macphisto

By the way, I think this discussion is a bit academic anyway as when push comes to shove, the city council would find somewhere for the ground either within the city centre or within walking distance. They have far too much to lose by the club moving out. I'm sure they'd also want to expand the ground as they would know it could pull in a lot of football tourists that would generate income city wide. The council is crying out for money and weekend visitors would help fill the gap, not to mention income from additional home support. I know football tourists are not everyone's cup of tea but they are part and parcel of the modern game and does help to grow the support.

We get the 50+ now and we're rubbish. I said a minimum of 70,000 so even on "bad" night we'd get about 60,000. I don't see many crowds in the 50,000s if we really took off apart from maybe the odd League cup match. I'm certain we'd sell out every Premier League match.

I see where you're coming from but I just want us to realise our potential, that is all. People might think I'm delirious but it grates me that we are mentioned in the same breath as West Ham, Villa, Everton, Leicester and other teams of that ilk. We have the potential to be much more than those teams and I see a larger stadium one way of finally cementing our place amongst the top teams in Europe. A lot of the discussion in this thread, I'm not having a go at you, I find similar to Charnley when he said "no player has ever turned us down because of the training ground". I have to be honest I find it small time thinking and people not knowing our true potential; it's sad to see. A bit off topic, but I also believe it would help to raise aspirations across the region, for too long we have settled for second best in all areas. A 70,000+ crowd every week would give us all so much pride and know that we can go head to head with the best of them in other areas too.

I've no doubt you're right about there being occasions where we would not get above 70K but would that not be the time to give discounted tickets to kids? That was one of the worst things of the Keegan era, albeit a smaller ground, a lot of youngsters could not get to see a match. I think you or someone else spoke about this a few weeks back how a lot of kids had to resort to watching matches at the Odeon back then. If we had a top team then I am sure we would sell over 65,000 season tickets if we wanted to. This is a mad region for football. We have been terrible for the last 10+ years and yet still were near full capacity every year and I have to hand it to Sunderland; stuck in Division 3 and yet have higher attendances than 6 or 7 Premier League teams according to an Athletic article today. Our crowds are mind boggling considering the ownership and standard of football.

I was openly doubtful of Howe up until the last three games and delighted he's turned it around. We don't know how much an input he had into the transfers, we do know he played a part, but Howe and others should be congratulated as we had a very good window in terms of the quality and character of the players we recruited. The likely partnership of Howe and Ashworth also bodes well as I think they will work together very well.

Fine for now is the key part and that's when we have a poor team. An increase of 8,000 is nowhere near enough when we are talking about possibly challenging for the Champions League in future, say 8 years, where the catchment area runs from the Scottish Borders to potentially Leeds as a lot of kids will turn away from Sunderland and Middlesbrough to follow Newcastle if we were successful.

I can understand where you're coming from to certain extent but when you see what the Old Town Hall in Newcastle used to be like and what we replaced it with then it's just criminal. Dan T Smith has a lot to answer for. Same with the Royal Arcade that got knocked down for Swan House roundabout.

You think the attendance would only rise by around 8,000 going from relegation fodder under a detested owner to potentially a situation where we consistently win/challenge for major trophies? I'd say easily 70,000 and use the games where we might not sell out to grow the young fan base with discounted tickets.

In truth that was most of our support under Ashley

For all the furore over our takeover and others like PSG, Man City and Chelsea, it's owners like Ashley and Donaldson I detest more than anything. Just in it to bleed clubs dry and even more than that is the duplicity of their ownerships, never being honest and thinking they can hoodwink fans all the time. I have nothing against people making money from football but there's a right way to go about it.

Not pulling you up over this, just curious with the development in that area. Is the ground still visible?

I wonder what land/Buildings (that could be demolished) the Reuben Brothers own in Newcastle that could be used for a stadium?

I would not be surprised at all to see Sterling move this summer and seriously I could see him here based solely on the fact that not many teams will be able to afford him. These words from Guardiola could be read in different ways. I guarantee the reply would be a lot more emphatic if the question was asked about Foden. If Sterling does leave then where could he go? PSG as a replacement for Mbappe if he leaves for Madrid? I can't see any other English clubs going for him apart from possibly Arsenal.

We got two England and Brazilian internationals when we'd only won two games all season

Strange, if I was a manager at Man U then he'd be one of the first players I'd sell. I say that as his stagnation as a player mirrors Man U as a club and it would be a symbolic change more than anything else. He has potential but I just don't get the fuss over him.

