PIF and RB Sports & Media

[PauloGeordio]

8 minutes ago, Miggys First Goal said:

Aye, what we need is someone one step below YAR who is still important enough to be able to make decisions without having to go through Saudi and get that fucker set up in a permanent position in the Toon. 

That is someone that would normally have been in place from the off, yet here we are.

[Keegans Export]

I assumed/hoped that Hopkinson was that guy 

[GeordieT]

2 hours ago, r0cafella said:

 

 

So much for Hopinkson being able to get them to move faster  

Ironically I was talking to a senior chap in the commercial function before Christmas and he described Hopkinson as a ‘breath of fresh air’, was talking to the fact he was taking a hands on approach to driving the sponsorship funnel himself and was otherwise generally, very impressed. Whether that says more about the previous role holder(s), I don’t know.
 

But sorry state of affairs if revenue goes backwards.

[Steve Charlton]

14 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

YAR is very influential, but he's a non-exec chair who rocks up about once every three or four months for high-level talks.

just googled him,Looks like he's one of the top men.

 

Needs telling on tuesday if he turns up that the golf shite needs to be put aside,Cartel are taking the piss and Toon comes first

[AyeDubbleYoo]

46 minutes ago, Turnbull2000 said:

Times match report can be summarised as 'Man City reserves take piss out of club that want to be number one'. Pretty accurate tbf,

 

Did they mention how Man City came to have two full teams of elite players?

 

 

Edited March 8 by AyeDubbleYoo

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, GeordieT said:

Ironically I was talking to a senior chap in the commercial function before Christmas and he described Hopkinson as a ‘breath of fresh air’, was talking to the fact he was taking a hands on approach to driving the sponsorship funnel himself and was otherwise generally, very impressed. Whether that says more about the previous role holder(s), I don’t know.
 

But sorry state of affairs if revenue goes backwards.

Yeah this lines up with what @The Bonk has said about him. He's meant to be good but we are obviously quite unique in that leveraging our owners wealth has to be a key part of his job. Without them are are just a plucky contender who will never be able to close the gap. 

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Yeah this lines up with what @The Bonk has said about him. He's meant to be good but we are obviously quite unique in that leveraging our owners wealth has to be a key part of his job. Without them are are just a plucky contender who will never be able to close the gap. 

Aye key is the owners and the ability/willingness to throw their weight around competently.  
 

Staveley managed to get them to do it. 
 

One of the reasons I’m so down on yesterday is I don’t really believe in the ownership.  18 months since Staveley left and don’t think we’ve improved on what she left behind. 

[TRon]

31 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Yeah this lines up with what @The Bonk has said about him. He's meant to be good but we are obviously quite unique in that leveraging our owners wealth has to be a key part of his job. Without them are are just a plucky contender who will never be able to close the gap. 

 

 

And we won't even be a plucky contender without these owners. The structure of SCR is designed to keep clubs in their current lanes. 

 

PIF may or may not contribute their own funds to grow us. Alternative owners almost certainly won't. 

[Stifler]

6 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Aye key is the owners and the ability/willingness to throw their weight around competently.  
 

Staveley managed to get them to do it. 
 

One of the reasons I’m so down on yesterday is I don’t really believe in the ownership.  18 months since Staveley left and don’t think we’ve improved on what she left behind. 

Staveley is a miss, however her leaving and us morphing into what we are becoming was inevitable right from the takeover.

Ultimatly we were going to try and position ourselves as a global brand. That means customers from outside the area, regardless of them coming to games or not. If we can fill out our stadium/new stadium at a decent enough price point and have enough people buying corporate tickets either as tourists or as an occasional purchase, then it doesn’t matter to them if we have fans who don’t come to SJP. What matters is if they buy our merchandise through the official channels.

 

Ultimately we were always going to have a bit of a disconnect from our traditional supporter base. So yes that means a badge redesign, yes that mean either a new stadium or a SJP revamp that looks nothing like it does today, yes that means a black & white top with different patterns to attract attention, and unfortunately yes that means we will have less direct contact with those running the club.

 

I’m not going to sit here and slate the owners though. I’m not happy at how everytime we make a step forward, the next season we make a step backwards because we can’t buy a big enough squad. FFP has fucked us, it was its intention from the start, and unfortunately we just have to play a long game. That means we’ll not be able to compete on multiple fronts for some seasons yet. However where we have came from is a massive step forward. We have had 2 Champions League runs, this one arguably being deep into the competition. We have had good cup runs, 2 cup finals, and won a cup which I honestly never expected to see happen. I also think in our worst seasons under this ownership, we’ll still be competitive in the cups.

 

I think that a lot of people start unfairly attacking our ownership after defeats, in particular to clubs who we aim to compete with. I guess the same can be said about Howe after certain defeats.

 

In my opinion I do understand the frustration with the lack of new sponsors, and the lack of progress on the new training ground, and stadium. I also think announcing the plans about the change the clubs badge last season was done at a time that could have caused fan uproar at a time when we needed fans behind the club. It could easily have been done 2 weeks later at the end of the season where people would have time to clam down and talk a bit more rationally.

