TheBrownBottle

$1bn is a hell of a gesture

Yep. They’re going to exist in some form or another - UEFA also has similar rules in place. It is literally a handful of clubs which have been impacted by it, compared to the thousands of professional European clubs who are happy to sign up to the rules.

Has the PL been ‘embarrassed’ into any decision in the past? And what would’ve been the outcome of the loss of the CAT case? It wouldn’t have meant that the takeover ‘had’ to be approved. They wanted to put the KSA state up as the owners (ultimately MBS) because they knew that piracy would then rule the takeover out. Remember you don’t need to be convicted of a crime to fail the FPPT - and even pressure from the UK govt (understanding that a PL ruling that the effectively head of state of an allied country) didn’t make the PL wilt man. It was patently obvious that BeIN dropped its issue the moment that they were paid $1bn by KSA in damages - the takeover went through the day after. And it wasn’t unreasonable for the PL to block the takeover on piracy grounds - they were having their product stolen. That daft cunt on Twitter claiming victory through the CAT case remains as laughable now as it was then.

Leazes Terrace would be going nowhere whatever the views of anyone would be - and as you’ve said, the Metro line is a massive constructability issue for any extension to the Gallowgate which would offer no more than c.8k extra cheap seats. The Metro station would need to be closed or moved, the existing tunnel grouted, and new tunnels bored to allow the trains to turn around. And that cost absolutely shouldn’t (and wouldn’t) be met by the taxpayer - and the cost could well mount up to something approaching the cost of a brand spanking new super stadium. It is - and has always been - a no-go.

Arsenal were paying off their stadium. We wouldn’t be paying off ours.

There is always going to be financial rules in place in the PL. The PL was told which rules ran contrary to commercial law, and they’ve tried to fix them. Independent regulation rather than the courts is the more likely route to this being stopped at this point - there is no magic bullet. I don’t see a return to the Wild West days though.

Unfortunately the financial rules in place are a massive factor in this, and they’re liable to always exist in some form or another. Even Man Utd look likely to leave OT at this point. Personally, I was excited by it in 1997, and I would be again. We do have owners who have the finances to do this properly - for this not to just be a bland concrete dome, but an all bells-and-whistles state-of-the-art world class arena, and one which potentially might be spitting distance from our current home. I understand the attachment to SJP, but it’s one I never shared - I’ve always believed that NUFC had the depth of support to pull bigger crowds than pretty much anyone except Man Utd. If we have the second biggest stadium in the PL, we’d fill it - I reckon that all in we could boost our ground revenue from £35n to c.£100m once the sponsorships and commercials are whacked in. Then we’re closer to competing at the highest levels.

I remember these comments back in ‘90s as well, when we went from 16k average to 33k average in a couple of years, with the new SJP driving that. And the same again in 2000. The ‘plastics’ / ‘glory seekers’ stuff has been around for decades, and it’s as big a load of bollocks now as it was then.

They aren’t at odds - vastly expanded corporate takes care of PSR - a bigger stadium makes more cheap seats possible.

I really don’t think that they can. Expanding the Gallowgate is likely borderline impossible from a constructability perspective; and the East Stand’s footprint would not be changed with a rebuild. If we stay at SJP we can look to enjoy midtable forever.

100%. Which was why no-one should listen to that daft cunt Simon Jordan, who still seems to think that we should thank Ashley because the way he ran us gave PIF headroom to spend. It was the exact opposite.

Our amortized transfers + salaries are pretty much in line with anticipated turnover, and our turnover this year will be pretty much the same as last year’s. We needed a financial boost to be able to sign players without selling, but we haven’t brought in any new significant commercial revenues this year.

Sponsors don’t need to sign up to long term deals - besides, the owners have been in for three years; that’s three years of lost revenue re sponsors. They aren’t coming is my view at this point. Re Guehi - we would definitely have needed to sell before the end of June to sign him. But that does mean that we could have waited until the end of the season - which would have been less of a problem squad-wise. We don’t have any financial headroom left.

Yep, we have very little headroom, and revenues won’t have grown in any significant way this year. We’re in a sell to buy position.

Unpopular thought - the club’s owners won’t give a flying one re local businesses’ drop in revenues. If anything, NUFC’s city centre location has a retardant effect on match day revenues. I seriously doubt that the Saudi PIF would give a shite if the Three Bulls was selling 25% fewer pints on a match day.

That’s never happened elsewhere mind. Not that it should stop anything - and I’m amazed that people would whinge about walking an extra couple of hundred metres (there are some right lazy buggers kicking around). It would be adding about five minutes of walking time for those who currently are in the Leazes End.

True - though the SOS cost the same as Alan Shearer (before they expanded it). Our new ground will cost a lot more - but I wouldn’t expect the club to be passing top much of that cost on; the idea should be to maximise revenues for PSR

Yep. There simply isn’t a ‘temporary’ ground solution for an SJP rebuild - and the footprint isn’t big enough even if it was possible. Yes, PIF has a lot of money. But it isn’t going to spend c.£200m+ on a temporary stadium which would last a year or so and wouldn’t even bring in enough revenue to cover cost. Anyone who thinks this is delusional.

The club just needs to crack on. SJP is not fit for purpose, nor can it be redeveloped to be fit for purpose. Let’s get spades in the ground and get on with the agenda of being all we can be. By a back of a fag packet calculation I reckon I’ve been in SJP 500+ times. I have very little sentiment for the lopsided monolith that was pretty much built in the ‘90s. Get a new ground built in the city centre and let’s fulfil our potential.

Lost on this one tbh. Why is this so?

They’re accounting losses - it doesn’t necessarily mean that the club is only running up a £35m deficit in a season. The injection is likely to cover salaries etc.

PIF funded Musk’s Twitter takeover. Can’t say it makes me any less comfortable than I was before - Trump is an authoritarian at minimum, and a fascist at worst, and Musk’s cunt bone fides are an open book.

As rare a sight as bigfoot. Though both do have hairy palms.

The one I always heard from older folks is the one listed on the Newcastle Council website - born North of the Tyne and within a 1 mile radius of Newcastle. Which seems pretty exacting. It is all a bit daft and meaningless tbh. https://newcastle.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2018-12/Geordiemainbody.pdf

Novocastrians are from Newcastle, nothing to do with the city centre. Just need to be from within the city limits. So if you're from Walker, you're Novocastrian. If you're from Wallsend, you're not. 'Geordie' was always ill-defined in terms of geography; I mean, Wallsend isn't in Newcastle but it would be odd to say that they aren't Geordies. I'm far more dubious re Durham mind (though obviously not places like Gateshead, which is in historical County Durham).