The independent voice of Newcastle United since 1988
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The Newcastle United sponsor deals were always going to make headlines.
The usual suspects in the Premier League self-appointed ‘elite’ doing everything they can to try and limit Newcastle United, as the club is allowed finally to become an ambitious one once again.
After a decade and a half of Mike Ashley ownership having almost strangled all life out of NUFC.
The main movers in the Premier League ensuring new rules brought in regarding sponsor deals, with any related party deals worth £1m or more having to be given the OK by an independent panel appointed by the Premier League. This to ensure that any Newcastle United sponsor deals (or those for any other PL club…) aren’t seeing money paid over market value, between related parties.
When it comes to Newcastle United sponsor deals, it was/is always very likely that the related party rules would be brought into play. The club’s majority owner, Saudi Arabia PIF, also having part or whole ownership of countless other business concerns that could be a good fit in commercial deals.
So when the Sela deal was announced last month (June 2023), it was predictable that the new Newcastle United sponsor deal for front of shirt, would be attacked by the usual array of pundits, journalists, presenters, rival fans and so on.
Even though clearly this was only announced (same with noon.com Newcastle United sponsor on the sleeve) after the Premier League committee having passed it as being market value, our enemies were having none of it.
The usual line was ‘This is a disgrace, how are they getting away with this, Newcastle United were only getting £6.5m from FUN88 and now the new front of shirt sponsor is paying almost four times as much, how can this related party transaction be allowed….?’
Well, first of all, all the outrage was a bit late in arriving.
A year earlier, noon.com became the shirt sleeve sponsor for the first time and that deal was widely reported as £7.5m for the 2022/23 season. Obviously, front of shirt sponsorship is many times more attractive and beneficial to any business, yet under the new / current owners, NUFC were now getting more for their sleeve sponsorship than front of shirt! Then noon.com signing up again for this upcoming 2023/24 season and whilst no figures have been made public, I think fair to say that now NUFC are a Premier League top four Champions League qualifying side, noon.com will surely have paid considerably more than the £7.5m for last season.
For me, the Newcastle United sponsor deal with Sela is a scandal, that is scandalously cheap!
Our clueless enemies who are crying foul with the £25m front of shirt deal, appear to think that just because it is a related party transaction then that is ‘proof’ enough of wrongdoing. However, Newcastle United had a decade and a half of countless related party transactions before the new owners came along, yet funnily enough, none of these clowns were saying this was ‘proof’ of Newcastle United cheating the system.
The difference of course was that Mike Ashley was stripping out all the benefits for himself and his retail empire, at the expense of Newcastle United, thanks to related party transactions. Every single one of those hundreds of Sports Direct advertising hoardings and other Ashley brands’, was a related party transaction. The same when he did such outrageous classless stuff like having SD painted on the top of the stands.
Nobody can take seriously any transaction whilst Mike Ashley was at Newcastle United, whether it was a related party one, or with a (supposedly….?) outside one.
Even if you honestly think Ashley got the best possible deal for NUFC with an outside party, it was still within the context of him having devalued Newcastle United to such a massive degree, including the fact that NUFC had become synonymous with his SD tat empire and that plastered over everything, so that would have massively brought down the price any outside sponsor would be willing to pay.
There is absolutely no way that the true value of front of shirt Newcastle United sponsor was £6.5m last season, nor would that have been the case for any of the FUN88 years beforehand, especially if Mike Ashley hadn’t made the club so cheap and worthless in so many ways.
Our critics are wanting to compare Newcastle United banking £6.5m in 2022/23 to banking £25m in 2023/24 for the front of shirt sponsorship, saying ‘Oh look, what a shameless disgrace, a near 300% rise…’
Honestly, you might as well compare if say, the current owners sold the naming rights to St James’ Park, then say how can that ££££figure be allowed, compared to when Mike Ashley awarded the SJP naming rights to himself and Sports Direct for nothing!
Basically, you aren’t comparing like with like, when looking at what Sela are paying and what FUN88 were shelling out.
Things change. A bit like you are in early for a future music star of the future, see him / her for £3 in a local pub, when they then hit it big, you aren’t surprised when it is costing more than £3 to see them at Glastonbury / Wembley stadium or wherever.
Anyway, if you still weren’t / aren’t convinced that this is a completely different playing field and actually, Sela are getting an absolute £25m bargain as front of shirt Newcastle United sponsor, just have a look at this imagery ahead of the new season…
Image 1
Official Premier League site…
Image 2
Official Premier League site again…
Image 3
…and again
Image 4
Official Sky Sports site…
Image 5
Official Sky Sports site again but Sela might have to have a word with Eddie Howe shown as still in FUN88 gear…
This is the reality, Newcastle United finishing Premier League top four and in the Champions League this coming season.
Absolutely MASSIVE value for the Newcastle United sponsor / sponsors.
Time after time, Newcastle United are going to be one of the small number of Premier League clubs who are promoted far far more than the rest, our enemies will be sick of seeing NUFC imagery and Sela on the front of the shirts.
This is worth far far more than the £25m reported price per season.
Plus, this is with still almost five weeks until the season starts AND ahead of the huge launch of TNT (was BT Sport) on 18 July 2023. With TNT covering Premier League and especially Champions League, Newcastle United will be a key image time and time again as they push their product.
When you consider as well that the new announcement on Premier League choices by Sky Sports and TNT means the first seven NUFC games (including first Champions League group game) of the season will be shown live by UK broadcasters.
This is an absolute dream for a business having their brand on the front of a football shirt. Especially as you consider that in 2023, the first 33 NUFC matches of this calendar year will see / have seen 29 of them shown live by UK broadcasters.
Then also, with Mike Ashley gone, Castore are constantly struggling with the renewed massive fan demand for replica kit, sending that Sela sponsorship out even wider with every shirt etc sold.
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Lewis Jones
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