Thumping out
By Leipziger
September 21 2011
The Falcons have thrown most of us a curveball in the last 24 hours with the sudden news that Dave Thompson has resigned as chairman to be replaced by new majority shareholder Semore Kurdi. Kurdi now owns 80% of the club through the issue of new shares.
I don’t know ‘Thumper’ personally but he seems to be a no-nonsense bloke who cares a lot about the club and while he is not universally popular among fans, I am convinced he would not be taking this step if he did not believe it was in the club’s best interests.
Thompson has been at the helm at KP since February 1999, when he replaced Sir John Hall and Newcastle United as majority owner. Financial reality and the football club going public meant the end of Sir John’s sporting club dreams, and the Falcons were left in limbo. Rob Andrew has gone on record stating the club was very close to going out of business.
Thompson stepped in and was rewarded with a cup final at Twickenham after just a few months in charge. At the end of 1998/99 ticket prices were reduced for the following season and key contracts agreed to keep Jonny Wilkinson and Gary Armstrong at the club.
It is at this point that I recall that I was doing Economics A-level at the time and wrote a short essay on Thompson’s takeover of the Falcons for the course, but I’ve no idea where it is.
I believe Thompson has two legacies at KP, I will mention the second later but the first is the fact that a lot of us who at Saturday’s game were not standing on a little concrete bank open to the elements, using portaloos or sitting in a temporary stand, but were in the relative luxury of the West Stand and South Stand.
The KP issue is a thorny one since the ground remains half-finished, with no recent news of further development on the East and North sides, but the ground is certainly a heck of a lot better now than it was at the end of 2001/02.
The Falcons have had four managers in the Thompson era, beginning with Andrew and going on through John Fletcher and Steve Bates to current gaffer Alan Tait. Thompson stood behind Andrew for many years and was rewarded with two cup victories and a Heineken Cup quarter-final in Paris, and has always been keen to promote from within, though these decisions have not always been universally popular.
In 2008 it was well-known that Thompson looked to sell the club, but none of the potential deals came to fruition, as apparently he believed they would not be in the Falcons’ best interests. A move to Darlington was one possible consequence mentioned, something I for one would not have welcomed.
A year ago Thompson brought Jordanian-born Geordie businessman Semore Kurdi on board to provide new investment and a new voice within the club, someone who cared about the club just as much as he did. This was very much welcomed by most, indeed a good friend of mine who has had professional dealings with Kurdi told me he thought Kurdi’s involvement would greatly benefit the club.
Kurdi is now the club’s third owner of the professional era and his immediate task will be to ensure the playing side have the tools to secure Premiership safety come May.
That is Thompson’s second legacy – the fact that a week on Sunday we will be welcoming Wasps to KP rather than Esher. This Saturday we will be away to London Irish, not Plymouth. You can say all you want about ownership matters not affecting what happens on the pitch, and maybe they shouldn’t, but the fact is they do. And where Northampton and Harlequins have both failed, where Bristol and Leeds have failed several times each, the Falcons have succeeded in every relegation battle they have been involved in.
I’m sure Thompson himself would admit that not every decision he has made during his time with the Falcons has been correct, but the fact remains that there would not be professional rugby in the North East without him. We have watched some of the world’s best players playing in a black shirt, like Jonny Wilkinson, Matthew Burke, Colin Charvis and Carl Hayman. Every season this millennium we have watched Premiership rugby. For all of this he deserves all the credit in the world, and our thanks.
Today is the start of a new era for Newcastle Falcons, let’s all get behind them in big, loud numbers on 2nd October.
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Love him or hate him he has kept the Falcons afloat for 13 years, I'm very grateful for that. Equally I'm looking forward to the new era under Kurdi with huge excitement and anticipation. Happy that Thumper will have some involvement going forward too, he has too much knowledge about the club and rugby in general to waste by exiting entirely.
I happens to have a bit of experience of running a business and know that having the previous senior management hanging about after a change at the top rarely helps the new incumbents.
You of course will know better.
Kurdi is the new owner now so if he wants him to stay on in his current capacity why should that be any of your problem. L
And yes DB everyone is entitled to an opinion but most if not all Touchy's input on here is negative in nature and quite personal.
