Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[VillaTim]

If the deal was such a tap-in, how come it has taken 5 years of ownership before he could get them in as our suppliers? (I mean he definitely has all the sway apparently).

All about timing and being able to support the figures . No point signing a deal with Adidas when your Championship or finishing 17th . We can backup the numbers agreed now . A tap-in for Heck . Credit to Emery and the team .

[LeeB]

Being a shareholder in a company does not give you some automatic control over how the business is run, especially not on something so piddlingly small in terms of numbers to a company like Adidas.

He's a main board Director at Adidas aswell as major shareholder. He has an absolute hand at the table and a big one .

Fat handed twat.

[pablo_picasso]

Of course we will have used our contact at adidas to help facilitate the deal. Heck needed to get it over the line, & good work for that, but we 100% used our contact to help. It's naive to think otherwise.

The biggest thing Heck would have done for the adidas deal was to get us out of the Castore deal. (But not the only thing before anyone jumps on me.) And without that, adidas doesn't happen.

Granted, he admits himself that the quality of that product was extremely poor, & we all saw that on the pitch ourselves, so that would have helped with those negotiations, but there was nothing to stop Castore saying "fuck you, stick it out".

But they didn't, for reasons of not wanting the publicity when we took them to court/they took us to court, or whatever, & it fell into place for our best season in over 30 years, to make the most money out of adidas.

So I think the adidas deal had a few elements helping it out. Good contacts. Timing. And Chris Heck.

[Ads]

How does our deal compare to Newcastle's?

Heck has said its our biggest sponsorship deal, so on that basis it's more than £20m a season. But I've not seen any figures beyond some random Twitter guff.

[algy]

If the deal was such a tap-in, how come it has taken 5 years of ownership before he could get them in as our suppliers? (I mean he definitely has all the sway apparently).

NS might've been able to point him to the right doors to knock on, but everything else is going to have been because it makes sense for Adidas. There's a huge corporation, they aren't doing things as favours to one of their many shareholders.

[Chris Harte]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

[LeeB]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

Yes, nobody seemed to give the slightest shit about that.

[Somniloquism]

If the deal was such a tap-in, how come it has taken 5 years of ownership before he could get them in as our suppliers? (I mean he definitely has all the sway apparently).

NS might've been able to point him to the right doors to knock on, but everything else is going to have been because it makes sense for Adidas. There's a huge corporation, they aren't doing things as favours to one of their many shareholders.

Well that is what VT has been hinting at? Remember they would have had to pay a lot less previously so they would have liked to pay lower costs.

[Risso]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

Yes, nobody seemed to give the slightest shit about that.

That would have been an entirely different situation though. Some short term pain for long term gain. They'd have come back to more seats and miles better facilities.

[Dogtanian]

How does our deal compare to Newcastle's?

From what I have seen, Newcastle have been given Elite status. Due mostly to expectation on the sports-washing billions making them massive.

I don't think we are getting that status, which is the same as Arsenal, Juventus, Man U.

I would expect from what has been said that we will be Premium level - on the same footing as Ajax, Celtic, etc.  To put this into Context, Leicester won the Premier League, FA Cup, and had consecutive top five finishes and apparently weren't given this level of deal.

The Premium clubs get custom shirt designs, a greater amount of the Adidas range available in their branding, kits in Adidas' online store and stored across Europe, as well as being in the global Adidas catalogue.

So I think we have definitely done well to get this deal.

[Ads]

Proper tap in. Well done Chris Darren Bent Heck.

[LeeB]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

Yes, nobody seemed to give the slightest shit about that.

That would have been an entirely different situation though. Some short term pain for long term gain. They'd have come back to more seats and miles better facilities.

Yes it would be different alright, not a few rows away but to another part of the ground in a big scramble with thousands of others and very few options. And then no doubt welcomed back to the new stand at a significantly higher cost.

[Drummond]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

Yes, nobody seemed to give the slightest shit about that.

That would have been an entirely different situation though. Some short term pain for long term gain. They'd have come back to more seats and miles better facilities.

Not for the people who would have to sit in another stand during ther process, and then be subject to a huge price hike if they did indeed get their choice of (presumably) non premium seating.

[VillaTim]

All the fuss and hyperbole about 900 season ticket holders having to move in the name of progress, but when the North Stand redevelopment was stopped all the ire was about us not progressing as a result, even though had it gone ahead surely more season ticket holders would have been displaced.

Yes, nobody seemed to give the slightest shit about that.

That would have been an entirely different situation though. Some short term pain for long term gain. They'd have come back to more seats and miles better facilities.

Yes it would be different alright, not a few rows away but to another part of the ground in a big scramble with thousands of others and very few options. And then no doubt welcomed back to the new stand at a significantly higher cost.

It's called "Progress" apparently.

[chrisw1]

I think if Newcastle got 'elite' and we didn't when our owner is a significant shareholder, that's a bit disappointing.

I know they sell more shirts, but when they negotiated the deal they weren't even CL.