 

Ultimately I think this year in particular needs to a turning point for the club.

We need to make progress on the new training ground. We need to start an official conversation about the stadium, we need to see something with sponsorship/commercial income that is different from Adidas another originals/retro collection.

I also think that in the summer we need to have some sort of rebuild. We have too many players who are just not good enough and should have been shipped on long ago. We also have some of our more decent players who are aging out and need to be replaced or have understudies ready before they become a liability.

 

 

Edited March 8 by Stifler

[The College Dropout]

I just don’t think the owners are particularly motivated or competent for this game. 
 

I don’t care about new badges, I’m happy to do what’s  best for revenue and atmosphere stadium wise. 
 

But football is a fast and ruthless game. These guys are slow and ponderous. It looks like they don’t empower the people on the ground. Stadium and training ground taking forever as an example.  These noises about the  front of shirt sponsorship isn’t positive either. Haven’t got a big hire right that Staveley wasn’t involved in.  Hasn’t got a good transfer window isn’t Staveley was involved.  
 

They seemingly force the club leadership to spout ambitious waffle but don’t lay the pipework for it to actualise. That’s annoying but increasingly I’m learning it’s just how they are. Talking. Less action.  I don’t trust the direction is up. 

 

It is what it is really. I’ll be happy when we get good news.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Stifler said:

Staveley is a miss, however her leaving and us morphing into what we are becoming was inevitable right from the takeover.

Ultimatly we were going to try and position ourselves as a global brand. That means customers from outside the area, regardless of them coming to games or not. If we can fill out our stadium l/new stadium at a decent enough price point and have enough people buying corporate tickets either as tourists or as an occasional purchase, then it doesn’t matter to them if we have fans who don’t come to SJP. What matters is if they buy our merchandise through the official channels.

 

Ultimately we were always going to have a bit of a disconnect from our traditional supporter base. So yes that means a badge redesign, yes that mean either a new stadium or a SJP revamp that looks nothing like it does today, yes that means a black white top with different patterns to attract attention, and unfortunately yes that means we will have less direct contact with those running the club.

 

I’m not going to sit here and slate the owners though. I’m not happy at how everytime we make a step forward, the next season we make a step backwards because we can’t buy a big enough squad. FFP has fucked us, it was its intention from the start, and unfortunately we just have to play a long game. That means we’ll not be able to compete on multiple fronts for some seasons yet. However where we have came from is a massive step forward. We have had 2 Champions League runs, this one arguably being deep into the competition. We have had good cup runs, 2 cup finals, and won a cup which I honestly never expected to see happen. I also think in our worst seasons under this ownership, we’ll still be competitive in the cups.

 

I think that a lot of people start unfairly attacking our ownership after defeats, in particular to clubs who we aim to compete with. I guess the same can be said about Howe after certain defeats.

 

In my opinion I do understand the frustration with the lack of new sponsors, and the lack of progress on the new training ground, and stadium. I also think announcing the plans about the change the clubs badge last season was done at a time that could have caused fan uproar at a time when we needed fans behind the club. It could easily have been done 2 weeks later at the end of the season where people would have time to clam down and talk a bit more rationally.

 

Ultimately I think this year in particular needs to a turning point for the club.

We need to make progress on the new training ground. We need to start an official conversation about the stadium, we need to see something with sponsorship/commercial income that is different from Adidas another originals/retro collection.

I also think that in the summer we need to have some sort of rebuild. We have too many players who are just not good enough and should have been shipped on long ago. We also have some of our more decent players who are aging out and need to be replaced or have understudies ready before they become a liability.

 

 

This. Obviously things haven't gone to plan as when PIF first took over, but that's because the goalposts have been changed since the days of billionaire owners being able to buy their way to the top. It's a closed shop now, and it is going to be a long road to breaking into the cartel. 

 

I expect moans and groans from fans, and I'm sure plenty of mistakes have been made. But my general feel is that we are still trying to break into the elite. When someone with more resources and intent comes along who can shoot us there quicker, I will get behind them.

[Solitude20]

3 hours ago, Miggys First Goal said:

Aye, what we need is someone one step below YAR who is still important enough to be able to make decisions without having to go through Saudi and get that fucker set up in a permanent position in the Toon. 

Wouldn’t that be the CEO? 

[JLC]

7 hours ago, Turnbull2000 said:

Times match report can be summarised as 'Man City reserves take piss out of club that want to be number one'. Pretty accurate tbf,

We are years away from City's level. Sadly.

[Turnbull2000]

21 minutes ago, JLC said:

We are years away from City's level. Sadly.

 

Let's be honest, we're not ever catching City or the other 4 (except Spurs lol), unless something dramatically changes.

[JT24]

1 hour ago, JLC said:

We are years away from City's level. Sadly.

Off the field I think we’re still quite a ways behind a majority of PL and European teams. 
 

