PIF and RB Sports & Media

[morpeth mag]

4 hours ago, Rosenrot said:

 

1. I am Jewish so that's unlikely.
2. What a ridiculous comparison. You cannot compare the holocaust to Ashley's ownership of NUFC FFS.

With the present hike in prices there is no way Ashley is spending serious money on gas. Live and let live.

[midds]

Attending games and paying for tickets is a tacit endorsement of what's happening to the club. The act of buying a ticket and attending is effectively saying "yeah, I'm fine with this, here's some money, I like this and I'm happy to witness what's happening" imo. The people attending are facilitating the owner and their constant stream of money is a huge contributing factor in him still being here more than 13 years after he said he'd got the message an wanted to leave and sell up. 

 

If these people are happy to continue to fund Ashley's reign then that's on them. If they can look themselves in the mirror and absolve themselves of blame whilst the club gets smaller by the day then that's on them. If they continue to attend and fund the demise of the club they claim to love AND utter a word of complaint then they can fuck clean off. They, and their steady stream of cash into Ashley's pocket, are the major reason he's still here. 

 

Just walk away and stay away for a season ffs. He'd run a mile with a season of 40000 empty seats each week. Won't happen though. Cunts addicted to the idea they're mint fans, it's the exact opposite. 

[Fantail Breeze]

[Dr Jinx]

In terms of the takeover, would it make any difference if Ashley listed the club again on the stock exchange? Is the rules for owning a majority share any different?

[RS]

29th September 

[Minhosa]

Just following up on @middsearlier post too. The empty seats have previously hugely embarrassed him into giving away his product for fuck all to save the shame.

 

Following covid and the impact of empty stadiums, we're now told in all areas of the press, of the financial consequences - we're told to expect NUFC's book to demonstrate the damage of such stadia cashflow gaps.

 

And yet still the militant mild remain unmoved in their selfishness of attending and fucking moaning about it.

 

One fucking season. Nine fucking months. Bail out for a short term hiatus. Not much to ask, you pricks.

[gdm]

I genuinely can’t believe so many are still turning up after Ashley sticking with Bruce while the majority of last season was dogshit & yet another failed takeover.  More fool me tho

[mrmojorisin75]

completely forgot about this CAT bollocks, what's the most likely outcome then (a) immediately laughed out the place or (b) PL stall it until November 2023?

[gjohnson]

1 minute ago, ManDoon said:

I find it baffling that we have literal real world experience of how much attendance matters to football and to Mike Ashley himself, and still people are hiding behind “it wouldn’t make a difference man!”. It absolutely would, and it has 

How so? 

 

All we've seen from a Covid empty stadium is just another excuse not to spend money...even though we seem to have been the only ones affected by it.

 

As long as we're on TV occasionally with Sports Direct logos everywhere he's happy. Ticket money is almost irrelevant now, given that we can be outspent by teams with the lowest crowds.

 

If anything no crowd suits him better, as there's then no direct pressure on his human shields (Bruce/Charnley) and no pressure from main stream media, only a few easily brushed aside articles from the likes of Hope.

 

It could be argued that last season with no crowd was the best ever for Ashley personally...no chants, lots of free advert space, just enough results to not draw attention to the dire performances, feeble local media reporting, minimal to no national reporting. Essentially being able to do whatever he wanted and getting away with it with no questions whatsoever.

 

I'd argue that he would love another ban of fans attending

 

[Yorkie]

He gave away 10,000 season tickets for free in order to fill the ground up. 

[Darth Crooks]

Comparing it to COVID affected periods when noones ground is full is folly. If it was only SJP after everything had opened up then it would be massive. Not going to happen mind. People have vlogs to film, apps to promote, kids to brainwash and social lives to have alongside a myriad different reasons to pay Ashley. He operates in the languages of aggressive, assertive gesture and money and we're seemingly content forsaking the former and providing him with plenty of the latter when it comes to brass tacks. plus ca change.

[gjohnson]

5 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

He gave away 10,000 season tickets for free in order to fill the ground up. 

Standard retail practice....if you've a product no-one wants, drop the price till you can get rid of it.  If anything giving them away was detrimental as it showed that having a crowd (with Bruce in charge) doesn't make his profit any better

 

That was before a season with no fans in the ground at all.....

 

I think he's seen now that a crowd makes little to no difference in how much money comes in and just doesn't think they're worth the hassle now.

[Ed210]

This is all pie in the poop man cos it’s done. 

[gjohnson]

3 minutes ago, Darth Crooks said:

Comparing it to COVID affected periods when noones ground is full is folly. If it was only SJP after everything had opened up then it would be massive. Not going to happen mind. People have vlogs to film, apps to promote, kids to brainwash and social lives to have alongside a myriad different reasons to pay Ashley. He operates in the languages of aggressive, assertive gesture and money and we're seemingly content forsaking the former and providing him with plenty of the latter when it comes to brass tacks. plus ca change.

It's not folly at all...it was an enforced example of how little a crowd matters from a business perspective.

