Commercial revenue

**** you you fat disgusting leech.

 

He’s a titanic clusterfuck of a man, putrid abomination, result of a disgusting system designed to reward the rich by letting them do whatever the **** they want.

We all need T-shirt’s from Balotelli. Why always ****ing us.

 

Would like to know how our commercial income dropped from £28M one year to £15M the next. It suggests an amazing and astounding level of incompetence.

 

Could it be down to fans protests
I haven't spent a penny in anyone of his stores including refreshments at SJP

 

From Oliver Kay, The Times;

Even now, the bare facts of Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United are best digested with a glass of water. Two relegations, a solitary finish above tenth place in the Premier League, a solitary appearance in the last 16 of either FA Cup or League Cup and, just in case you imagined that this highly successful businessman has transformed Newcastle’s fortunes away from the pitch, a mere £600,000 increase in annual commercial revenue over 11 years in which other clubs have been laughing all the way to the bank.

That £600,000 figure probably bears spelling out. Newcastle made £27.6 million in commercial revenue in 2006-07, the final season under the ownership of the Hall family and Freddy Shepherd. Last season, according to figures released this week by Deloitte, they made £28.2 million. Over the same period, Manchester United’s commercial revenue has risen from £58.1 million (roughly double Newcastle’s) to £280 million (roughly ten times Newcastle’s); Arsenal’s from £42.7 million to £106.9 million; Liverpool’s from £43.1 million to £151.3 million; Tottenham Hotspur’s from £38.5 million to £103.2 million; Inter Milan’s from £25 million to £130.9 million; FC Schalke’s from £35.7 million to £93.7 million; Everton’s from a measly £6.7 million to £30.1 million — to say nothing of those clubs, such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, whose brand value has been inflated so dramatically as to arouse the suspicion of Uefa’s financial compliance department. To put it politely, Newcastle have bucked the trend.

All of this would be galling enough for Newcastle’s supporters even if their beloved St James’ Park, one of the great cathedrals of English football, were not splattered with billboards advertising Ashley’s high-street sports retail chain. It is doubtful whether any stadium in the Premier League — not even those bearing the name of a Middle Eastern airline, a credit card company, a health insurance provider or a brewery — screams “rampant commercialism” like St James’ Park does, or for such little benefit. At least Lee Charnley, Newcastle’s managing director, was able to reassure supporters at a fan forum event in October that “there is now an agreement in place whereby Sports Direct pays for all advertising in the stadium”. “Now”? Well, that’s good of them.

When Ashley arrived in 2007, Newcastle had the sixth-biggest turnover in the Premier League and the fifth-highest wage bill. Full accounts for 2017-18, after promotion back to the top flight, are not yet available, but when they were relegated in 2016, their turnover was the ninth-highest (overtaken not just by Manchester City but by Tottenham, West Ham United and Leicester City) and their £75 million wage bill was only the 16th highest in the Premier League (lower than Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland and Swansea City, among others).

The fact that Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea have since followed Newcastle down to the Sky Bet Championship — and have shown altogether less gumption in trying to get back — is no justification for the parsimony on Tyneside. None of those clubs had anything like the platform that Ashley has had the opportunity to build on at Newcastle. Yes he inherited a £76 million debt and an underperforming squad, but this was a club that had great potential to move onwards and upwards with the right kind of investment — “one of the jewels, one of the diamonds of the Premier League,” as he put it in 2008. He talked back then of setting the club’s sights high. To have opted for a smaller club, he said, would have been “like settling for the high jump when you really want to do the pole vault. You want more excitement, so you go higher.”

Ashley wants excitement? Seriously? Because looking from the outside, it has seemed that his sole ambition for Newcastle has been a seat on the Premier League gravy train, which would see the business grow with every new broadcast deal. The only time there has been any notable surge of ambition is when underinvestment has led to relegation, which has led to a more aggressive approach in search of promotion. When Newcastle were promoted under Kevin Keegan in 1993, their ambitions soared. When they were promoted under Rafael Benítez in 2017, it was as if, once again, a place in the Premier League was all that Ashley required.

There has been some investment over the past three transfer windows, but a total outlay of £70 million on Jacob Murphy, Florian Lejeune, Yoshinori Muto, Christian Atsu, Mikel Merino, Federico Fernández, Fabian Schär, Martin Dubravka, Joselu, Javier Manquillo and Ki Sung-yueng, plus various loans, smacked of a bargain-basement approach in trying to bring a Championship squad up to scratch. That outlay has largely been subsidised by sales in any case. That Newcastle’s three biggest acquisitions (Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Albert Luque) and indeed seven of their 12 biggest came more than a decade ago, pre-Ashley, is remarkable in an era of transfer-market inflation.

So too is the lack of investment in the club’s infrastructure. Whereas clubs such as Everton, Tottenham and Brighton have moved to highly impressive new training grounds over the past decade or so, and others such as Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have revamped theirs at considerable expense, Newcastle’s plans for a new complex at Darsley Park, announced in late 2013 and initially scheduled for completion in early 2016, have not progressed. Newcastle’s accounts suggest that capital expenditure across the first decade of Ashley’s ownership was just £10 million. He said last year that “our training facilities have improved significantly during my tenure” and are “fit for purpose”, but Benítez is as almost exasperated by this issue as by the constraints he has faced in the transfer market.

