Darren Eales reveals Newcastle United view on stadium naming rights after Sports Direct Arena fiasco

Newcastle United’s chief executive officer – who joined in August from Major League Soccer club Atlanta United in the summer – is looking to increase commercial revenues so the Premier League club can invest more in players.

And one option is to sell “association” naming rights to the club’s historic home.

However, Eales is mindful of the supporter backlash against the renaming of St James’s Park as the Sports Direct Arena by then-owner Mike Ashley in 2011 – and there will be a consulation before any change.

“As we think about our opportunities to work with partners, we have to obviously do that through the lens of the supporters by engaging and communicating with them,” said Eales.

“Clearly, there’s a history (with the Sports Direct Arena), and it didn’t work for a number of reasons, but I think communication was a key one.

“For us, it’s about talking with our supporters and being open by saying ‘look, we all want to get to this place – and to get to this place we need to bring in commercial revenues’.

“There’s always going to be a little bit of a trade-off in certain areas. I’m just being hypothetical here, we would talk and have a dialogue around stadium, and it might be that it’s not a naming right, but it’s an association naming rights.

"That might be something that everybody is comfortable with, but there has to be dialogue – and there has to be an explanation.

“And then, it’s about ‘OK, this is something we think can help the club, and if there’s a general consensus, that’s a path to go down’.

"If 99.9% don’t want to do it, then it’d be crazy to do it, because it would be a bad decision. It’s not going to add any value to the brand.

“My approach on something like this, and we’ll see it as we develop, is firstly not to come in and think I’ve got all the ideas. I want to listen and that’s from our employees, board and people in the region.

“We want Newcastle United to be competing for trophies, and be in the top six consistently, and be up there in Europe. If we can find a path that gets us there the quickest way possible, then we’re going to bring everyone on the journey.”

St James’s Park was controversially rebranded as the Sports Direct Arena, without any prior consultation of fans, to “showcase” the value of the naming rights.

Speaking at the time, then-managing director Derek Llambias said: "To grow sustainably, and allow us to invest in our future, we will need to rely increasingly heavily on commercial income.

"Stadium rebranding offers a lucrative way for clubs to secure significant additional income."

The stadium reverted to back to it’s former name the following year as part of a sponsorship deal with payday lender Wonga.

Meanwhile, United are set to appoint Peter Silverstone as chief commercial officer, according to the Daily Mail. Silverstone previously worked at Arsenal.