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Mike Ashley


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If I owned a football club and could rock up to be treated like the king in my executive box I would definitely do it like.

 

I don't think he has absolutely no regard for football, it's just his regard for profit is much more important.

 

If I had his cash there's better places I could think of to rock up to and be treated like a King, places involving sun and scantily clad young gold-diggers.

 

Sure he visits plenty of those too.

 

He hasn't got time, he's too busy visiting his assets :rolleyes:

 

Derek? Derek Llambias?

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I think (hope) it's a challenge to him.

 

There comes a point where buying struggling shops, asset stripping them and closing them down becomes second nature.

 

He's bested all his competitors on the high street, he now wants to do that in the Premier League. 

 

Throwing personal wealth at it isn't in the terms of the game for him though.  It's not about winning a trophy.  Any billionaire could walk into a club and spend enough to win a tin pot.  Portsmoth, Boro, Swansea, Birmingham, Blackburn etc have all done that.  He wants to build the most profitable club in the game.  The joy for him comes in the wheeler dealing.  To him players are high priced stock, Mike Williamson is a joblot of Firetrap shirts.  It's the same game he's played his whole life but the excitement of selling a £35m player who cost nothing will be manna from heaven for him and take him back to being 20 year old when he was the manager of one store, stocking it with s*** and selling it at 400% markup.

 

He wants us to win, to keep pushing up the price of his stock.

 

He wants us to win so bad he wont allow us to sign players to help us win.  :lol: :lol:

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I think (hope) it's a challenge to him.

 

There comes a point where buying struggling shops, asset stripping them and closing them down becomes second nature.

 

He's bested all his competitors on the high street, he now wants to do that in the Premier League. 

 

Throwing personal wealth at it isn't in the terms of the game for him though.  It's not about winning a trophy.  Any billionaire could walk into a club and spend enough to win a tin pot.  Portsmoth, Boro, Swansea, Birmingham, Blackburn etc have all done that.  He wants to build the most profitable club in the game.  The joy for him comes in the wheeler dealing.  To him players are high priced stock, Mike Williamson is a joblot of Firetrap shirts.  It's the same game he's played his whole life but the excitement of selling a £35m player who cost nothing will be manna from heaven for him and take him back to being 20 year old when he was the manager of one store, stocking it with s*** and selling it at 400% markup.

 

He wants us to win, to keep pushing up the price of his stock.

 

He wants us to win so bad he wont allow us to sign players to help us win.  :lol: :lol:

 

He does allow us to sign players.  We've spent over £150m on players since he arrived.

 

He gambles on us winning enough WITHOUT spending his own money, only the clubs.

 

The fun for him is in taking a business making massive losses and turning it into one that is more profitable than any other in the field.

 

 

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Happy Face is basically stating what I hope is actually happening, i.e. that he's playing the long game and thinks he can make us better/successful his way without it costing him any more money.

 

For someone who cares not one iota for the club, supposedly, why does he attend games more often than not, I just can't get my head around that. If I was a multi-billionaire, I wouldn't turn up to see something I couldn't give a s*** about every week or so, much better places I could go with my endless cash and my private jet.

 

:lol: Because it's a huge asset, that he uses for advertising, and he might like watching football?  Actually nah, must be because he cares about the club.

 

He must visit his flagship stores all the time I guess

 

:lol: That's EXACTLY the same definitely. I mean he should go sit in SD for 90 mins and see how that fairs. You ever thought the bloke might just be bored of an afternoon/evening?

 

:D with his money and business empire, his sort NEVER get bored.

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Both are equally true and show the trajectory of the club over different timespans.

 

Ashley has reduced seasonal matchday income since buying the club.  But he's grown matchday income per game.

 

The club couldn't do a better job of spinning it than this. Trajectory of the club :mike:

 

Matchday revenue went up in 10-11 because we were promoted. Well done Mike and Derek. :thup: However it was still lower than at any time since the stadium was expanded in 2000.  :thdn:

It went down in 11-12 even though we finished in 5th :thdn:

It went up in 12-13 :thup: This was mostly because we played 7 home Europa League ties, but we don't like Europe, so we'll try and avoid doing that again.

The Deloitte report has 13-14 at £25.9m which is down from £27.8m. :thdn:

 

So basically an increase of £1.6m in 4 years since we were promoted with start & end pretty similar seasons. What's that about 1.5% a year? Would be surprised if that's anything above average for the whole league and below the average for teams in the top half of the league. Certainly nothing to brag about, and your last sentence can't be true as its down £6.5m from 07-08 (no Europe, 2 home cup games).

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I think (hope) it's a challenge to him.

 

There comes a point where buying struggling shops, asset stripping them and closing them down becomes second nature.

 

He's bested all his competitors on the high street, he now wants to do that in the Premier League. 

 

Throwing personal wealth at it isn't in the terms of the game for him though.  It's not about winning a trophy.  Any billionaire could walk into a club and spend enough to win a tin pot.  Portsmoth, Boro, Swansea, Birmingham, Blackburn etc have all done that.  He wants to build the most profitable club in the game.  The joy for him comes in the wheeler dealing.  To him players are high priced stock, Mike Williamson is a joblot of Firetrap shirts.  It's the same game he's played his whole life but the excitement of selling a £35m player who cost nothing will be manna from heaven for him and take him back to being 20 year old when he was the manager of one store, stocking it with s*** and selling it at 400% markup.

 

He wants us to win, to keep pushing up the price of his stock.

 

He wants us to win so bad he wont allow us to sign players to help us win.  :lol: :lol:

 

He does allow us to sign players.  We've spent over £150m on players since he arrived.

