and, whatever his sins, no reasonable person would expect him to do so. (more…)
Anusol Arena? Pizza Hut Park?Of course, Mike Ashley’s recent announcement that Newcastle United will be seeking bidders for ‘naming right’s’ to the stadium formerly known as St James’s Park is somewhat ‘controversial’ to say the least. Indeed, many very strong views have been expressed already, including in this ‘blog. Petitions have been prepared, there have been rumblings of more demos and the mood is even more fractious than usual.
There is also another question that comes to mind, to the mind of this writer anyway; who on earth would want to step into what could be one of the most controversial deals in the history of corporate sponsorship? Until now, the naming rights for the stadiums of larger clubs have been restricted to new builds such as the ‘Reebok’ in Bolton, the ‘Emirates’ in North London, the ‘JJB’ / ‘DW’ in Wigan and several others. So far, so uncontroversial. However, large established names with large historic grounds such as Manchester United with Old Trafford, Liverpool with Anfield etc have so far resisted the temptation to sell naming rights despite their owners being under great financial pressure with debt and the spiralling inflation prevalent at the top of the football world. Of course, a biggest part of this is that their names have attained an iconic status within football over a very long period like, dare I say it, the big elephant on the hill that is St James’s Park itself. Certainly, it would be seen as sacriligeous and far too controversial in many quarters, and would probably be more trouble than it is worth. (more…)
Here we go againMike Ashley has taken Newcastle United off the market after 5 months and appointed Chris Hughton as permanent manager until the end of the 2010/2011 season.
Emotions were running high when this was announced last night but I wanted to try and analyse the situation a little more objectively in the cold light of day.
It looked like Barry Moat might actually have been in with a chance at one point. According to the press, he’d had a £40m up-front plus £40m at the end of the season deal rejected and had come back to Ashley with a £60m-£20m upgrade to that, having been led to believe by Ashley that it would be accepted. Ashley however did not accept it and decided to take the club off the market amongst a lot of familiar-sounding rhetoric.
The rhetoric sounds familiar because it’s pretty much what he said the last time he took the club off the market. He stressed his commitment to the future of Newcastle United then too and he put some money into the club, but then we were relegated and the club was up for sale once again. So I have no reason to believe that Ashley’s aim is to do anything but maximise the club’s appeal so that he can put it up for sale yet again. (more…)
Untouchable surely?Of all the loathsome, inept and baffling decisions made and actions taken by Mike Ashley and his useless merrymen running the show on Barrack Road, he’s finally gone where I thought he could never go.
Having announced the decision to take the club off the market and install Chris Hughton as permanent manager, the official site has put out a statement to that effect.
Almost as an afterthought, and so matter-of-factly it brings tears to a grow man’s eyes was this ridiculously callous snippet –
“The club aims to maximise its commercial revenues; this includes renegotiating its club sponsor and kit deal, which expire at the end of this season, as well as welcoming offers for the stadium naming rights for next season.”
So if you weren’t entirely sure just how badly the current incumbent had misjudged what this little toy of their’s mean to us, nor just how ignorant they are to the traditions within football that really matter to a supporter, then you do now. (more…)
What's the deal guys?According to an article posted on The Telegraph’s site late last night, Mike Ashley has turned down Barry Moat’s latest £80m bid for Newcastle United even though he’d previously said he’d accept the bid on the terms specified.
What the article says is that whilst Ashley had previously rejected Moat’s offer to take £40m down and £40m at the end of the season, the pair had reached agreement earlier last week for a deal involving £60m down and £20m at the end of the season.
However when Barry Moat made such an offer on Friday, Ashley – after considering it for a few days – rejected the offer anyway, insisting he now wants the whole £80m up-front.
The Telegraph speculates that Ashley is playing hardball with Moat to give any other bidders a chance to show their hand.
To be fair, once I get past my desire to see the back of him, I have a certain amount of sympathy with Ashley over this. (more…)