In 2015, in the grip of another relegation battle, Michael Martin, editor of the True Faith fanzine, wearily described Newcastle as “a zombie club, half-alive, half-dead, going nowhere.” A year later they dropped down to the Championship. It briefly seemed that there might be a realignment after that, a willingness to learn from past mistakes and to capitalise on the optimism generated by Benítez and a promotion campaign, but no, it remains a club in limbo. No buyer has been found to meet the owner’s £300 million-plus asking price for a club that, having stood still for so long (even pre-Ashley), needs serious investment.

Whereas managers usually live in fear of a takeover, Benítez has been dismayed to see one potential buyer after another come and go. He is in the final months of his contract and is understood to be highly unlikely to sign a new deal unless something significant changes. No Newcastle fan will blame Benítez if he departs at the end of the season. Many of them are amazed he has stayed this long. They share his sense of disillusionment. That attendances remain so healthy — upwards of 49,000 for every league match this season — is testimony to the fans’ loyalty, which only accentuates the feeling of potential unfilled.

There is still a perception in some quarters that Newcastle’s supporters, still giddy from the Keegan years, are asking for too much. They really aren’t. A sense of adventure, of hope, would be nice. Victory over Watford, to reach the FA Cup fifth round for the first time since 2006, almost feels like too much to ask in these straitened times. A banner unveiled at St James’ Park a few years ago read: “We don’t demand a team that wins. We demand a club that tries.” Is that really too much to ask?

 

Let's get one thing straight. Ashley is not this astute businessman that people portray him as. He got lucky with Sports Direct. Our commercial statistics are proof that the guy is a walking calamity.

 

Haven't you heard ..................... its not his fault. That old bloke that lives in Wynyard is to blame for all of this.

 

My issue with this is I don't believe that is the case!

I think our revenue will have increased - if you look at all of those figures, EVERYONE has doubled it minimum - in this time period. My issue is where is the money going? There is no way you can tell me we have only managed an increase of 2.5% while every other clubs there is ranging from 50%-300% in the same time frame - there is just no way. It would be very interesting to see some clubs like Palace, Watford, Leicester, Brighton and Huddersfields as well - who you could argue are more comparable but I guaren-****ing-tee its better than 2.5%

We are also making profits in the transfer market, neglecting investing in the infrastructure whereas some of those listed above have pumped miliions upon millions into upgrading theirs, selling assest like Strawberry Place.

Where the **** is all the money going...

The sooner the HMRC investigation is over and made public - hopefully someone can use the FOI act and get their hands on details copies of the FCB's 30+ companies linked to the club and show CATEGORICALLY where the money is going and if its all "tickty boo" explain how and why we are so severely lacking in comparison i.e. club shop being a SD **** hole, no advertising payments etc.

 

He has had his money back from us, there should be no loan. At this point it is just a bullshit director's loan that will sit there til the end of time while he draws dividends for life. ****ing prick.

Most directors actually give a **** about their companies.

 

He may be a twat but its a bit disingenuous calling him lucky. He came up with a successful business model and grew the business.

Our commercial statistics are a direct result of him diverting advertising to benefit SD and not paying his fair whack for the the merchandising rights. They may be a calamity for the club but they are a godsend for Sports Direct.

His actions have completely demotivated our commercial department as they cannot go out and seek competive bids for Stadium advertising and merchandising rights. Hence the results we see.

I dont think he will look at his time with Newcastle as a calamity. If he did he would have done a Short and got rid of it at any cost.

 

He must have had his loans back via Sport Direct advertising at least three times over in the process.

In practice we should be hovering around the top 10-12 clubs in terms of revenue. Match day revenue is what it is because of apathy. If there was investment and we actually tried to challenge, ticket prices would rise, we'd sell more merchandise and people would be more likely to buy food/ drink at games. Corporate sales too would go through the roof.

In terms of commercial activity, sponsors would be falling over themselves to do deals, kit manufacturers would be lining up with offers and we would have sponsors paying through the nose to have their names on our shirts.

Sadly, Ashley stops all that by his running of the club, the monopoly that Sports Direct has on advertising and the incompetent and nefarious actions of Ashley's employees.

It makes me laugh when people say that we aren't a big club. Yes we are. Financially we have the potential to be massive. On the field we are Championship through chronic under investment. That is an absolute disgrace.

 

I agree but dont think we ahould be looking at ways to raise ticket prices. If we maximised other commercial revenue options we should be trying to reduce ticket prices. The TV revenue is such that ticket income is only a minor component.

 

I blame pardew

 

Glad you’ve finally left the land of delusion and realised how we ended up with the guy. Yep our Mackem supporting for owner didn’t give a **** what happened to “his” club for a pound a share.

 

This is what happens. People start to believe this ****. Don’t you know it’s easy to amass a 3.5billion fortune with no business sense. All you need is luck

 

Lol.

Was talking about Ashley with friends this morning, they couldn’t fathom why he’d buy the likes of HMV. I just said that it’s actually pretty simple, whatever he says is more or less a lie. He buys these companies under special admin rules which allows him to own the assets without inheriting the debt. He can then sell off unprofitable land for real estate, which is all he wants to look at now. All this bullshit about saving the high street is just typical Ashley diversion, he enjoys the thrills of lying to your face then effectively asking ‘so what are you going to do about it?’ once the lie is exposed. He’s a ruthless, unscrupulous bastard who knows exactly what he’s doing, all the time. Even the fact he says “I’m not a pantomime villain” means he is, and knows he is!!

It’s frustrating but theres nothing can be done. He’ll go when he wants and not a minute sooner. These press articles will be the source of great amusement to him; he’s even less likely to allow spending when things like this are written, in my opinion. He’s just very contrary and loves it. I’ve been personally suckered in by the rumours he spreads around - and there’s no doubt now that he does, and enjoys it.