In 2000 local businessman, Con Constantine bought remnants of the Newcastle Breakers from David Hall. The new club was and named Newcastle United and moved their home games to their current stadium, the Newcastle International Sports Centre.
The club competed in the NSL until the competition’s demise and in 2004 Newcastle United was rebranded the Newcastle United Jets and given entry into the A-League.
In 2010 Constantine was stripped of his licence by Football Federation Australia (FFA) and it was reassigned to mining businessman, Nathan Tinkler. This followed financial difficulties experienced by Constantine.
In 2012 Tinkler’s attempts to hand back the licence, citing financial difficulties, were rejected by the FFA. After discussions with FFA leadership, Tinkler retained the licence.
In 2015 Tinkler’s licence was terminated by the FFA after he placed the club in voluntary administration. Tinkler was declared bankrupt in 2016.
The FFA then issued a new competition licence. As owners of the original club’s Intellectual Property, they elected to retain the original Newcastle branding for the new entity.
In 2016 the FFA announced the sale of the club to the Ledman Group, a Chinese based LED signage manufacturer.
In 2020 the FFA terminated Ledman’s licence. The club was taken under the control of a group of other A-League clubs, Sydney FC, Western United, and Western Sydney Wanderers.
Insights
Newcastle has always been an important football location and has a long history of participation in the national competition. However, with the exception of Con Constantine, who’s leadership could be described as authoritarian, the FFA have struggled to find owners committed to the club. Similar to other club ownerships Constantine’s downfall could be pointed to the Global Financial Crisis. Newcastle United Jets were ultimately operating at a loss so without successful business interests outside of football to fund the club, Constantine was unable to continue holding the licence.
Tinkler’s reign was initially positive, his parallel acquisition of the Newcastle Knights Rugby League club was an attempt to create a super club for Newcastle. His financial difficulties though proved to be too much however. Similar to Clive Palmer’s time at Gold Coast United, Tinkler’s brief reign showed the importance of resilient financial backing beyond billionaire headlines, and the importance of agreeable and aligned club ownership.
The Ledman Group ownership also benefited the group by introducing their LED signage products to the Australian market. Their lack of financial support to Newcastle Jets and strange disappearance ahead of their ultimate removal was again a demonstration of failed due diligence, this time a failure to ensure alignment with the League’s long term vision.
Interestingly, post the Ledman Group, Newcastle have since been controlled by other A-League clubs. Now that the FFA does not run the competition this has shown that the Australian Professional Leagues have mechanisms in place to stabilise the league, although it does bring into question competition integrity when the same owners are involved in multiple clubs of the same league.
Limitations and considerations
Information has been accumulated based on publicly available reports and may not be entirely correct.
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