Newcastle United submit St James' Park proposal as £40m agreement made official

Newcastle United's St James' Park club store will be given a full refurbishment by Adidas this summer.

In September last year, it was announced Adidas were returning as the club's official kit partner from the 2024-25 season after agreeing a "multi-year deal", believed to be £40million.

As well manufacturer the club's kits, the Adidas agreement will see Newcastle rebuild its own retail operations both in store and online, locally and globally.

The retail operation is currently under the full control of Castore as part of the deal former owner Mike Ashley signed off in 2021. In order to bring Adidas back, Newcastle have negotiated an early exit.

As a result, the existing Castore-operated club store in the Gallowgate Stand at St James' Park will be "comprehensively refurbished" between May and June this year.

And in order to protect jobs and continue the club's retail operations, Newcastle have submitted a planning permission request for the erection of a temporary retail structure on the St James' Metro Car Park.

The site is currently not in use and sits adjacent to the existing club shop at St James' Park and the Strawberry Pub. The temporary site will consist of prefabricated containers that will be able to be re-used for other purposes.

Construction work is already taking place at St James' Park with the new fan zone - St James' Park STACK - expected to open in June.

"We're full steam ahead on [the fan zone]," said Newcastle CEO Darren Eales. Our plan is to get it open for that spring, summer time and we're looking to try and get it open for the end of the season, certainly by the start of next season to have that fully open.

"To be clear it's not just on matchday, St James' Stack will be open seven days a week and we're excited because it gives us more of that footprint. It goes back to our fan base and we've got this amazing fan base which is twice the size of St James' Park.

"The ability for us to have a footprint with St James' Stack to do events there and make fans feel connected without a season ticket is part of how we're thinking about our ability to grow the club and make our supporters feel more connected. It's not just on a match day, it's about what else we can do around the club 365 days a year."

Both the club store and fan zone will help Newcastle significantly as they comply with Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules.