NEWCASTLE UNITED’S owners are considering selling the naming rights for St James’ Park – but unlike under Mike Ashley, any change will not be rushed through without a consultation process involving the club’s supporters.

With the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability regulations limiting the amount of money Newcastle can spend in each transfer window, the club are actively examining a number of different ways in which they can increase revenue levels that flatlined during Ashley’s period in charge.

Selling stadium naming rights has proved a lucrative income stream for a number of Premier League clubs – Arsenal play at the Emirates Stadium, while Manchester City are based at the Etihad – but it is a controversial issue on Tyneside because of the way in which Ashley renamed St James’ as the Sports Direct Arena, only to eventually have to backtrack in the face of sustained supporter opposition.

Newcastle’s recently-appointed chief executive officer, Darren Eales, has been charged with the task of growing the club’s commercial income streams, and admits selling the naming rights for St James’ is being considered. However, he is adamant a deal will only be brokered if there is sufficient support amongst the fanbase.

“As we think about our opportunities to work with partners, we have to do that through the lens of the supporters by engaging and communicating with them,” said Eales, who worked in senior positions at Tottenham and Atlanta United before taking up his current role on Tyneside. “Clearly, there’s a history (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, but we would talk and have a dialogue around the 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. Then, it’s about, ‘Okay, this is something we think can help the club, and if there is a general consensus, that’s a path to go down’.

“But if 99.9 per cent don’t want to do it, then it’d be crazy to do it because it would be a bad decision because it’s not going to add any value to the brand either. My approach on something like this, and we’ll see it as we develop, is not to come in and think I’ve got all the ideas.

“The goal is out there on the pitch, and everything ties back to that. We’ve got to explain that, have that dialogue, and I think if if everyone appreciates that’s where we’re going to get to, then you’ll usually find consensus because that’s what we all want.”