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 2^nd October.