“Are you boycotting the Spurs game?”
This was the most commonly uttered phrase this week amongst Newcastle United supporters, perhaps only second to, “Can I have that Greggs sausage roll?” Over the last couple of weeks, a plan to boycott the Tottenham Hotspur game picked up momentum, particularly after the fifth consecutive derby loss against Sunderland.
Newcastle United: To Boycott Or Not To Boycott
The initiative was inspired by the protest group, AshleyOut.com, which intended to persuade every fan not to support their team in the stadium for one game. If successful, the plan would see Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct tycoon, losing a small fortune of the match day revenue in hope that he would finally call it a day at Newcastle United and move his business-fuelled mind elsewhere.
The idea of boycotting Tottenham specifically, was in the belief that it would generate maximum publicity as it was televised on Sky Sports for the whole world to witness the current farce the club is in. AC Milan fans showed how effectively a boycott can work when there were 50,000 empty seats at their recent home game against Cagliari. Many were curious to know how many Newcastle fans, who always seem to support their team regardless of circumstance, would turn away from the turnstiles.
As a season ticket holder, my decision was to go to the match. Due to occupations before the game, I was running slightly late and only managed to get into the city five minutes prior to kick off. As I was walking outside the stadium, there was an army of around 500 supporters chanting “We’re s**t and we’re sick of it!” directly at the Nine bar standing opposite. I went to a programme stall to buy a programme as I always do, only to be greeted by a man with a handful of pound coins who offered me to give back the programme for my money back plus an extra £2: just so extra money was not finding its way into Ashley’s pockets. I declined the offer, although I am slightly regretting that decision considering the bus prices these days. Nonetheless, it was time to see how many fans actually decided to boycott the game.
As soon as I walked up the stairs, I had a quick glance around the stadium and was not surprised at all — the boycott failed miserably. There were only 3,000 more empty seats than the season’s average.
A full boycott is certainly effective if everybody takes part, otherwise it is not a boycott. If the other 47,000 also did not attend the game, there would have been publicity and certainly there would be something for Ashley to think about if he was losing the significant profits of what a match day brings. The attendance was similar to a game against a team near the bottom half of the table, nothing that was going to reach “breaking news” status. A miniscule boycott as it was will have no effect on the management of the club.
The only thing the boycotters achieved was the ability not to endure the horrendous football in the freezing cold as Newcastle fell 3-1 to Tottenham.
