Newcastle fans plan stadium boycott

[TomandJerry]

Newcastle fans are planning to boycott Sunday's home match against Tottenham as it was revealed the club had more than £34m in their bank account at the end of the last financial year.

Newcastle recently announced a record annual profit of £18.7m for 2013-14.

But many fans have criticised the ambition of owner Mike Ashley.

"A lot of fans would ask why was a significant portion of that money not spent on team strengthening?" said Newcastle fanzine editor Mark Jensen.




"The idea of a boycott has been building for a long time and you can't blame the fans, and I'm all in favour of it.

"The frustrating thing for them is the money is there but the club won't spend it."

The protest, organised by a group opposed to Ashley's regime and backed by the Newcastle United Supporters' Trust, was already planned before the full accounts were published on Wednesday.

NUST chairman Norman Watson told BBC Sport that he expected "15,000 or 16,000" fans to take part in the boycott.

Newcastle are aiming to end a five-match losing streak when they host Spurs at St James' Park. The Magpies are 13th in the Premier League, nine points clear of the relegation zone with six matches left to play.

 

[Hampster Gull]

About time.

 

[sir albion]

Good on them

 

[pornomagboy]

Is that what our fans did on Tuesday night

 

[supaseagull]

Sorry but Newcastle fans are fickle and a bit dim.

They hounded out one of their best managers to a team who at the time was close to relegation and cheered when hopeless Carver was given the job.

 

[JJ McClure]

So making a profit and having money in the bank is a bad thing? Would they rather be knee deep in debt? Seems an odd thing to protest about.

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

As a caveat; I don't like Mike Ashley at all and, despite making Newcastle financially secure during his tenure, I wouldn't trust him at all.

I don't blame the Newcastle fans for wanting to boycott the way their club has changed over the last few years (even if the Pardew stuff was a bit daft) but I can't help but think the reasoning for this is a bit...well...rubbish. Just because a club turns a profit (hard enough to do it would seem) it doesn't mean that it should immediately go out and blow it on players. It's not sexy and it's definitely not fun but there's nothing wrong with financial prudence.

I have to admit I am a little curious as to where the Newcastle fans believe they'd finish if the money was spent, realistically they're not going to be challenging the for top four, nor are they likely to be relegated. Nothing wrong with ambition at all but to get anywhere in that league (quickly) the cost involved would be a hell of a lot more than £34m

 

[Left Footer]

There all talk Newcastle fans, I bet any boycott is minimal.

 

[nwgull]

Nothing wrong with being prudent or turning a profit in any normal business. However, football clubs aren't like any normal business in that, morally, they belong to the local community. So ideally they should break even each year. I can see why the Newcastle fans are getting annoyed at seeing their club being used to make some bloke £18m a year and having no ambition other than to make money and not use that money on a new player or 3.

 

[narly101]

What utter tosh - football has now become a business. I don't see anything wrong with Newcastle making profit, in fact to be probably the only other club in that league besides Arsenal making profit, and still remaining competitive shows incredible business acumen.

I applaud them.

 

[SDG]

What utter tosh - football has now become a business. I don't see anything wrong with Newcastle making profit, in fact to be probably the only other club in that league besides Arsenal making profit, and still remaining competitive shows incredible business acumen.

I applaud them.

We made a £20m profit last season, and we're not boycotting!

Newcastle fans believe they should be in the top 4, and are up there with Spurs as the more deluded fans of the Premier League.

Ashley has a grand plan to return Rangers to the dizzy heights of SPL number 1 anyway, so that profit will be disappearing over the border very soon.

 

[GJN1]

They won't do anything because they never do. Remember when Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall called them all mugs for buying replica shirts? What did they do? They still kept going and still kept buying shirts...