Mike Ashley/Rangers

comment by Smid - No longer sure if we are going up (U13415)
posted 9 minutes ago
SPR - yes it was, so I fail to see why that makes Ashley a good thing? If the soul of the club is missing and you want it back, surely the last place you go is to another owner where feedback is the previous club lost its soul as a result of him? You say that like more of the same as what we have at the moment is a positive?
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Not a direct comparison though.

The soul has gone because as Andy said Ashley found out it would cost far to much to get the exposure he wanted from Newcastle. As a result everything was scaled back and everything ran as a busbusinesses

Rangers however would not cost fortunes to win the SPL and enter the champions league.

Regardless however this all pre supposes there is a genuine alternative option.

If you get your wish and Ashley packs up and leaves who takes over?

comment by Smid - No longer sure if we are going up (U13415)
posted 5 minutes ago
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2220761/Newcastle-1-5m-Wonga-stadium-rights.html

There is one SPR - naming rights for 4 and a half years for Wonga. I believe this was reversed but they still own first rights on naming. So any new owner would lose out on this right away. Note the article states the rights were sold for less than half of what they were worth. They also have shirt rights, so that is another line of revenue gone.

In terms of merchandise and shirt sales, the club do this in partnership with Sports Direct so again any profits commercially would be watered down for the period on that contract.
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4.5 years in 2012? Hasn't he said he expects to not be able to sell until 2016?

Maybe that's when merchandise contracts run out?

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comment by Smid - No longer sure if we are going up (U13415)
posted 5 minutes ago
In terms of evidence of Sports Direct, here it is straight from the club website:

http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/Club/Commercial/OurPartners/0,,10278~2148872,00.html

Any partnership will be effective until the contract is finished. Given that will be up to Ashley, who knows when that runs until and if he would have any motivation to give it up. Why would he, when he benefits from every shirt sale?
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To sell the club and pocket 150 million profit?

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comment by Smid - No longer sure if we are going up (U13415)
posted 3 seconds ago
Cal - they are in more debt now than they were then, the difference is the debt is owed to Ashley now rather than creditors. Anyone who bought the club would have to pay that back though.

SPR - yes he could sell the club and pocked profit, but by keeping merchandise contracts and rights he can continue to make profit even after selling it. He might agree to rip up the contracts for a compensation fee, costing the purchaser even more money. Or he might decide that before he sells up, he does a ten year contract with Sports Direct that allows him to keep making money, as Murray did with us on the catering etc when he sold up to Whyte and gave Ally his 800k per year contract making him unsackable.
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He could but that's just supposition. Though I don't see why he would if he wants to sell the club.

Also their debt hadn't gone up.

He paid off 70+ million unsecured debt then also paid of a 57 million mortgage on the ground. Surely that's a good thing?

comment by Cal Neva (U11544)
posted 7 minutes ago
So Newcastle aren't that good a proposition then?

What about Rangers?
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The spl is not the epl that's for sure, we aren't even in the spl!

But we are on tv more than any other club as far as I am aware. Established global fan base.

It would take 10's of millions rather than 100's to aachieve the exposure he was looking for from Newcastle. That's probably the difference.

Newcastle have been victims of the fake money clubs from what I can see. What's prob most frustrating is that Ashley could compete with them financially but he does not want to at the expense of a sustainable business.

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Ashley's business will be in trouble.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30066568