Newcastle United legend Malcolm Macdonald believes that the Magpies raising the price of season tickets means a takeover of the club isn’t imminent.
The 69-year-old, affectionately known as Supermac, shared he didn’t think Mike Ashley would have approved raising the prices of tickets if he wasn’t going to benefit from it.
“As for the takeover, the fact there has been a price rise in season tickets suggests to me that there is nothing imminent on the cards,” wrote Macdonald in his column for the Chronicle.
“While I know ticket sales have to start in relation to next season I wonder that if Mike Ashley knew he would soon be leaving the club, would he have taken that decision to raise the prices because he’s not going to benefit from it and it could just jeopardise any deal.”
The Sun previously reported in May that Ashley had agreed to sell Newcastle to the cousin of Manchester City’s Arab owner Sheikh Mansour, but as of yet no takeover has been officially completed.
OPINION
Newcastle have opted to raise 2019/20 season ticket prices by roughly 5% (Source: Shield Gazette) despite the club having an uncertain future. With talk constantly going on about a possible takeover and Rafa Benitez’s contract set to expire at the end of the month, it’s hard to know what state the Magpies will be in, come the start of the season. It’s hard to be confident that Ashley will own the club and it’s hard to know who will be in the Magpies’ hotseat by the time the first game of the season kicks-off. With that in mind it does seem wrong that the club have raised season ticket prices, as Magpies supporters aren’t sure whether their team will be going in the right direction by the time the season starts. After several seasons of being disappointed by Ashley’s reign of the club, you feel many may have opted not to renew their season ticket, yet he might still be gone from the club by the time the season gets underway. However Supermac believing that season ticket prices going up shows Ashley isn’t going anywhere, is a very easy opinion to believe.
