While the stature of Newcastle on the pitch steadily improve, so does that of the club as a whole as the PIF have made several high-level appointments to the boardroom since taking over.
Keen to turn Newcastle into a financial powerhouse, the PIF are looking to bring in a Commercial Officer to oversee the delivery of key income opportunities.
It looks like they have found their man with the Shields Gazette reporting that the board will look to add Peter Silverstone to this position.
Silverstone has years of experience in the role having been responsible for the commercial development at Arsenal for seven years between 2015-2022.
Newcastle recently negotiated an early exit from their sponsorship deal with FUN88 and have yet to find a replacement shirt sponsor for next season. This would be something that Silverstone will be directly involved in along with Darren Eales, the new CEO.
The PIF recently said that they have invested over £2bn into their football partnerships via its portfolio so far in 2022, of which Newcastle will likely be the main beneficiary. Having already allowed a transfer spending spree of over £200m since they took the keys to St James’ Park, not to mention all the investments made behind the scenes such as improvements to the training ground.
This money needs to be recouped by the PIF in order for it to make sense, and commercial revenue is one area of the club that was left to rot under Mike Ashley. How Ashley could score such a massive own goal on this one is anyone’s guess, given that he’s supposed to be a savvy businessman.
Amanda Staveley, the Rueben Brothers and PIF will be seeking to put right what was once so wrong with the club, and the more money they can generate through commercial partnerships, the more will be pumped into the club and therefore the more we have to spend before FFP becomes a problem.
So far, PIF have yet to put a foot wrong and you have to imagine that’s because they’ve recruited the best people for their respective roles to guide them. Having the likes of Darren Eales and Dan Ashworth guiding their hand means they’re less likely to make blunders.
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