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Sydney, Newco and the £10m liability

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Not all contracts are fulfilled.  Usually, the failure is caused by an underperformance, less often, by one party wilfully reneging on their obligations.

Newco’s fans, and other fans, have bought tickets for games at the Ange Coming Home Tour that will not happen, leaving the promoters with an obligation to refund money.  Money paid for promotional events has been wasted, as has costs sunk into the setup.  Perhaps only the lawyers’ fees were not wasted.

Contracts have been concluded with Celtic, at a sum more than twice as high as Newco’s, agreements are in place with other clubs too.  The promoters need to fulfil those contracts – in Celtic’s case, the deal is not dependent on Newco attending.   Celtic contracted to play the tournament without mention of any other club.  The promoters have a £6m liability to Celtic and doubtlessly a few million to other clubs, venues and elsewhere.

If you detect some frustration from the promoters in response to Newco’s unilateral withdrawal from the Ange tour, it is not difficult to imagine why.  They will now attempt to line-up an alternative attendee that allows them to sell the tickets and the TV rights necessary to keep the project afloat.

Now that other clubs know Celtic bid the price up to £6m, the promoters are unlikely to find a suitable draw who are as disparate as Newco and to accept the first offer of £2.5m.  Any substitute club capable of selling the required volume of tickets will demand parity with Celtic.  That’s a bitter £3.5m pill to swallow.

I expect they are looking at a £10m liability if the project fails to go ahead.  The costs of starting again with another club are likely to be £5m more than the promoters initially budgeted.  These tours always carry a commercial risk for the promoters, but no one ever makes this kind of money.  The project is underwater.

Today the promoters will be running various scenarios.  I expect they will try to get a big English club to step in.  Either way, they will tally up the costs and get the lawyers on the phone.  The £2.5m fee Newco will not now collect, is only the first phase of their exposure.

Newco made a mistake in signing the initial contract.  Without wanting to be petty here, they are a newer corporate structure than Celtic, with less experience and expertise.  They cannot be expected to be as accomplished as more experienced clubs.

Neither sets of fans wanted the game, but in bowing the pressure, Newco exposed themselves to far greater risks.  Sometimes you need to take an unpopular stance for the good of the club, even if you were the one who made the initial mistake.  Fans never say, “Indulge our demands and expose the club to a £10m liability that could do longterm harm to our strategic aims”, but scenarios like this are played out by angry mobs everywhere.

Despite the unpopularity of the game, Celtic had an easy decision to make.  We still do not know if we will get Champions League money next season, but the Ange Tour money will cover the fee being asked for, for one of our top signing priorities.  As I mentioned, sometimes you need to take an unpopular stance for the good of the club.  Insert our own “Indulge our demands… strategic aims” quote here.

Newco apparently briefed that one of their objections to the tour was that the phrase “Old Firm” would not be used.  I know this subject has been covered at several AGMs, on here and other places many times – but some people live to wind up Celtic fans.  Through copywrite, Celtic and Newco have a legal veto over the commercialisation of the phase “Old Firm”.

If you have any connection to football, you know this is because Celtic moved to kill the phrase in any commercial sense.  If, when this tour was announced, you used this copywrite to claim the exact opposite, that Celtic cherish that phrase and status, you need to take a good look at yourself in the mirror.  What are you trying to do to Celtic fans, what are you trying to do to the club?

For the watching CSC.

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  2. Hot Smoked on

    Re my post above. Danny suggested he had sent the clip to many Tims so, if you are one of those recipients, maybe you could post a link on here?

  3. drew1967 on

    Can watch cricket too.Like to see England get pumped at anything tbh..lol.my interest stems from my late father who was a very good snooker player and tried to teach me the art of using spin to position the cue ball.he enjoyed watching the spin bowlers and would take me to Dalmellington?? to watch a game..when it wasnt bloomin raining.. of course.

  4. Por Cierto on

    Just a wee word on energy prices and what European Governments are doing. Most countries are responding in a similar way to the UK with help for consumers – most slightly less, a couple slightly more.

     

     

    Spain is giving 15/16p off a litre of petrol! por cierto

  8. Majestic Hartson on

    Por Cierto,

     

     

    As an aside, I reckon the boss of Centrica/BG will be a Celtic man. I knew his brother and he was.

     

     

    His dad used to have a pub round about Parkhead cross too. Can’t remember which one though.

  10. Tom McLaughlin on

    HRVATSKI JIM on

     

    1ST APRIL 2022 10:43 PM

     

     

    Thanks for such a comprehensive and insightful response to my request for evidence of 6,500 deaths in Qatar’s World Cup construction programme.

