The shocking £26.5m Mike Ashley truth that Steve Bruce didn't mention as Newcastle count cost
Newcastle United's owners initially benefited from the frugal manner in which Mike Ashley ran the club but the Magpies have a huge gap to make up commercially
Ciaran covers Newcastle United for the Journal and ChronicleLive. Originally from Galway in the west of Ireland, Ciaran joined us from the Manchester Evening News, where he was Manchester United writer, in February, 2019. Ciaran previously wrote a book on Jose Mourinho entitled 'The Rise of the Translator'.
"It was a great run club under Mike and I know I'm going to get slaughtered for that, but it was."
Well, Steve Bruce had a point. Ironically, at first, the miserly manner in which the club had previously been run worked in Newcastle United owners' favour following the takeover as the consortium spent upwards of £400m on new players in their first four windows without going over the club's profit and sustainability limits. However, scratch a little deeper, and the legacy of the Ashley era is still being felt today.
Take the commercial side. Newcastle's commercial income stood at £27.6m when Mike Ashley bought the club in 2007. In the financial accounts for the year ending June 30, 2022, which included the final months of the billionaire's time at the top, this figure had shockingly dropped to £26.5m. Spurs, in contrast, made £183.5m in that same period having once trailed behind Newcastle on and off the field.
READ MORE: John Anderson does not hold back after Newcastle listener's 'tactically inept' claim
READ MORE: Man United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe's new admission as Newcastle hold cards with Dan Ashworth
A lot went wrong in the Ashley era - the relegations, the lack of investment in infrastructure; the treatment of Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer and Chris Hughton and countless others; and a situation so dire that 10,000 supporters made the heart-breaking decision to walk away - but that stagnation is right up there.
For so long St James' Park had been a billboard for Sports Direct with no actual benefit to the club, whether it was the neon eyesores surrounding the players' tunnel, which was one of an estimated 140 signs dotted around the stadium at one point, or the godforsaken decision to rename the arena. Those signs were eventually taken down, after legal clauses inserted into the deal ensured they initially stayed up following the 2021 buy-out, but that was only the start of it.
Amanda Staveley, for one, admitted that Newcastle had 'inherited very difficult contracts from the likes of FUN88, which were very much one way'. "We were limited as to how we could drive commercial revenues," the part-owner said just a few months after the takeover.
Newcastle's commercial income has since increased to £43.9m in the club's most recent set of accounts. It will rise further thanks to the money banked from lucrative sponsorship agreements with Adidas and Sela, but this figure is still a long way off what the established order take home. Manchester United. for instance, generated £302.9m in commercial revenue in the same period - which was nearly £50m more than Newcastle's overall turnover in 2022/23.
It is going to take time to bridge that gap, particularly after sponsorship rules were tightened, and new commercial departments, such as retail and licensing, e-commerce and partnership services, are effectively being built from scratch after CCO Peter Silverstone inherited a team of around 40 people when he was appointed in 2022. For context, during his time at Arsenal, Silverstone headed up a workforce of between 150 and 200 staff.
The commercial team is growing - the department even had to move into new offices downstairs at St James' Park last summer after staff numbers swelled to around 65 employees - but this was not the only area of the club starting from a low base following years of neglect. In fact, the number of staff on the club's books jumped from 308 to 410 last season.
Senior figures at Newcastle previously felt the club's staffing structure was more appropriate for a lower Premier League side or, even, a top Championship outfit. That's exactly what Newcastle were under Ashley. Nothing more, nothing less.