Last week we published a statement of intent from the guys at United For
Newcastle.
They managed to secure a meeting with Simon Esland (Head Of Customer
Relations at NUFC), which took place yesterday:
Our meeting with Simon Esland, Head of Customer Relations at the club was
very useful.
We gleaned the following points:
- The club has guaranteed us they will, at very least, “look into
relocating the singing section in another part of the stadium”, likely
Leazes but they’ll look at the entire situation.
- The increased away tickets are indeed due to having to comply with Premier
League regulations, the minimum they can offer being 3,000. The reason the
maximum away capacity is now 4,000 is simply for evening matches where it’s
on TV, and they feel they won’t sell the stadium out, so they can offer
more to away fans and hopefully make more money. In games like the
Sunderland matches, they’ll definitely not be given to the away team.
- The Carroll money will be reinvested, and the club are looking for more
Tiote type players. Quality players that they can get for reasonable
prices. Just because they have a lot of money, does not mean they’ll
splash out over the odds for someone. Everyone in the club is aware that
they are light, and “strikers are a priority.” They’ve also pin-pointed
several areas that need cover, and will attempt to acquire decent cover in
the summer. They accept that they need better players in order to push for
Europe.
- The club’s ambition is to steadily improve. They want success on the
pitch, but won’t bankrupt to do it. The apparent stinginess is simply
Ashley’s way of doing things. The club now breaks even every month, and
isn’t taking loans out. They want to be in good shape for the UEFA rules
on finances for when they do get back into Europe. Wherever they finish
this year, next year they will aim to better it.
- Much of the club’s investment goes on behind the scenes. For instance,
apparently they are going to (or have) under-soil heated the training ground
for the winter.
- The club have offered Enrique a new deal, and will sit down with him to
discuss. Whether he wants to sign or not is up to him. They have a wage
structure, with a cap which they wouldn’t confirm the amount of. Enrique’s
deal will be within that structure, but ‘fair’ for the structure that’s
in place.
- The club confirm they are not a selling club, but as with any football
club, every player has their price. The only other circumstance in which
they’ll sell is if the player says they want to go. They don’t want
anyone who doesn’t want to play for the shirt.
- The club have confirmed they want to hold on to the likes of Barton,
Coloccini, Enrique and Tiote, but admit it will be a “difficult summer”.
The club suggested that it’s a testament to their progress that people
actually want to sign their players now, unlike during the relegation season
when half the team wouldn’t have been touched by another club.
- The club’s ambition is steady, sustainable progress that aims for Europe.
- The club insist the 10-year season ticket is a good deal, with the option
to opt out at any time. There is no catch. The club has updated their
ticketing system so all customers can now pay with direct debit which wasn’t
possible before due to staff limitations and technical limitations. Even if
the club reaches the Champions League in five years, those prices will be
the same under the deal.
- The club accept their communication has been, at times, insufficient, and
we suggested they look to put more information on the official club site.
The club said they gave lots of information to newspapers and media, but
accepted that they could not control if it was published. We suggested that
in order to rebuild trust with the fan base, they should go above and beyond
the call of duty for a while, in order to rebuild that support through
transparency and integrity. The club said there would still be “situations
they would not comment on”, ie. Carroll leaving, since they have their
stance and won’t get drawn into an argument on it.
- The club accepts that “mistakes have been made in the past, and says that
mistakes are still likely to be made in the future”. But that is ‘human
error’, and everyone in the club has one aim: success on the pitch, and
that is the long-term goal.
- With regards to SportsDirect sponsorship, the club insist that money does
go to the club from SportsDirect, and since Ashley does not own SD but is
merely a majority shareholder, it is not simply a case of moving money from
one pocket to another. The club does benefit.
- The advertising on the Gallowgate roof and the dug-out seats is to
advertise the stadium’s potential for advertisers. When pressed for an
example of when any of those packages have actually been sold to another
company, they did not have one.
- The money that comes in from this advertising is all used to keep the club
breaking even financially.
United for Newcastle say “It was a productive meeting, with several points
put across effectively from both sides. Unfortunately, the club would not
confirm that they would take a strategy to communicate more effectively with
any great enthusiasm however, they have promised to us that they will
attempt to relocate the singing section rather than let it go. We hope that
this meeting will help us form an effective relationship between us and
Newcastle United, to ensure the voices of fans can be heard by the club on a
regular basis.”
