Newcastle United have set up a new company to handle upcoming stadium and training ground expansion plans in another sign of the club’s ambitions to boost capacity at St James’ Park and turn it into one of Europe’s biggest grounds.
The club incorporated “Newcastle United Football Club Projects Limited” in December, with co-owner Amanda Staveley and Chief Executive Darren Eales named as directors. Eales was the driving force behind major training ground building projects at his former clubs Tottenham and Atlanta United.
i understands the company will be used to develop the club’s new training ground and future stadium development. Keeping it separate from the club’s parent company is likely a measure to satisfy Financial Fair Play (FFP) requirements. Unlimited spend on infrastructure is allowed under FFP rules, which will help Newcastle – who harbour twin aims of building a new custom, state-of-the-art training facility and expanding a stadium that has sold out for every home fixture this season.
As i revealed last month, the club have stepped up the exploratory phase of their stadium expansion plans in recent weeks. Sources stress any building work is still “some way off” and no feasibility study has begun, but preliminary progress is being made behind-the-scenes.
Indeed it emerged on Wednesday that the club have bought the long-term lease on land near Strawberry Place, which is situated at St James’ Park’s Gallowgate End. The land was sold in 2019 by former owner Mike Ashley for £9m amid protests from supporters who feared it ended any prospect of the stadium being expanded beyond its current 52,300 capacity.
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The sale of the land is not yet completed but is anticipated to be finalised later in the year. The club will consider a huge fan zone for the area while they continue to explore expansion plans.
These are fascinating times for Newcastle, who have made it to their first major cup final for two decades and are set to be the latest club to feature in a behind-the-scenes documentary at the end of the season.
The documentary is not understood to be part of Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ series and may not even stream on that channel. But cameras have been rolling for months, capturing candid footage of Eddie Howe, the players and board members. The four-part series chronicling what is proving to be a transformative season at St James’ Park will be released in the coming months.
It is all part of the club’s efforts to beef up their profile and maximise commercial revenue to support their ambitious plans to compete for English and European football’s top honours in the next five years. The latter is crucial to comply with FFP, which has been top of the agenda this week.
Many will feel their approach to the regulations – which the club have taken deadly seriously and has warned will be a consideration in future transfer plans – has been vindicated by events of this week, when Manchester City have been charged with breaching regulations over a nine-year period.
Newcastle are in discussions with a number of companies over their shirt sponsorship, which is available from next season. Although some firms are related to the Public Investment Fund that owns the club, there are also contenders with no previous affiliation to Saudi Arabia.
It is a difficult market to extract value from and Newcastle are competing with Chelsea, whose sponsorship deal with mobile company Three will also expire in the summer. But any deal negotiated is set to far out-strip the current partnership with Fun88, which is worth an estimated £6.5million a year.
“We feel we are a compelling story now,” a source told i.
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