Rumours have been circulating the World Wide Web in regards to Vince McMahon buying Premier League Football Club Newcastle United. Initially, my reaction was that this rumour was that it was ludicrous and nothing more then an internet rumour which has got out of hand, but after considering the benefits for both parties in such a move, I started to think otherwise.
Firstly, McMahon is reportedly worth 1.1billion dollars, so there is no issue in regards to financing the purchase, especially when you consider that McMahon could use WWE as equity in such a move also. Current Newcastle owner Mike Ashley reportedly paid about 135million pounds to purchase the club, which is far less then the supposed 800million pounds Malcolm Glazier had to front for Manchester United – although, when you consider both the clubs, it’s a perfectly understandable price gap between the recently promoted side and a team who are arguably the richest team in the world today. An offer of 200million pounds would be reasonable for a club of Newcastle’s size and when you consider McMahon’s worth, this isn’t too high of a figure even when converted to dollars which works out about 300million.
Newcastle are fairly debt free, however if McMahon were to buy the company, the club would owe current owner Ashley 100million pounds (according to a 2009 report), which presumably would be a debt McMahon takes on himself.
Interestingly, WWE have a much higher turn over per annum then Newcastle Utd – with WWE taking in over 400million dollars each year, whereas Newcastle only turn over around 100million pounds per year (as per the 2009 report), which is approximately 159million dollars. However, it has been reported that McMahon only earns approximately 1.2million dollars per year himself whereas in comparison, former Newcastle Director Chris Mort earned 1.3million pounds per year, which when converted is roughly $800,000 more then what Vince makes – also bare in mind, that Mort was a Director, not the owner, so for McMahon, this fee would increase.
Premier league clubs today earn more then they did in 2009 with Arsenal reportedly earning around 100,000pounds more in the 09/10 Season so if Newcastle were to sustain their place in the top tier of football and work on repaying their debts, they could easily be making a much higher profit in two or three years, which means a significantly larger pay check for McMahon. Keep in mind that that doesn’t include higher television rights, more lucrative sponsorship deals and of course, the considerably higher prize money for a premiership finish and more if they qualify for Europe. Include his WWE earnings, Vince could make in excess of 3million dollars a year with the two companies.
With all that in mind, you can see that financially it would benefit McMahon and if he were to invest in bigger players for the club, he could write off a no interest loan, to be paid in return over time or when someone decides to buy it off him, which would be much more then 200million by the time he decides to sell.
Then of course, there are the bonuses. Firstly, the cross promotion that could come to affect with WWE helping promote Newcastle and vice versa, regardless of what is more effective, McMahon would see the revenue raised in one of his companies. Not to mention the additional advertising WWE could get in the forms of hoardings and of course, the extra publicity which the tabloids have to offer, which when relating to a premiership club or its owner, is an incredible amount.
Secondly, between the O2 Arena, Wembley Arena and the Manchester Evening News Arena – the combined capacity is approximately 58,500. In comparison, St James Park holds over 52,000 and that’s not taking into account the additional seats that could be placed over the field area. The event would attract Scottish fans and Manchester fans as it’s only a few hours drive and I’m sure that quite a few Southerners wouldn’t mind driving for five hours or so – with the larger capacity too, WWE could get away with lesser shows, opting to stage the show at Newcastle as a base for all fans in England, Scotland and Wales – saving on transportation, venue hire and additional expenses. For instance, rather then doing a show in London, Manchester and Glasgow and attracting 50,000 – why not stage a show at Newcastle and attract the same amount with just the one show?
Plus, being in such a position, McMahon could easily lower the venue hire to a fraction of the cost of the aforementioned. Also, if WWE were to keep their tours limited to June and July (Premier League off season), it wouldn’t impact Newcastle too much.
Granted, McMahon may not know much about football but he’ll only take over the business aspects of the club, leaving most footballing decisions to the club manager.
I’ve discussed the benefits in relation to McMahon but what would such a take over mean for Newcastle themselves? Well, firstly McMahon knows how to run a business – whilst this may not make too much of a difference to Newcastle, it surely couldn’t harm them. Most importantly, McMahon has been known to take risks (such as the XFL) which supposedly cost him in the region of 75million dollars, which is about 46million pounds – not subjected to inflation.
46million pounds is more then enough to purchase some top players which is all football fans want really, an owner dedicated to investment for the betterment of the club – see Roman Abramavich and Chelsea.
Even if McMahon doesn’t know much about football (which of course is only an assumption as he may know a fair deal of the game), then he certainly couldn’t be any worse then Mike Ashley, whose most recent big mistake was the sacking of Chris Hughton in favour of Alan Pardew.
WWE would benefit mostly from such a deal, as previously highlighted but if WWE were earning more or cutting substantial costs, thanks to Newcastle, then there’s no doubt in my mind that Vince would assist Newcastle in achieving higher goals, therefore increasing Newcastle’s revenue and the money Vince himself earns – it’s a win win situation.
The rumour mill usually churns out quite a few supposed stories in a given day, but this one in particular is one of the most bizarre and most unlikely to happen – however, as highlighted, there could be major benefits in such a deal.
UNTIL NXT TIME…..
