Newcastle fans will be consulted over St James’ Park naming rights, insists CEO

Newcastle’s new chief executive, Darren Eales, has promised that the club’s fans will be consulted regarding any potentially contentious commercial decisions including prospective naming rights for St James’ Park.

Financial fair play (FFP) restrictions dictate that Newcastle must box clever, despite the vast wealth of their Saudi Arabian majority owners, as Eales and his team endeavour to fuel their bid to break into the Premier League’s top six by raising off-field revenue streams. However he made it clear supporters’ feelings will not be trampled over.

“That would be bad business,” said the 50-year-old former chief executive of MLS side Atlanta United. “With the history of the club, something like stadium naming rights would be something where we’d be talking to the fans.

“Sometimes there’s a danger if you’re just chasing revenue; we want to have the best fan engagement. If we want to do anything with the stadium we’ll talk to the supporters. It would be crazy not to. It’s important that, anything we do, we bring our supporters along with us. Fan engagement is going to be front and centre.

“We want to be a top-six club consistently competing for trophies so it’s about how we get there but we also want to be sustainable.”

Eales – who said Newcastle would be “innovative” commercially and consider assorted ideas including sponsorship of the training ground – is pursuing deals with both Saudi companies and global concerns. Regulations mean the former need to be at “fair market value”.

“There are certain constraints within Premier League rules but I don’t think establishing fair market value is difficult,” he said. “We’re absolutely [looking at Saudi sponsors], it makes sense in the number of doors that can be opened, but