Newcastle United agree £10m St James' Park deal as 'superstar' set to join
David Hopkinson has agreed his second major commercial deal as Newcastle United CEO.
Newcastle United have reportedly agreed a ‘lucrative’ £10million agreement with Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company.
Sodexo already operate at St James’ Park and, according to the Daily Mail, has beaten off competition from three other global bidders to remain long-term.
The deal was brokered between chief executive officer David Hopkinson and Sodexo CEO Thierry Delaporte, which will see St James’ positioned as Sodexo’s ‘Global Showcase Account’.
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Second major NUFC commercial deal agreed under David Hopkinson
It is the second major commercial deal agreed since Hopkinson’s appointment as CEO last year, after recently selling the naming rights of the club’s Benton training ground to South African sports drinks company KNOX Hydration.
The Magpies are in the process of finalising plans to build a new £200million state-of-the-art training centre at Woolsington, near Newcastle airport, but in the meantime, their current facility will be known as The KNOX from July 1.
The partnership, which also includes the sleeve sponsorship on training wear for the men’s, women’s, and academy teams, is a three-year deal worth £6million-a-year, £18million in total.
‘More to come’ - David Hopkinson on commercial deals
Hopkinson has already hinted at more deals to come as the club looks to turbocharge its revenue streams and close the gap on the Premier League big six to enable further investment into the playing squad.
“We live in a world where we can invest in our squad is a function of how much revenue we can generate,” Hopkinson said. “Those are the rules for all of us, and we respect those rules, so deals like this are frankly game-changing.
“This does give us the ability to improve our squad, as does the maximisation of all our commercial opportunities. We’re thrilled about it; more will come.”
Newcastle United close to announcing chief revenue officer
The Athletic have reported that Dave O’Connor will be the club’s new chief revenue officer and Hopkinson has now confirmed that an announcement will be made ‘in the coming days’.
Hopkinson was speaking at the SportsPro London conference at the KIA Oval cricket ground earlier this week and said: “We’ll be making these two announcements in the coming days.
“A superstar, an international. He’s going to focus on our digital growth. We cannot achieve all that ambition on Newcastle’s local market opportunity. We’ve got to go global.”
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