The club website and app are poorly designed, the content offerings on socials, YouTube etc have been piss poor for a while, ticketing makes mostly everybody want to spew, OSCs have been introduced and left to die (the portal on the website for these are amateur). I got bored once and compared Newcastle’s digital stuff to other PL teams and the difference is stark. Feels like the club have done it cheaply compared to rivals. 
 

One of the things I think the club does well is retail and merchandise, that department seems to be on it.

 

Might not matter to some but if the club are serious about wanting to catch those at the very top, I’d argue a lot of things need to be improved. 

[TheBrownBottle]

True Faith just published a short article on the ticket price rises and commercial performance.  Feel free to call the writer names below. 
 

https://tf1892.substack.com/p/newcastle-fans-pay-more-for-what

[r0cafella]

8 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

True Faith just published a short article on the ticket price rises and commercial performance.  Feel free to call the writer names below. 
 

https://tf1892.substack.com/p/newcastle-fans-pay-more-for-what

Valid complaints however there is a caveat here. I'm sure if we did a formula of squad coat Vs ticket pricing ours would be lower than average. 

 

Aren't season tickets also much cheaper than what a member pays? 

[mattypnufc]

11 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Valid complaints however there is a caveat here. I'm sure if we did a formula of squad coat Vs ticket pricing ours would be lower than average. 

 

Aren't season tickets also much cheaper than what a member pays? 

By about (on average) £10-£15 at least per ticket I think?
 

Members prices for me this season.
 

Cheapest this season has been league cup at £20. FA Cup £30. League £48. CL £64.
 

Most expensive. £64 League. £74 for Barca. All these have been for normal seats. 
 

I’ve missed one game. 

[bobbydazzla]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

Valid complaints however there is a caveat here. I'm sure if we did a formula of squad coat Vs ticket pricing ours would be lower than average. 

 

Aren't season tickets also much cheaper than what a member pays? 

Much cheaper compared to member tickets and also member ticket prices rose by 25% over last 2 seasons whereas season tickets went up 10%
 

It’s the members who are bearing the brunt of the price rises, but both groups are being treated like mugs 

 

£74 for the cheapest ticket for Barca is a fucking disgrace. Blatant money grabbing because they can get away with it and people will keep sucking it up. 
 

And to anyone thinking about bringing it up, please don’t bring the 10 year freeze ending into the discussion thank you please.
 

We know that for those people went from £20 a game to £40 a game, but they knew the freeze was ending and they’d taken advantage of mega low prices for a decade. 

 

 

Edited March 10 by bobbydazzla

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

Much cheaper compared to member tickets and also member ticket prices rose by 25% over last 2 seasons whereas season tickets went up 10%
 

It’s the members who are bearing the brunt of the price rises, but both groups are being treated like mugs 

 

£74 for the cheapest ticket for Barca is a fucking disgrace. Blatant money grabbing because they can get away with it and people will keep sucking it up. 

 

 

 

Oddly enough iirc our cheapest Barca ticket is cheaper than Villas cheapest in the knockout games they had. 

 

Football is well and truly a commodity so this is only going one way as well. 

[Myleftboot]

I remember paying to go in the barracks hospitality a couple of seasons ago against Fulham,it was £150 per person. Now the Sunderland match is £372 and the Bournemouth,Brighton and West Ham matches are £248.

[bobbydazzla]

10 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Oddly enough iirc our cheapest Barca ticket is cheaper than Villas cheapest in the knockout games they had. 

 

Football is well and truly a commodity so this is only going one way as well. 

It’s the cumulative effect.
 

League games 25% more expensive than 2 seasons ago, £65 for CL group, £70 for Qarabag, £74 for Barca. 

 

And then the little digs between the big punches landing, like the £790 tickets in the Leazes for the Makems remaining unsold when there’s massive demand. Anytime you log in there they are, staring you in the face. A constant reminder of how NUFC are taking the piss.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10 by bobbydazzla

[RS]

Buy on get half a one free football or the price for what we’ve been served up over the past couple of seasons?

[Groundhog63]

2 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

True Faith just published a short article on the ticket price rises and commercial performance.  Feel free to call the writer names below. 
 

https://tf1892.substack.com/p/newcastle-fans-pay-more-for-what

 

I'll start with just the first sentence.

 

"Meanwhile the fans - the same fans who packed out St James' Park through relegation battles, the Mike Ashley years, and every freezing Tuesday night since - are once again being asked to cough up more."

 

Means absolutely jack shit, lads. Ashley years were garbage, nobody wanted to go so you could get in when you wanted. Atmosphere was fucking dire and guess what, lads, no tourists. Go figure 🤔

 

Anyone thinking we were ever going to get fancy dan owners that would pump money into the club but let supporters in for peanuts is naive at best. Stupid at worst.

 

Football's fucked and has been for decades. To compete, or at least try, this is what you get.

 

In some respects, it's tough shit.

[Boey_Jarton]

I paid £70 for barracks hospitality in February 2020 for a game against Burnley at home during the Bruce era. 

 

The game was utter dog shit (0-0), but I was sat next to Alistair Campbell and Brendan Foster.