Newcastle United’s new CEO Darren Eales says the club are likely to explore Saudi sponsors linked to majority owners the Public Investment Fund as he admits their lofty ambition of challenging for the Premier League and European honours depends on boosting commercial revenue.
Eales is a recent hire at St James’ Park after impressing at Atlanta United, the MLS club he helped to build from scratch into a major player across the Atlantic. His remit is the club’s overall strategy and in a detailed first briefing with journalists, he outlined the importance of growing the club’s skinny commercial revenue to help them escape the constraints of Financial Fair Play.
Eales also said the club wanted to stay at their current home and are in talks with the Council that will eventually focus on possible expansion from their current 52,000 capacity.
More from Football
Reece James gives England a World Cup scare after limping off in Chelsea's win over AC Milan11 October, 2022
Boro consider Cattermole and Percovich for manager's job after Carrick talks break down11 October, 2022
'Dreadful, mad, ridiculous!': Man City's draw in Copenhagen marred by VAR controversy11 October, 2022And he confirmed naming rights for the stadium are on the agenda, but promised consultation with supporters first.
“The reality is we have some challenges [with Financial Fair Play]. I like to think are opportunities and that helps guide our strategy,” he said of Newcastle’s first priorities.
“The reality is we aren’t like Manchester City when they had the takeover or even Chelsea. We haven’t got a blank sheet of paper where you can just spend what you want.
“There are regulations in place so we have to get from A to B in a smart way. In a way it’s not that different from building a club from scratch at Atlanta.”
The club will “absolutely” seek to utilise their connections to Saudi Arabia and PIF’s portfolio of businesses, Eales said.
Since the takeover Premier League rivals have agreed a set of regulations around “fair market value” to prevent over-inflated sponsorship deals. But Newcastle’s CEO does not believe that will be a problem.
“Absolutely [we will look at Saudi sponsors]. It would make sense in terms of some of the doors that could be opened by PIF.
“They invest in a number of countries globally. I also think when you look at a country like Saudi Arabia with a young population, 36m and growing, football is the number one sport and there is some natural affinity there in terms of the commercial value of having an association with Newcastle.”
Eales’ energy will certainly aid Newcastle. He has spent the first seven weeks meeting stakeholders in the city, including Brendan Foster to talk about greater links between the club and the Great North Run. He’s also toured the club’s different departments and worked closely with Dan Ashworth and Eddie Howe.
It is a club with towering ambitions but also significant challenges to reel in rivals who have invested more and are challenging from a position of power.
“We are in a situation where we really have to hit it on our signings,” he admits.
“We are not in a situation where the revenues are such we can get a major transfer wrong.
“That means we are under more pressure. If we want to get there as quickly as we’d like to get there, we have to get every single transfer right and every decision right.
“That is the tricky thing compared to a previous time (pre FFP) where you could sign a number of players and, if a couple didn’t work out, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. We can’t afford that.”
On Tyneside, the talk is of being bold and looking to “innovative” solutions. A stadium which is consistently sold out and now has a waiting list for season ticket of thousands could be viewed as a challenge too – although Eales says they will remain at St James’ Park.
They are looking at ways to expand a stadium hemmed in by listed buildings on one side which make expansion on the current site very difficult. But it’s unique city centre location – surrounded by more than a hundred pubs – makes it irreplaceable for Eales.
“This is the place we want to be. I think the question is, ‘How do we try and make it work’,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s going to be a conundrum that is going to get harder and harder because we want to be growing the club, we want to be growing the fanbase.
“For us, it is an amazing location, an amazing stadium, but it is something we’re going to have to look at.
“We have to look at, ‘Can we expand it in anyway? What can we do?’
“It’s ‘champagne problems’, though, that’s the beauty of it.”
from Football | News and analysis from the Premier League and beyond | iNews https://ift.tt/QcmUpbf
Post a Comment