PIF has already approved major £200m Newcastle United move ahead of face-to-face meeting
Yasir Al-Rumayyan will attend a Newcastle United board meeting this week, with training ground plans top of the agenda.
Newcastle United hope to accelerate plans to announce a new state-of-the-art training ground.
Club chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and a delegation from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia are due on Tyneside this week for their annual meeting with Newcastle chiefs.
And top of the agenda are long-term infrastructure projects, including the training ground and stadium.
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While a decision on whether to extend St James’ Park or build a new stadium elsewhere is yet to be reached, United have already committed to building a world-class training centre.
It’s been widely reported that the Magpies are set to purchase a large site in Woolsington, most recently owned by former Newcastle owner Sir John Hall. As reported by our sister title NewcastleWorld last year, PIF has already approved a budget of £200m.
Plans are set to be ironed out at the meeting, where it is hoped an official announcement will follow.
David Hopkinson outlines new training ground ambition
The Gazette understands around £30million has been invested into the club’s existing Benton training ground since the completion of the PIF-led takeover in October 2021 but still falls short of the club’s ambition, as outlined by CEO David Hopkinson in December.
Hopkinson said: “When you look at the facility you have today, let’s talk straight with each other, it’s probably a 7/10. It gets the job done.
“I don’t think we have a lot of world-class talent that say, ‘I want to stay here because of the training ground’ or ‘I want to go to Newcastle because of the training ground’. Even with the renovation we’re doing, which will make it better, we probably only get to an eight. We don’t get to a 10.
“We can’t get to a 10 on the current footprint, which is the reason why we’re considering – not considering, planning – a very big investment to go and build a 10.
“If you look at the arms race that training grounds have become – in the Premier League, in football, in North American sports – the players are spending an inordinate amount of time there and the expectations have changed and evolved from simply where we train to, ‘Yeah, that’s where I drop the kids off because they’re being babysat while I’m training’ or ‘This is where the car is being looked after’ and ‘This is where I get my haircut’.
“This is what’s happened in North American sports, and now there are changing expectations here too of what players are going to want in order to choose to come here or stay. Those are the investments we’re going to have to make to get to a world-class level.”
Training ground announcement will come as a major boost
Seeing spades in the ground, so to speak, will significantly boost Newcastle supporters who have questioned PIF’s commitment.
"The question about PIF is a good one – it was one of my questions during the recruitment,” Hopkinson added. “There’s always different types of ownership – some are deeply connected, at every single match, every single day, others are much more hands off and just see it as an investment.
“This group at the PIF is very much in the former camp. It’s every single day.”