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Decky

Decky

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Newcastle United: Club for sale, in need of repairs, big potential, £267m ono

 

With Mike Ashley prepared to sell and St James' Park regularly sold out, it's a mystery why no billionaire is interested in the club

 

Ajman, United Arab Emirates, November 2007. The hotel worker was Tanzanian and he wanted to know which UK airport I had flown from. The word "Newcastle" prefaced a broad smile. "My life's ambition is to go to St James' Park; they are my team," he said.

 

And why not? Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle's former chairman once claimed he was in charge of the eighth most popular side in the world. Even if that is no longer quite true, earlier this year, Newcastle broke back into the global "top 20" revenue generating football clubs with the only puzzle being why potential buyers are not beating down Mike Ashley's door and persuading the current owner to sell up.

 

Seemingly Ashley's answer would be yes were any would-be purchaser to come up with around £267m – thereby covering the £134m he paid for Newcastle in 2007 plus more than £150m in interest-free loans he injected to keep everything afloat during the early days of his tenure.

 

Although the club's most recent accounts, released in March this year, showed that commercial revenue had fallen by £12.7m – perhaps reflecting Ashley's failure to exploit fully overseas markets – Newcastle's accounts were in the black. Unlike many Premier League counterparts they even posted a profit – £1.4m after player amortisation.

 

Life is full of mysteries but one of the biggest, most enduring, revolves around why no one has stepped in to relieve Ashley of a most attractive toy he would surely be willing to discard. The billionaire sports retailer once reportedly told one of his former St James' Park managers he "had no idea" why he bought Newcastle in the first place but, now the international credit crunch has eased, the lack of interest in taking it off his hands appears astounding.

 

Financial types will tell you that wealthy individuals are rarely willing to invest more than 10 per cent of their overall capital in a football club, preferring to borrow the rest. The credit crunch made that tough but now things should be a little less restrictive while the potential rewards of being handed the keys to St James' Park are immense.

 

For a start the stadium – one of the biggest and best in England – regularly sells out to it's 52,000 capacity and, unusually, it enjoys a prime city centre location within walking distance from scores of restaurants, hotels and shops.

 

If the fact you can be shopping in Fenwick or John Lewis minutes before attending a match may seem slightly irrelevant, the ground's peerless location boosts the club's value in the corporate function market appreciably.

 

Derek Llambias, Newcastle's former managing director under Ashley, used to suggest that people on Tyneside did not have sufficient money to help maximise such revenue streams but his opinion was perhaps coloured by earlier decades spent working in the high rolling world of Mayfair casinos.

 

Granted there are areas of deprivation in Newcastle – as in all cities. Yet judging by the amount of brand new expensive cars flying around the area, the invariably packed restaurants, busy shops and some eye-wateringly steep house prices in certain suburbs, Llambias did not grasp the whole picture in what remains a regional capital.

 

Glenn Roeder, sacked as Newcastle's manager shortly before Ashley's arrival, used to say potential buyers dismissed it, ignorantly, as simply "too far north" and, even though that sounds absurd in such a small country as England, he may well have a point. After all, people who have never been to the north east do often have rather distorted ideas about the region.

 

It seems Manchester City's current owners did discreetly arrive from Abu Dhabi to explore the possibility of buying Newcastle before heading south and west to Manchester but since then little substantive sales talk has gone on.

 

Everton, a club Bill Kenwright has made clear is up for grabs, may represent a rival interest for anyone looking for a Premier League stake but to truly prosper Everton need to leave Goodison Park and finding a new home has proved an enormous problem.

 

Newcastle then should be top of any self respecting billionaire's shopping list. But if someone really is serious about buying Ashley out the overwhelming likelihood is that – a la Manchester City – no media outlet would have an inkling of anything happening until the formal, bombshell, announcement. Clues will not be scattered and advance warnings should not be expected.

 

Maybe that is what will happen at St James'. We will wake one morning to an early club statement and later discover that, unnoticed, a delegation representing the new owner flew into Newcastle airport on a private jet from Russia or the United States. Or perhaps on the daily Emirates service from Dubai, possibly having connected from elsewhere in the Middle, Far East or Indian sub-continent.

 

There was a time, a few years ago when the club was very publicly for sale, that a group of Malaysian – or at least that's where they were supposed to be from – businessmen stepped out of Emirates business class and were whisked the few miles to St James' and then the training ground for a less than private tour. New owners? Of course not, just a bizarre publicity stunt or perhaps a little joke on Ashley's part. No one ever appeared quite sure.

 

One day though it will happen for real. Sooner or later? No one knows ... but Newcastle United is a very big prize waiting to be claimed.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/21/newcastle-united-club-for-sale-mike-ashley

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AyeDubbleYoo

AyeDubbleYoo

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I wonder how much potential we actually have to make money for a buyer though?

 

If not, someone would have to buy us as a plaything, to launder dodgy money, make them acceptable to the West, because they just fancy it etc. Not that those motivations mean the owner will be bad, but it might well be someone a lot murkier than Ashley (albeit probably better for fans because they'll spend more).

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Benwell Lad

Benwell Lad

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I think the article misses a few points regarding the real value of the asset. The complementary fit it has with Ashley's core interests make it a lot more valuable to him than simply adding those two figures together.

Also the perceived hostility to outsiders, whatever you think about Ashley he is the first ever person to put substantial amounts of capital into the club yet he is still widely loathed, may make any billionaire think twice about buying the club as a "play thing".

 

Interesting to see the notions of Newcastle being either poor or remote being debunked. Parts of the NE may have economic problems but any visitor to SJP and Newcastle would probably leave with the impression of a well off and very vibrant city.

We may be further in miles from the metropolis but it's still much easier to get to than most other places in the UK. Two trains an hour centre to centre, the quickest of which does the journey in 2 hours 50 minutes, regular flights to an airport 10 minutes from the city centre and regular direct flights to other European centres and the Middle East make us anything but remote.

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BottledDog

BottledDog

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Happy to accept it as legit, but until we know what it's for (which I can't imagine we'll find out anytime soon/ever) then can't say it bothers me.

 

 

/Unless it is for mugs. Fuck me man, fair enough it's useful crockery and that, but howay, £500,000!!!

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Benwell Lad

Benwell Lad

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Happy to accept it as legit, but until we know what it's for (which I can't imagine we'll find out anytime soon/ever) then can't say it bothers me.

 

 

/Unless it is for mugs. Fuck me man, fair enough it's useful crockery and that, but howay, £500,000!!!

 

Who knows, but while the blurred lines between NUFC and SD marketing has been used as ammunition against Ashley, it MAY be the case that the NUFC business is benefitting from using another company's system to save making substantial investment in their own. As is normally the case a fee would be payable.

Not saying this IS the case but it could explain it ??

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Guest Roger Kint

Guest Roger Kint

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Well based on the limited wording under that table which the blog doesnt seem to have bothered reading its likely to be this:

 

'mike ashley leased certain properties to various companies in the group which operated as retail and distribution premises. a commercial rent is charged in respect of these leases. '

 

 

Does he use any SD shops(or parts of them) for NUFC Club Shops or anything?

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