Have Raheem Sterling or Sadio Mane been mentioned in this thread? I could see both being available in the summer. I know Sterling misses a lot of chances, reminds me a little of Dyer in how he strikes a ball, but he is creating those chances in the first place. Think he'd be a cracking signing. Mane, I'm not so sure about as ludicrous as that sounds (not sure why?).

I'm no expert so I might not have understood this tweet correctly by Kieran Maguire but it looks like you can raise up to £90 million over three years doing it this way.

First two would do for me, New Balance seemed to have done a decent job with Liverpool and would have given them great experience of selling football shirts. I like how you mention ACG, this is complete fantasy but I'd be well up for going into partnership with someone like North Face if they ever tried to break into football (complete non-starter). I wonder who we could get to sponsor our matchday clothing like Dsquared2 and Man City?

Imagine them with Geordie Jeans

I didn't know that about Puma's other kits, I was thinking more along the lines of I couldn't see Ashley/Barnes/Charnley giving a toss about quality in the past. I wonder if the club could front load any deals, as in tempt a sports company to give us a big deal that's comparative to some of the bid clubs? Say a 8 year deal that compares to the biggest deals now but wouldn't rise over the 8 years. There could also be penalties if we don't reach certain league positions, etc. I'm just thinking that we would be the perfect club for someone like New Balance who tried to break into the big time with Liverpool. Just a way to help with FFP. I get where you're coming from with regards to building the brand with kids on the street but one aspect that I don't know about but could have a huge impact is the Saudi market. Will the Saudi's feel a sense of national pride to wear the shirt or not in the immediate future (particularly when we have Saudi sponsorship and not Fun88)? Population of 35.6 million with a median age of nearly 32 years and who all have decent disposable income (prime target group) could prove hugely significant.

Is it about quality or where we can get the best deal for the club, particularly where we want to be? I think people are being short sighted when it comes to the quality of our shirts. Newcastle under Ashley is a completely different proposition to Newcastle under the new owners where were entitled to the same treatment as Man City/Borussia Dortmund in regards to Puma. Whoever we work with, it would be in our power to insist on quality products. Castor currently have none to very few international distribution networks, no retail outlets overseas (how many in the UK?) And finally don't even have an app. This all matters as are they going to be able to meet our ambitions and also offer us a top deal? Why should we almost be a ginny pig for Castore as they develop?

They're all very niche teams in the grand scheme of things where the only people buying the shirts are local supporters in the main. As Izakaya says, someone like Nike could get their gear out to any part of the world in large numbers. I'd still maintain they're small time as look who they work with compared to the major sports brands; not even the same league. How many retail outlets do Castore have in the UK/worldwide? Also need to look at how sports retail is developing where major brands are making and selling their own products themselves and bypassing traditional sports shops. Nearly every major/middle ranking city has an Adidas/Nike/Puma retail outlet not to mention an online presence. This is important as it means the sports companies make more profit and in turn can offer better deals to clubs. In many ways Nike/Adidas are replicating Ashley's Sports direct model of making and selling their own stuff; only difference is that Sports Direct brands aren't as premium.

I'd bin Castore as soon as possible if I was the club. Not only are they small time but I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow have links to Ashley given they provide the shirts for both Rangers and Newcastle. We should aim to create a similar partnership that Nike and PSG have together. PSG is more of a sub-brand of Nike/Jordan now than simply PSG merchandise and will allow us to maximise revenue from both supporters and non-supporters. Another big thing to consider are distribution networks, I travel a lot and I can't think of the last time I saw a Newcastle shirt overseas. With that in mind I'd go for Adidas or Nike, lesser extent Puma. I know Puma were our recent short makers but I can imagine they thought there was no point in them promoting our stuff overseas as no one would buy it. Castore simply don't have the networks to sell our stuff overseas in sufficient numbers. Talking about Castore being small time, they remind me of Sandbanks which is owned by Jamie Redknapp. Trying to create a premium brand from nowhere (check out the prices of the jackets). Keep an eye out on Sky Sports as you'll see Neville and a few others wearing the brand. Flintoff has already been accused of promoting the brand on Top Gear.

We didn't have a huge debt unless, an utter fallacy. Yes, we had debt but a few years of not spending much would have sorted us out. A lot of the debt Ashley inherited was associated with the stadium that only became fully payable after a change of ownership. What Ashley claimed was a debt, "a blackhole", was the way every other club conducted their transfer business by paying in instalments. This is a good article on our debt at the time. Also no reason to not assume that our commercial revenue would have continued to rise to help offset our debt. My main problems with Shepherd and Hall is their football decisions, hiring Souness was an appalling decision. They were welcome to a return as they did invest their own money at one point to grow the club, something that Ashley never did.

I thought it was a simple case of Keegan wanting Ferdinand as his main striker.