Stefan Borson: Newcastle have made ‘surprising’ decision after Saudi reveal
Newcastle United have been looking to boost their revenues since their Saudi-led takeover was completed at St James’ Park.
Newcastle have largely seen their progress blocked by the associated party transaction (APT) rules since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took over the club in October 2021.
Eddie Howe’s side previously struck sponsorship deals with Sela and Noon worth a combined £32.5million, but it is believed they could have potentially banked a higher fee with a relaxation of the APT rules.
Newcastle are now well placed to agree commercial deals following the appointment of David Hopkinson as their new chief executive.
Hopkinson joined Newcastle from Madison Square Garden Sports, where he was president and chief operating officer, spearheading the business operations of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.
Newcastle chief to make behind-the-scenes changes
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Newcastle could be set to make changes to their commercial department after Hopkinson launched a 100-day revenue of the day-to-day operations at St James Park.
It has already been revealed chief commercial officer Craig Silverstone is set to leave Newcastle and take up a business role at Juventus.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “In terms of the new CEO, he has got his own way of looking at things.
“He is a commercial guy, that’s his background, so he’s going to know pretty quickly whether the team in situ is what he wants, and he’s probably not going to need to spend 100 days analysing it, he’s probably going to know pretty quickly.
“He’s probably going to look at the performance of that operation and compare it to the rest of the league and say, ‘Have they delivered?, and he’ll have a view. Then he’ll say, ‘I think maybe we need to make some changes’, and it’s easy to start at the top.
“Then of course he may know people. He may have his people he’s worked with before who he rates in the sports space, who he wants to bring in, and that’s how it works. It’s a pretty normal environment, but we don’t know the exact reason.”
Newcastle posted a club-record revenue in their latest published accounts for 2023-24 after their overall turnover surged from £250m to £320m, while the club’s commercial income improved from £47m to £86m across the same period.
Newcastle could have agreed Saudi deals
Borson insisted Newcastle have made a “surprising” decision by not agreeing more Saudi deals since their takeover was completed four years ago.
“I think it’s been surprising over time that Newcastle haven’t done frankly more Saudi deals for things like the training kit, training sponsor, training center sponsor, these sorts of things could have been done within the associated party rules and could have been approved,” said Borson.
“But they chose not to do it, I’m not sure why that was. There’s a bit of uncertainty there, but a lot of change.
“If you’ve got a new CEO and clearly the old regime went maybe a couple of years ago as well, you’re going to have change.”
Newcastle United currently sit 14th in the Premier League table following their challenging start to the season.
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