Newcastle United owners travel to discuss sponsorship deals with new partner candidates | OneFootball

It is now coming up to 14 months since the (then) new Newcastle United owners replaced Mike Ashley.

On 7 October 2021 they inherited a club that on the pitch had a one way ticket to the Championship.

Whilst off it, the Newcastle United owners took on a football club that commercially, was a total joke. In an era when every other major Premier League club has seen their commercial revenues increase to a massive extent, Mike Ashley somehow managed to leave NUFC with the same level of commercial monies coming un, as had been the case 14 years earlier when he bought the club.

That ‘miracle’ coming about due mainly to the sole focus being to benefit Mike Ashley and his other business interests, at the expense of Newcastle United. The overwhelming advertising at St James’ Park, the training ground, across the club’s social media, at every pre and post-match home press conference, every time a new player was signed, Sports Direct and Ashley’s other brands taking centre stage. Mike Ashley even awarded naming rights at St James’ Park to Sports Direct, without a penny paid in return.

Anyway, we are now in a very different NUFC era with very different Newcastle United owners.

It is all about the long-term, building this club up, both on and off the pitch, rather than extracting as much short-term gain for the owner(s) at the expense of the club…both in football and commercial terms.

Back in August (2022), The Athletic updated us on the shirt sponsor situation, shirt sponsorship of course is one of the, if not the, biggest opportunities to bring in the cash needed to ensure progress is made rapidly at a football club.

They revealed that back in July 2020, Mike Ashley had committed Newcastle United to a new six year deal, at around £9m per year for shirt sponsorship. The length of that deal was kept secret at the time and considering the (now) new Newcastle United owners were at that very same time actively trying to buy NUFC, you can’t help but feel that Ashley wasn’t exactly acting in the best interests of the football club longer-term…

Anyway, when revealing this FUN88 deal had been signed up to take us through to summer 2026, The Athletic also revealed that the new Newcastle United owners had managed to do a deal with FUN88 to significantly shorten the remaining length of that Ashley agreement.

Instead of ending in summer 2026, it would now be summer 2023, three years taken off it. Lit

With shirt sponsorship one of the key areas where the new Newcastle United owners would be hoping to get far higher commercial revenues into the club, remaining tied into such a deal until 2026 was a nightmare. To put it into perspective, compared to receiving only £9m from FUN88 for the main shirt sponsorship deal, the new owners announced in June 2022 a new sleeve sponsor deal with NOON.com worth a widely reported £7.5m per season.

Whilst an ever growing number of smaller sponsorship agreements have been announced on a regular basis since the new Newcastle United owners arrived, the big ones (shirt sponsor and potential new kit deal – if Castore also agree to curtail their Newcastle deal…) are still yet to come.

Interest was sparked though last month, when after clearly commercial photos had been seen being taken at both St James’ Park and down on Newcastle Quayside, the club made an official announcement (see below) regarding SAUDIA, Newcastle United’s latest commercial deal.

However, rather than becoming the new shirt sponsor, Newcastle United announced they were partnering with SAUDIA as the club’s ‘Official tour airline partner’, ahead of the NUFC squad’s upcoming warm weather break in Saudi Arabia (Eddie Howe and the players fly off today).

Interesting then that The Athletic, who clearly have the inside track on this, have given us a further update on the Newcastle United owners and their moves towards bringing in the kind of commercial revenues that can significantly help progress further the rate of upward change at NUFC, on and off the pitch.

They report that Darren Eales (CEO) and Peter Silverstone (CCO – Chief Commercial Officer) have been in discussions with various potential partners over multiple sponsorship deals.

When it comes to the big one, the shirt sponsor, The Athletic say that both Amanda Staveley and Darren Eales have been in discussions, home and abroad, with various companies. They add that specifically, Amanda Staveley has been to other parts of the Middle East, not just Saudi Arabia, to hold meetings with various candidates for the big shirt sponsor position.

The Athletic reporting that their information is that the Newcastle United owners and the club’s senior staff, are increasingly confident they can land the right main sponsor AND that the club’s current success on the pitch, currently third in the Premier League as we head to Christmas, will help ensure a far higher level agreement than might otherwise have been possible.

As well as owning a 10% stake, Amanda Staveley was handed a new deal for an ongoing hands-on role at the club, an ‘advisory agreement’, so a paid role where she is the main link between CEO Darren Eales and other senior staff, with the Newcastle United owners / board. Part of that entailing of course why she is doing the legwork in terms of heading out for meetings with potential new sponsors, on behalf of the club ownership.

Newcastle United official announcement – 16 November 2022:

‘Newcastle United has partnered with Saudi Arabia’s national carrier, SAUDIA, as the club prepares for a warm weather training camp in Riyadh this December.

SAUDIA will be the club’s Official Tour Airline Partner when the team travels to Saudi Arabia, where they will play Saudi Pro League champions Al-Hilal Football Club as part of the 2022 Diriyah Season.

The team will travel to and from Riyadh on board a SAUDIA chartered flight as part of the partnership, in a collaboration which will also see the airline introduce the partnership’s official digital hub; saudia-newcastleunitedfc.com – enabling fans to win exciting prizes and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Commenting on the Partnership, the Club’s Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Silverstone, said: “Whilst Newcastle United is on an exciting and ambitious journey to grow our global reach and fanbase, we are also very focussed on growing our fan base and following in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.

“Our ambition is to become the most supported English Premier League football team in Saudi Arabia; a country whose population includes a large, young, passionate and highly engaged football community.

“We are delighted to partner with SAUDIA as our official tour airline partner, and we look forward to working with them during our trip to Riyadh and for the remainder of the 2022/23 English Premier League Season.”

Khaled Tash, SAUDIA Group Chief Marketing Officer, said: “We are committed to bringing the world to Saudi Arabia, and this includes partnering with global sporting giants to further evolve our landscape.

“We hope to form a cultural bridge between Saudi Arabia and the world as we believe our culture has the potential to transcend borders, whereby we inspire and connect with guests from around the world in new and meaningful ways.”

SAUDIA connects guests from more than 100 destinations around the world to Saudi Arabia via its state-of-the-art hub at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and other key terminals around Saudi Arabia.

Further information on the club’s training camp and how to watch the match live will be confirmed in due course, while nufc.co.uk, NUFC TV and the club’s official social media channels will provide supporters with exclusive content throughout the trip.’