NEWCASTLE UNITED have confirmed plans to construct a new club store beneath the Gallowgate End at St James’ Park as part of their upcoming partnership with Adidas.
The Magpies are switching sportswear partner from Castore to Adidas this summer, with the new deal set to herald a wide-ranging overhaul of the club’s retail operation.
A new online retail platform - shop.newcastleunited.com –will go live on May 29, supporting the sale of official merchandise to supporters worldwide.
And when the current agreement between Castore and the Magpies ends later this month, the current stadium store beneath the Gallowgate End will undergo a significant refit. In its place, a new retail experience will open later this summer as part of the partnership with Adidas.
To cover the gap between the existing club shop closing and the new-look flagship store opening later this summer, Newcastle are erecting a temporary store in front of St James’ Park that will serve fans in the early part of the summer.
The first of five modular ‘Rapid Retail’ units arrived at St. James’ today, with the temporary store set to be located between The Strawberry pub and the St. James’ STACK presented by Sela.
It will be operated by Newcastle’s new in-house retail team, and is due to open on May 29 to coincide with the closure of the existing stadium store and ensure it is fully operational ahead of the England men’s and women’s international matches that will be staged at St James’ in the following week. The temporary store will be removed when the newly-refurbished club store reopens later this summer.
“We are hugely excited about engaging with supporters directly through our new in-house retail operations,” said Newcastle’s chief commercial officer Pete Silverstone. “We have big plans for our retail business, and the first step on the journey is to launch a new digital retail platform while completely revitalising how we meet supporters’ needs in our physical stores.
“The temporary store at Strawberry Place will enable us to close the existing retail outlet at St James’ Park and put significant investment into the site. The result will be the launch of a world-class retail experience at a flagship stadium store, filled with new kit and merchandise that we anticipate will be hugely popular.
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“We are building a passionate local team to drive this new retail operation, helping us to deliver on the huge demand for Newcastle United products through best-in-class service.
“We recognise it will take time to get our service to the perfect levels we strive for, and we thank supporters for their patience as we go through this important transitionary period over the summer months.”
The temporary club store will initially sell a new range of Newcastle-branded merchandise from May 29, before the launch of new Adidas products begins with the launch of the new 2024-25 from June 7.
The major overhaul of Newcastle’s retail operation is part of a drive to increase revenue levels that stagnated during Mike Ashley’s ownership of the club. Newcastle fell from having the 14th highest income in world football in 2007 to the 29th highest in 2021.
While the club’s most recent accounts revealed a 65 per cent upturn in commercial revenue to £47m, that figure is still dwarved by the commercial income of the established ‘big six’.
Manchester City’s annual commercial income in their most recent accounts stood at £341m, with Manchester United’s annual figure just a shade lower at £303m. Liverpool (£247m), Tottenham (£183m) and Arsenal (£142m) all boasted significantly higher commercial revenue figures than Newcastle.
The disparity places major limits on Newcastle’s ability to invest in the playing squad because of the restrictions imposed by the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability regulations. While the league is expected to tweak its P&S rules this summer, growing commercial revenue figures will still have to be a major part of Newcastle’s growth strategy over the next few years.
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