Monday, July 6, 2009

Newcastle entertaining 100 Million pound bids

It appears that the bids that Newcastle was seeking for their club are starting to show up, according to new reports surfacing. Is Newcastle owner Mike Ashley one of those owners who cuts his losses and bails, or is this the last act of a desperate man? Newly relegated Newcastle is in need of something, anything, positive to start their return to the EPL. Cleaning house at the top may be the correct starting point. Over the weekend, it had surfaced that several folks were looking to submit low ball bids in hopes of finding a deal. But today, reports coming from Newcastle themselves are claiming that the 100 million pound price to own the Owen-less Newcastle United are being met by not only one, but three different bids. Since its managing directly Derek Llambias making the claims, call me Dubious.

Ashley paid 135 millions pounds in 2007 for the club, and has claimed to have put in 244 million pounds since then. I'm still not sure what it was spent on fully, as the club has really taken a nose dive.

Restoring order to a sports team once its taken this emotional and performance hit is a very tough thing. I don't see a conglomerate from Asia having the ability to give the team, staff, and fans the sort of lift that is needed.

One of the early BBC articles mentioned an American bidder, but the only name i've heard of is LA Galaxy owner and developer Philip Anschutz. He's the name that seems to be in the mix all the time, and he's that breed of owners i've always flagged as using sports to drive other business interests. Which may be what a team like Newcastle needs - someone who knows how to extract revenue in other manners to help beef up their players and their farm system.

11 comments:

BackBergtt said...

Can someone who owns one FIFA governed club own another?

Jacob said...

Anschutz Entertainment Group have their hands in lots of different teams. I also know that the guy who owns Hearts in Scotland owns a Lithuanian club as well. I suspect it's not that uncommon.

The Fan's Attic said...

Stan Kroenke owns an MLS club and the largest share of Arsenal. So, I guess so.

Whizalen said...

I could see there being a conflict of interest issue if both clubs were in the same league and/or football association (like owning a premier and league two team), but I don't see one otherwise.

The Fan's Attic said...

100 million pounds? Ashley's not that fat, but that well known Magpie fan seen in pictures around the world might be.

Fake Brian Gregory said...

The Hunt Group own two MLS teams, so there can't be that many rules against owning multiple teams in different leagues.

Email us at said...

Well, Roman Abramovich owns the Russian Nati*

MoonshineMike said...

you just can't stop posting pictures of me can you fan's attic? grrrr!

Some leagues, like the MLB and NFL in the US have limits on what the owners can and can't own. I think one league does not want you owning any other professional sports teams, and the NFL is against any gambling businesses to be owned (which caused the Steelers issue a few years ago).

Kopper said...

Isn't Anschutz a massive Jesus freak? Like the resident bible-belter in LA. I thought I read something about that...

King Garry I Of Swandanavia said...

Ú75, Vladmir Romanov of Hearts also owns FB Kaunas, I think.

Jacob said...

That's right. I knew it was the team that dumped Rangers last season, but I couldn't recall it on short notice.