Newcastle want to be 'top club in world' by 2030

The year is 2030.

Newcastle United are "perennial contenders" competing for the biggest prizes in the game, and "in the debate about being the top club in the world".

This is the bold five-year vision of David Hopkinson, who was recently appointed as Newcastle's new chief executive.

"That kind of progress doesn't take as long as you might think," the Canadian said bullishly.

"First off, we need to be totally aligned about the fact that that's what we want to do.

"We have to have the courage to ignore those that doubt us, and even those that laugh at us. Because there will be some."

Such scepticism is not in question, at a time when Newcastle lie in 12th place in the Premier League table, but there is context to Hopkinson's way of thinking as he talks of "constructing an organisation whose sole purpose is to win".

Hopkinson previously spent the majority of his career at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, where he oversaw the commercial activities of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors were, as Hopkinson put it, "lost in the woods" in 2014 before going on to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship for the first time just five years later.

There may not be the play-offs to fall back on in the Premier League, like there are in basketball, but Hopkinson believes Newcastle are at the intersection of the "most transformational opportunity" in sport.

The 54-year-old has not shied away from a bold time-frame, as a result, even if this is obviously a very different ball game.

"If it's not time-bound, it's fantasy," he said.

Yet it is clear such a dramatic shift won't happen overnight - even if Hopkinson rates head coach Eddie Howe as a "special" manager.

Hopkinson has carried out an in-depth review since coming in back in September - submitting a transformation plan with closely-guarded milestones for each of the coming seasons to the club's owners - and he is the first to admit that there is "a lot of work to do".

Newcastle's revenues are set to increase to more than £400m, which represents a huge increase on the £140m figure posted in 2021

But they still have an almighty gap to bridge on, say, Manchester City, who generated £715m in income a couple of seasons ago.

This enabled Manchester City to spend nearly £200m more on wages than Newcastle within the financial regulations in 2023-24 and, historically, the clubs with the biggest salary bills tend to pick up the most points in the league.

Finding a way to turbocharge revenues will therefore be a key focus for Hopkinson, who also previously served as president of Madison Square Garden Sports and, perhaps, most relevantly, the head of global partnerships at Real Madrid.

Michael Sutherland, who worked alongside Hopkinson at Real Madrid, as the club's chief transformation officer, said the executive brought "a lot more structure and a more professional approach to the way sponsorships were managed".

"You could say, 'It's Real Madrid. It's the easiest role in the world because who doesn't want to sponsor the club?'" he said. "But it creates a different problem.

"You are basically selling the concept of being with the best club in the world so if Real Madrid don't have a good season, and don't win a championship, that heavily impacts your value proposition to sponsors.

"But one of the things that changed a lot was the sophistication of the types of partners we were able to offer and, particularly, the speed with which we were able to execute."

There are potential areas of uplift at Newcastle.

Though the number of employees has doubled to more than 550 staff members in recent years, Newcastle have gaps in key senior areas to fill.

The digital and data side of the club both need significant work, and are a long way behind their rivals.

Hopkinson has also cited "less obvious opportunities" with global partners, beyond companies linked to Newcastle's majority owners, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.

There had once been a tangible fear among top-flight executives that Newcastle could enter into especially lucrative sponsorship deals with Saudi Arabian firms through the PIF.

A senior figure elsewhere, who contacted the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others, even requested that notice be given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the takeover in 2021.

Associated party transaction (APT) rules were later voted through by the overwhelming majority of top-flight clubs to ensure deals were of fair market value.

This was always going to be a more gradual build, as a result, as football finance expert Kieran Maguire explained.

"Manchester City were able to get there earlier when there was no such thing as associated party transactions, when you didn't have to go through a constant series of hoops and constraints before being able to sign a sponsorship contract and they benefited from that," he said.

"It's that much more difficult now and, if you're a sponsor, who are you going to try and go for? You're going to go for those clubs who have got the big trophies to put alongside their product."

There are other ways to boost revenue streams in the long run, of course.

Not least match day income.

But there remains ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of St James' Park and Hopkinson recognised the club will be at the stadium in its current guise for "many years", regardless of whether the ground is renovated or a new one is built.

"We're modelling a multitude of different scenarios," he said. "But even if we were to make a decision tomorrow, which we're not going to do, it still takes years of permits, planning, finance, construction, etc. That's the case whatever we choose."

Clearly there are some big decisions to be made regarding infrastructure as a whole.

Sporting director Ross Wilson, who followed Hopkinson through the door, from Nottingham Forest, said work is ongoing to effectively double the footprint of the club's existing training base.

But the club recognise the limitations of the Benton site and are also planning a major investment to build a new state-of-the-art training ground elsewhere.

It neatly sums up the breathless challenge Newcastle face across the board to one day gatecrash the elite.

"A lot of the conversations we're having, other clubs are having as well," Wilson added. "We have got to keep raising our bar because everyone else is raising theirs at the same time."