Newcastle United training ground plans take shape after £18m deal & PIF green light
Newcastle United’s hierarchy met for an annual summit at Maften Hall last week.
Newcastle United club chiefs discussed the future of St James’ Park and the club’s training ground at a key summit at Matfen Hall last week.
Publicly, the future of Newcastle’s stadium and training ground appears up in the air. But work is going on behind the scenes to give the club an infrastructure to match its ‘world-class’ ambitions.
Ahead of the Matfen Hall meeting, Newcastle chief executive officer David Hopkinson confirmed talks would be taking place regarding the training ground and stadium.
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Newcastle United training ground plans take shape after £18m deal
Our sister title NewcastleWorld revealed last year that PIF have approved a budget of £200million for a new training ground on a new site. This is after an eight-figure sum has already been pumped into improving the current Darsley Park site in recent seasons.
A large area of land in Woolsington has been reported as the expected site for a new training ground. But for now, Newcastle have announced an £18million sponsorship deal with hydration company KNOX to rebrand the current training centre as ‘The KNOX’ from July.
Infrastructure plans were discussed at the summit ahead of a formal announcement from the club.
At the SportsPro London conference at the KIA Oval cricket ground last week, Hopkinson said: “Our training ground is very good — it’s not as good as others. If we’re going to have world-class ambition, we need world-class infrastructure to support that. These are the types of conversations we’re going to have [at Matfen Hall].
"We’re considering what to do with our stadium, whether that’s a significant renovation or a brand-new stadium."
Eddie Howe asked for insight
Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe was part of the summit at Matfen Hall, where he presented and discussed the current season with the club’s hierarchy and a PIF delegation, including chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
But Howe claimed that he was not privy to any conversations regarding the training ground and stadium, while recognising the importance for progress on both.
“It's hugely important,” Howe admitted. “I can assure you that everyone at the football club knows that and respects that from top to bottom.
“Thankfully for me, having to answer that question, I wasn't involved in those discussions, so I can't give you anything.”
Howe later added: “While the PIF are majority owners, that [ambition to be number one] will change. They're very ambitious for the football club.
“But a lot of the things that, of course, they need to do to elevate the club to that position take a bit of time. And then we're going back to the stadium, the training ground, they're longer term plans.
“These things don't happen with a click of the fingers because everything, of course, is interlinked to our income. So as much as everyone wants to fast forward that, sometimes these things to get it right do take a bit of time.
“I'm invigorated. My motivation levels are really high. I think you learn a lot from these moments that we're in. I'm learning a lot currently because the difficult runs force you to really, really evaluate everything and improve. Sometimes in the most disappointing moments are the times when you improve the most.”
Newcastle backed up the Matfen Hall meeting with a 3-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion at St James’ Park on Saturday, ending a five game losing run.