 

An empty ground now would make much more of a statement in terms of overall and media perception, but i think we can all agree that Ashley doesn't give a stuff about that, and only looks at the numbers on the end of a balance sheet.

[Kanj]

He used to care. He doesn’t anymore.

 

If he cared at all he’d have bumped Bruce and tried to compete. He only cares about selling to PIF. He doesn’t give a shit about anything else. 

 

Nothing will make a difference until he fucks off and sells the club.  And it’s always been about selling on his terms. 

[gjohnson]

3 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

He literally became an active seller when we had no crowd? Tons of clubs have been suffering from the fact no fans are coming in. I’m not sure what you mean by this? It was clearly a big effect on all clubs?

Not what i'm saying...

 

Yes lots of clubs were affected by having no crowd, but we appear to be the only ones using it as an active excuse not to invest while others get on with it and try to improve.

 

[gdm]

PIF linked with inter again 

 

 

[Tsunami]

He became a willing seller before the pandemic struck and PIF were reported as saying the affects of the Pandemic were a reason for 2nd thoughts, and then they bought some cruise liner company which didn’t fit that reasoning.

 

Fans attending makes no odds at this stage. PIF are/ were the only show in town and Ashley has all eggs in this basket. At some point we may need to look more closely at Staveley and PIF, Staveley could be accused of stringing us along and PIF not playing ball, but they could also say they pulled out a year ago or so.

[Robster]

55 minutes ago, gjohnson said:

Standard retail practice....if you've a product no-one wants, drop the price till you can get rid of it.  If anything giving them away was detrimental as it showed that having a crowd (with Bruce in charge) doesn't make his profit any better

 

That was before a season with no fans in the ground at all.....

 

I think he's seen now that a crowd makes little to no difference in how much money comes in and just doesn't think they're worth the hassle now.

Why did he do it then if it made no difference and he wasn't bother by it?
I'd say it's slightly different to normal retail practice as it's not like he had stock to get rid of to make space in a warehouse.
I'd wager that the PL also don't want empty stadia otherwise it damages their brand.

[mrmojorisin75]

1 hour ago, gdm said:

PIF linked with inter again 

 

 

 

Awesome yes please

[cubaricho]

6 hours ago, mrmojorisin75 said:

completely forgot about this CAT bollocks, what's the most likely outcome then (a) immediately laughed out the place or (b) PL stall it until November 2023?

 

Isn't it just going to be a meeting to kick the can down the road?

[mrmojorisin75]

12 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

 

Isn't it just going to be a meeting to kick the can down the road?

 

It's a meeting to decide if the case goes ahead or if the PL are successful in having it chucked out, as I understand it.

[Dr Jinx]

5 minutes ago, mrmojorisin75 said:

 

It's a meeting to decide if the case goes ahead or if the PL are successful in having it chucked out, as I understand it.

Yes. They are trying to get it thrown out on a technicality that CAT don’t have the jurisdiction to rule against them because the other arbitration case covers essentially the same thing.

 

However what Mike Ashley is also claiming in the CAT case is £££, the arbitration doesn’t cover damages so i can’t see how the PL win this.

 

If it does get thrown out I’ll see it that our case is frivolous at best and wouldn’t have had a chance of winning (hence why court wouldn’t waste their time with it) which would also indicate the arbitration will go that way too.

 

If we do win this round it will be significant. It means the court think we have a case and the reality of the PL having to pass the takeover AND pay out damages is quite possible.

 

That’s when they shit the bed and settle imho.

[Fantail Breeze]

8 minutes ago, Dr Jinx said:

Yes. They are trying to get it thrown out on a technicality that CAT don’t have the jurisdiction to rule against them because the other arbitration case covers essentially the same thing.

 

However what Mike Ashley is also claiming in the CAT case is £££, the arbitration doesn’t cover damages so i can’t see how the PL win this.

 

If it does get thrown out I’ll see it that our case is frivolous at best and wouldn’t have had a chance of winning (hence why court wouldn’t waste their time with it) which would also indicate the arbitration will go that way too.

 

If we do win this round it will be significant. It means the court think we have a case and the reality of the PL having to pass the takeover AND pay out damages is quite possible.

 

That’s when they shit the bed and settle imho.

 

Not true at all.

 

If we win the jurisdiction argument, the court are agreeing they have jurisdiction to hear the case. The court aren’t making any determination on the strength of the case.

[Fantail Breeze]

The only outcome that will be good news is the jurisdiction challenge is refused and an appeal isn’t possible, with a full CAT hearing scheduled for the next six months.

 

This would force the PL into a corner they don’t want to be in, with arbitration and a confirmed CAT case pending in the near future.

 

All of which occurring is extremely unlikely imo.

 

The jurisdiction will go in our favour (again imo), but unfortunately there will be plenty of opportunity for the PL to kick the can down the road. Either an appeal being lodged or the main hearing being scheduled too far in the future. That’ll ultimately mean the takeover never goes through.

 

Although Ashley will be telling us to #wait for the foreseeable.