I dont think this forum should be the place to forment ones' vindictive ideas. Like I said Thumper is responsible for the North east having professional rugby and whatever his flaws we should all be grateful for that and give him a break now.He is no longer the owner.
Perhaps Thumper would only agree to a deal which kept him involved.
We don't know so can only take it on face value and comment on that.
Kurdi presumably wants something in return for increasing his investment in the club. So to inject many £100K's into the club and to take his shareholding from 40+% to 80% they issues new shares. He becomes the majority shareholder and thus has a greater 'controlling' influence on the club. In the same breath Thumper has magnanimously agreed to waive a proportion of the interest due on his loans to ensure it all moves forward.
Unfortunately for Kurdi I don't think the club is generating sufficient income at this stage to cover the day to day running costs so his investment is very much a continuing day by day input, beyond the additional expenditure of new signings, etc, etc.
His new management structure will be interesting to see as that may give some idea of the way he would like the club to move forward. Same commercial team? Negotiate ground buy back from Uni, future use of Druids Park and so the possibilites go on.
Interesting and exciting times.
I'm not a fan of revisiting the past and he has been here before in a coaching role albeit as a player and part of a triumvirate.
Going on what I have been told, and read, rugby clubs in general have required over £1.5 million annually to function. it doesn't take a genius to workout that DT has put at least that amount into this club, if not more. just for that we need to be saying thank you, but we have a ground and a team that needs support.
it is all well and good putting forward opinion, a bit more positive would be nice and that positivity from the fans encourages the players, but we now need to be at games supporting the new regime and moving the club onto greater things. Can't do that from home!
On another note there is somebody above Alan Tait an his coaching team and that is Dave Bell. He is the man that deals with the financial side of the club. Tait & his coaches identify players they want, contracts that need sorting and all the other non rugby bits and pieces that need to be done and he is doing a good job. the club needs stability and he is the man to provide it, along with the new part owner, so that AT can concentrate on getting the wins that will make people happy.
These gentlemen need the support of the fans, as well, because then they can approach and good players persuade them that Newcastle is a great place to come and play your rugby.
Part of the reason for DT holding a stake in the club is that he can continue his work with Premier Rugby, the RFU and the clubs. This means that Seymore Kurdi can look after the Falcons, with the club's views being represented by DT, continuing a job he has been doing for the last couple of years. You don't throw that expertease away, you utilise it, so that is what the Falcons are doing.
Although the club needs our support now, we will not see any changes in the club quickly as Mr Kurdi will be assessing what needs to be done. These are exciting times at Newcastle Falcons andwe need to e there and involved and we can drive this club through to being a massive force in English rugdy, we've been there once and I for one want to be part of it.
Let's get out there and support our Falcons and show Seymore Kurdi that we are all solidily behind him!!!
As an aside how about thanking Mr Thompson by giving him the honour of having a stand named after him. I suggest the South Stand should be re-named The Dave Thompson Stand. What a way to thank him.
Thank you for keeping us in the AP, DT. I am not grateful for the stressful way in which it was done though - in some respects it has been almost cruel.
Good luck to SK. Wish you all the best in turning things around. Please prove that you have a good plan to move forward and that we are not just moving chairs on the Titanic.
The North East deserves a decent top flight team, but we must meet the standards of the league we are in by providing quality entertaining and hopefully winning rugby. On and off the pitch serious financial and management alterations are needed. I don't rate Tait because he is more negative than Touchy, but I often wonder if he has ever really been given a fair go with the lowest of all squad budgets.
Clearly you are not a genius then, DT has put nowhere near £1.5m annually into the club. Several million over 13 years, yes, but not as much as that.
Thumper is owed about £2.3m as at 30 June 2010, so that is the sum of his loans outstanding (net) to the club over that period up to that date. The 30 June 2011 accounts will maybe tell us what has happened in the year since then but we will have to wait a good while yet before we can see the transactions that have occurred in the last week or so.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:25:17:30:21 by DGNTR.
One wishing to get closer to the issues/action the other the opposite