 

He gambles on us winning enough WITHOUT spending his own money, only the clubs.

 

The fun for him is in taking a business making massive losses and turning it into one that is more profitable than any other in the field.

 

 

 

The "fun" for him is in taking over a high profile business with the most loyal customers you could ever wish to find and transforming it into a private advertisement vehicle to be run as cheaply as possible, all the whilst generating significant yearly profits and with every chance of getting sold at a huge ROI eventually.

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Huge fucking difference. We had no idea what we were getting into when he bought us. They had a heads up so it's far easier to stop him getting in than it is to force him out.

 

Yep yep, wish we could hound him out now though, or anytime, as long as it happens.

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The team looks like it came straight from the shelves of a Sports Direct store.

 

Bundles of crap lashed up in a pile by a numpty who is dreaming of being a manager one day.

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On the metro to the game so can't reply in detail. But here's what I base the per game increase on...

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/02/increased-cost-tickets-since-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle/

 

Its almost imperceptible like.

 

Well exactly. How does this:

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/Newcastle-United-Ticket-Prices-Under-Mike-Ashley-NUFC.png

 

translate to:

 

Ashley has reduced seasonal matchday income since buying the club.  But he's grown matchday income per game.

 

Only 2 seasons out of 6 (one post-relegation) where it hasn't gone down.

 

 

Edit: As an aside, I'm dubious about the average attendance figure for 2013 considering there were 7 Europa league games which were typically getting 30k crowds.

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On the metro to the game so can't reply in detail. But here's what I base the per game increase on...

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/02/increased-cost-tickets-since-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle/

 

Its almost imperceptible like.

 

Well exactly. How does this:

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/Newcastle-United-Ticket-Prices-Under-Mike-Ashley-NUFC.png

 

translate to:

 

Ashley has reduced seasonal matchday income since buying the club.  But he's grown matchday income per game.

 

Only 2 seasons out of 6 (one post-relegation) where it hasn't gone down.

 

 

Edit: As an aside, I'm dubious about the average attendance figure for 2013 considering there were 7 Europa league games which were typically getting 30k crowds.

 

The average.

 

Shepherd £1.18m, Ashley £1.20m

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On the metro to the game so can't reply in detail. But here's what I base the per game increase on...

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/02/increased-cost-tickets-since-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle/

 

Its almost imperceptible like.

 

Well exactly. How does this:

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/Newcastle-United-Ticket-Prices-Under-Mike-Ashley-NUFC.png

 

translate to:

 

Ashley has reduced seasonal matchday income since buying the club.  But he's grown matchday income per game.

 

Only 2 seasons out of 6 (one post-relegation) where it hasn't gone down.

 

 

Edit: As an aside, I'm dubious about the average attendance figure for 2013 considering there were 7 Europa league games which were typically getting 30k crowds.

 

The average.

 

Shepherd £1.18m, Ashley £1.20m

 

:huff:

You're comparing averages over a period where we were regularly in Europe & tried in cups (an average of 7.5 extra home games per season) to a period where we avoid Europe and cups (an average of 2.5 extra home games per season). These cup games are often relatively poorly attended and have lower ticket prices, thus lowering the average income per game.

 

You're basically praising Ashley for the club's cupaphobia.

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:thup: UV

 

Happy Face seems to be playing devil's advocate for Ashley at the moment in the same way he did for Pardew for years, for reasons I can't understand. I appreciate the effort he puts into everything but the point of this current work completely escapes me.

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You don't think the first set of accounts to show an operating profit in 10 years is a sea change moment that presents opportunities to be considered?

 

No.

 

Did we see opportunities considered in Summer? Did we see opportunities considered in January?

 

The accounts when they come out relate to the state of the club on 30/6/14. They will not be a shocking revelation to the people running the club when the auditors sign them off.

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On the metro to the game so can't reply in detail. But here's what I base the per game increase on...

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/02/increased-cost-tickets-since-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle/

 

Its almost imperceptible like.

 

Well exactly. How does this:

 

http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/Newcastle-United-Ticket-Prices-Under-Mike-Ashley-NUFC.png

 

translate to:

 

Ashley has reduced seasonal matchday income since buying the club.  But he's grown matchday income per game.

 

Only 2 seasons out of 6 (one post-relegation) where it hasn't gone down.

 

 

Edit: As an aside, I'm dubious about the average attendance figure for 2013 considering there were 7 Europa league games which were typically getting 30k crowds.

 

The average.

 

Shepherd £1.18m, Ashley £1.20m

 

Do these figures stack up when adjusted for inflation?

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You don't think the first set of accounts to show an operating profit in 10 years is a sea change moment that presents opportunities to be considered?

 

No.

 

Did we see opportunities considered in Summer? Did we see opportunities considered in January?

 

The accounts when they come out relate to the state of the club on 30/6/14. They will not be a shocking revelation to the people running the club when the auditors sign them off.

 

Net Spend goes up in line with operating Profit.....

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/2ms0v29.png

 

(conservatively guessed 13/14 profit)

 

The 13/14 profit we announce won't be a surprise which is why we spent over £21m in 14/15.

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You can get all you need to know from the first and last set of figures in the article.

 

2001 - 22 games, income £24.9

2014 - 22 games, income £25.9

 

Both seasons we had 3 home cup games and finished slap bang in the middle of the table. Matchday revenue has gone up by only £1m over 13 years, 4% overall, around 0.3% per year.

 

In that time (in less time than that in fact) Spurs have more than doubled their matchday income from a starting point significantly below ours to one nearly £20m ahead of us today.

 

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