Newcastle United are on the right track with their strong commercial ambitions

Newcastle United's commercial ambition is growing after a structural change in 2025, and the Magpies have made quick progress toward their aim of competing with the Premier League's "big six".

David Hopkinson has made it very clear that the goal is consistent growth and, with three new deals in the summer and another announced yesterday, the club's hierarchy is moving to in the right direction to strengthen revenues after a decade of stagnation.

Stagnation in the Mike Ashley era

The only positive you could say about the years of torture under Mike Ashley is that he never let the club go into debt; the commercial side was poor, lacked ambition, and appeared more tied to his own gain that the club's success.

Sponsors included Virgin Money, Puma, and Wonga, not to mention the very controversial Sports Direct advertising all over the stadium and the awful decision to rename St James' Park the Sports Direct Arena.

Wonga was only £7M per season, and Virgin Money was £20M, but Ashley cut that contract; Fun88 remains a sponsor for the Magpies, and during its time as front-of-shirt sponsor, it was £8M per season.

The club never reaped any profits from Sports Direct, given it was Mike Ashley's own company and he essentially only used it to give himself some publicity.

That's vastly less than what Newcastle have had in recent seasons, and their overall commercial growth stagnated, with subsequent years at £15M; it never went above £10M, as the final record revenue in the Ashley era was £17.6M

Improved sponsorships

Since the Saudi takeover in 2021, Newcastle have improved their sponsorship deals and grown their revenue at a very astute rate. They moved on from the Castore sponsorship, which earned them £5M a year, and switched to Adidas, a major upgrade which brought a big revenue hike too.

Sela was a good first deal for the club to get off the ground in the early phase of the new ownership and earned them £25M per year, but the club chose not to renew it after last season and pursue new pastures.

The club then agreed a three-year £60m deal with Knox Hydration for the shirt sponsor and then an additional deal to be the title sponsor of the training ground, labelled "The Knox". This was seen as a massive coup in a time where sponsors were difficult to come by, mainly due to the betting sponsor ban coming into effect.

As part of the deal, they will release a club-themed beverage in partnership with the South African sports hydration company. The sponsorship will bring in £10m in the first year; with years two and three bringing in a possible £25m each, if performance bonuses are met. Newcastle United will also receive an extra £6m a year through the aforementioned training ground sponsor. There is also another deal with SumUp, which is worth £5M per year.

It's safe to say this summer has been a massive breakthrough for the Magpies as they look to grow revenue and catch up to some of the top clubs in the Premier League.

Commercial growth has been placed increasingly high up on the list of progressions for the club as they look to make the Newcastle 2.0 period sustainable and these deals go a long way to aligning the financial side of the club with the on-field ambitions over the next few years.

Growth in revenue and the arrival of Coca-Cola

Per Deloitte, since the first full season of Saudi ownership, Newcastle's turnover has continued to grow, from €212m in 21/22 to €288M in 22/23, to €352M in 23/24, and to their best in 24/25 at €398M. And that can be partly attributed to the conscious effort to increase revenue through commercial partnerships and the subsequent 44% growth in that area.

Newcastle now have one of the highest total revenues for a club outside the traditional 'big six' and the best under the Saudi ownership. David Hopkinson's arrival and a restructured hierarchy have continued the push, seeking commercial deals that put Newcastle in a strong financial position.

The renewal of the BetMGM deal and the announcement of Coca-Cola as the club's official soft drinks partner, as well as the presenting partner of the STACK fanzone outside St James' Park, are further examples of that growth.

It's a multi-year deal with the globally recognised brand; although the terms haven't been shared, it will help keep the numbers rising. There is still a long way to go in terms of being on par with the elite clubs in the League, but Newcastle are definitely on the right track.

Overall, three new sponsors during the summer followed by securing a major deal with one of the biggest soft drink companies in the world. That's pretty good going for a club who set out to improve their revenues over the next couple of years.

TESCO has a saying, "every little helps"; in Newcastle's case and their commercial ambitions, every little penny helps.

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