     

     

    You have certainly opened my eyes.

  11. drew1967 on

    RON BACARDI

     

     

     

    There was a Peppermint Park in Dalmuir. Oasis was in Clydebank.lobbed out of both many a time.

  18. onenightinlisbon on

    I see that lennon would rather be in Sevco’s position than ours going into tomorrow’s game.

     

     

    Cyprus will be taken by storm…..

  20. ernie lynch on

    AN TEARMANN on 2ND APRIL 2022 10:49 AM

     

     

     

    ‘Historians look after history.

     

     

     

     

    Breathtaking knowledge Ernie,’

     

     

     

    ###

     

     

     

    Hardly. But your earlier post suggested you were unaware of the fact.

     

     

    Historical accounts are constantly kept under review as new evidence comes to light and new interpretations are applied to known events.

     

     

    This is an interesting example, dealing with the issue of slavery. It debunked existing ideas and provided a new interpretation

     

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/eighty-years-late-groundbreaking-work-on-slave-economy-is-finally-published-in-uk

     

     

    What is informative though is that that book gained little traction when it was first published in the UK in 1964 and has only now been republished. It did though have a receptive audience on the far left as indicated by this review in International Socialism by Tony Cliff

     

     

    ‘Williams’ book is a very interesting piece of Marxist research. It is an attempt to place in historical perspective the relation between early capitalism and Negro slavery. It shows how the slave trade provided the necessary capital for the industrial revolution in England and how mature industrial capitalism destroyed the slave system. It is a study in the economic history of England and the West Indies. The book is very useful for understanding the process of ‘primitive capital accumulation’ in rising capitalism, incidentally giving short shrift to ‘Liberals’, Stalinists and fellow-travellers in the ‘Third World’.’

  21. ernie lynch on

    ONENIGHTINLISBON on 2ND APRIL 2022 11:37 AM

     

     

     

    You seem to hate NFL even more than the huns do.

     

     

    He’s forgotten more about the game than you’ll ever know.

  25. Burnley78 on

    Borgo67

     

     

    So funny Re your cricketing observation. I was literally thinking the same thing last night. I was finding it hard to reconcile feeling positive before a game at their place. Also finding it hard that I was not annoyed with our coach not coming out with the usual platitudes about how good our opponents were and how tough a place it was to go and get a result etc etc.

     

     

    The reality is exactly as you say. The mindset of Border and Waugh and Taylor and Cummins. The mindset of Warne …..dare I say it. It’s about what we can control and what we can do and not about them. Play our game and believe in it. Believe in ourselves.

     

     

    Most times it will see us win out. If it does tomorrow I do think the house of cards might come down pretty quick over Govan way.

  26. Burnley78 on

    Borgo

     

     

    Love the ‘Bunsen’ reference btw. Not that Shane even needed them to succeed like the Indian spinners tended to.

     

     

    Still think it’s a pity Ashwin hardly even got a bowl in England last summer.

  27. MadMitch on

    EL @ 11.51

     

     

    Interesting stuff but I struggle with some of the basics as reported in the Grauniad report.

     

     

    The development of a large scale sweet tooth in Europe — the sugar trade was the Klondyke of its day — but the narrow horizons of the original book are typical of the modern analysis of slavery.

     

     

    We are currently seeing a war being played out in Ukraine / Eastern Europe / New Russia because of the impact slavery had on that part of the world over a millennia and the drivers behind its eradication.

     

     

    As a planet / species we need to understand economic exploitation — first as slavery then indentured servitude and now cheap labour in the middle east and elsewhere — and keep on trying to understand it so that new exploitative power relationships don’t develop and destroy more lives and careers.

     

     

    The focus on the transatlantic slave trade diminishes us all — the economic drivers behind that shameful episode are still with us just a case that they are further away and better hidden.

     

     

    Instead of re-publishing 80 year old books and wringing our hands we would be better looking at the labour practices involved in deep sea fishing out of our local ports.

  30. onenightinlisbon on

    ERNIE LYNCH on 2ND APRIL 2022 11:52 AM

     

     

    I don’t hate anyone.

     

     

    Not even flag waving unionists…….

  31. Tom McLaughlin on

    TURKEYBHOY

     

     

    I’m with you. We must play Kyogo from the start. He will be straining at the leash to get at them and will be super-fit and full of confidence. He is too good to leave on the bench.

     

     

    With Giakoumakis as back-up, we are in a very strong position and his presence at the start will put the fear into the opposition.

     

     

    Whoever starts up front, it’s a great problem to have.

     

     

    2-0 Celtic.

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