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Opinion

The loyalest supporters the world has ever seen

10 months ago
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In November 2022, I wrote an article for The Mag (entitled “Newcastle United fans – Be careful what you wish for”).

In it, I expressed my confidence that we would, in the very near future, achieve success; win cups, leagues and Champions Leagues; and become one of, if not THE, most successful football clubs on the planet.

I also argued that reaching that goal could never allow me to love and enjoy any future season any more than I am enjoying this one.

I have literally been in tears – of joy – more times this season than in any season since I began my Toon-following journey back in 1963.

The latest time was watching the Loaded Mags post-Leicester blog when they played the UCL anthem and just sat back and smiled while I wept.

I’ve already been to Barcelona and all over Europe – not to mention the length and breadth of the UK – following my beloved team and I look forward with immense pride and joy to doing it again.

However, trust me, when winning becomes routine and everyone starts finding someone to blame for not having beaten Crystal Palace (nothing against Palace particularly, apart from that bloody VAR) or any one of 10 Premiership also-rans, away at Selhurst Park (one of only two current Prem Stadiums that I haven’t been to) on a wet, winter Wednesday night, instead of accepting that, “Hey! This is the Prem! It happens occasionally”, we’ll know then that the wheel has turned.

Suddenly sell-out dead rubber midweek UCL games at £70 a pop don’t seem so attractive when you can watch them in the comfort of your own home, or bar of choice, for free.

Early rounds of the domestic trophies when everyone knows that “second choice” players will be selected and not all the “stars” will be on view will be the same. It matters not that those “second choice 11” are all on six-figure-a-week salaries and would be first choice for the team we are playing, the tickets will go unsold.

I was debating this very point with a lot of younger (20s and 30s) fans who can either not at all, or just about, remember the Keegan era. They were all adamant that we could sell out an 80,000-seater stadium for every match regardless of how successful we ever were.

I focused their attention on citeh, chelski, manure, liVARpool (and the rest of the toxic six) and asked them why it was that, to varying degrees, they couldn’t sell out their stadiums until at best the knockout stages in some competitions and all this despite winning almost everything between them for the past 25 years.

“Cos we’ve got better fans than they have” came the almost unanimous response.

Now – I, for one, believe that to be the case anyway, and I believe that, because we have been starved of success for so long, our success apathy threshold, combined with our failure forgiveness threshold, is considerably bigger than the new winners on the block which comprise the toxic six.

BUT!! It will happen, mark my words. It always does!

In thinking about this, it further clarified my thoughts on another, relevant, current dilemma, the possible expansion / relocation of SJP.

Now, I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the box, and I know that the Saudi Arabia PIF probably employs some sharper ones, so I think they, like me, have probably done some sums along the following lines:-

Let’s say we progress to the latter stages of every competition for the next (say) 10 years. How many additional (backsides on) seats could we sell if we had an 80,000 stadium instead of a 52,000 stadium and at what price?

My back-of-the-envelope calculation based on 10 years home league games (19) and 8 home cup games (80k x 27 x 10) = 21.6 million x average cost per ticket (say £50) = just over a billion pounds.

Cost of building an out-of-town, no disruption, state-of-the-art showpiece stadium with surrounding club-owned car parking, hotel, entertainment and hospitality franchises – £400 million at most.

That’s £60 Milllion a year clear PLUS all the revenue generated by their matchday and extracurricular activities.

Revenue generated by and cost of disruptive, time-consuming plans to expand SJP -UNKNOWN.

Possible size of expanded stadium – UNKNOWN.

I leave it to you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions.

Meanwhile, enjoy the current ride and, PLEASE!!, remember not to be too quick to jump on any critical bandwagon which WILL emerge from the clouds of any minor (or major) setbacks which will inevitably befall us in the coming months.

Let’s prove once and for all that we are indeed the loyalest supporters the world has ever seen.

HTL Long Live King Eddie!!

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