Lot of work still to to be done at United

PETER Silverstone has admitted that Newcastle United have to work ‘hard’ to persuade potential commercial partners to come on board - even if there has been ‘increased interest’ in the club.

Newcastle’s commercial revenues rose by 66% to £43.9.m last season, but this figure is still a long way off the established order.

Manchester United, for instance, made £302.9m in the same period, which is more than Newcastle’s overall turnover, while the Red Devils have a whopping 28 global partners listed on their website.

Newcastle, in contrast, have started from a lower base following years of commercial stagnation in the Ashley era and the club have been building retail and licensing, e-commerce and partnership teams effectively from scratch.

Peter Silverstone

Silverstone inherited a workforce of just 40 people when he was appointed as chief commercial officer in 2022 and although this number swelled to around 65 employees at the start of the season, it is still a long way off the 150-200 staff members the Scot previously worked with at Arsenal.

Newcastle have nonetheless secured some noteworthy kit partners, including supplier Adidas, front of shirt sponsor Sela and sleeve sponsor Noon, while the club’s secondary partnerships have increased by more than 90% following deals struck with

Fenwick, BETMGM, Inpost and others.

However, Silverstone recognised the need to ‘grow this again year on year’ in a meeting with the fan advisory board at St James’ Park as Newcastle look to boost their spending power.

“We still have to work hard to persuade potential partners and there is a lot of ‘outbound’ activity to speak with brands, but clearly there has been increased interest in the last two years,” he said. “But we have a lot of work to do on secondary partnerships and growing globally is key.”

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