'Unlawful' to move Newcastle fans
from BBC News, 28 February, 2000
Newcastle United are breaking the law by trying to move season-ticket holders from their seats to make way for corporate hospitality boxes, a High Court judge was told today.
The claim came as six United fans launched a legal battle to keep seats they say they were told they could occupy for 10 years. The six, who represent 2,134 others, paid a £500 bond which they thought would secure their favourite seats at St James's Park for a decade.
But the Newcastle board say the bond payment guaranteed "a" seat to the fan, but not necessarily "the" seat they had bought originally.
The club has told them that they will have to move from seats in the lower tier to the newly built upper tier to make way for hospitality units which are to be built in the redevelopment of the ground.
Mr Jonathan Crystal, counsel for the six fans, who set up the Save Our Seats campaign, told the High Court at Newcastle the fans felt the club was behaving in a "wrongful and unlawful" manner.
The judge, Mr Justice Blackburne, heard extracts from the bond brochure and interviews in the local media which Mr Crystal said backed the fans' claims.
Mr Crystal showed the court a 1994 brochure which was signed by the then chairman, Sir John Hall, and the manager, Kevin Keegan.
He told the judge it read: "Being a United bondholder gives you the guaranteed right to buy a season ticket for the next 10 years and that's not all. As a United bond-holder your name or your company's name will be fixed to your own personal seat.'"
The court also heard extracts from a radio interview in which United's then chief executive, Freddie Fletcher, said: "The bond scheme is a voluntary scheme offered to every season-ticket holder.
They can for £500 ensure that seat for the next 10 years."
Lifelong Toon Army fan Jane Duffy is one of the supporters bringing the court action. She insists the alternative seats offered by the club are inferior.
Ms Duffy says they are too far from the touchline action, and destroy the exciting ambience built up between loyal neighbouring season ticket holders over the years.
The club insists it has satisfactorily relocated about 85% of the displaced fans. They have issued " a plea for peace" calling for unity after the court case, whatever the outcome.
England coach Kevin Keegan will be one of the first witnesses at the court case.
When he was the manager of the Magpies he helped to "sell" the bondholder scheme to supporters. The outcome of the courtroom clash could be crucial for the company that owns Newcastle United.
It has massive debts to meet following the huge transfer deals of recent managers, and the construction work that is transforming St James Park into an football stadium masterpiece.
This is another embarrassing episode for the directors of the Premiership club that has some of the country's most fanatical fans.
In December 1998 club directors Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall were caught on film describing Newcastle women as "dogs," and ridiculing fans for buying over-priced replica shirts.
They resigned from the club and the board shortly afterwards, but then announced moves to use their controlling shareholding to get back in.
Nufcmismanagement view:
This is a truley shocking way to treat the fans, again, money is all that matters, more income means more in the way of dividends.