Music from the STACK at Newcastle United fan even
Newcastle United's PSR profit machine is ticking along nicely going into the new year thanks to the Magpies' impressive new fan zone on Strawberry Place.
The family friendly STACK venue has been enjoying a roaring trade since opening in August for the Premier League's big kick off. And the signs for 2025 already look good after a blockbusting December period so far.
Newcastle's sporting director Paul Mitchell even quipped last month that buying midweek pints might help him fund a new centre-forward. He said then: "I am trying to work out if it is appropriate to come in (to the STACK) and have a few pints to support PSR for January. Is that one of my new roles? I'll put something on social media please free to join on a Tuesday afternoon."
But there is no doubt that the facility has been a major success for Newcastle and the introduction of an official fan zone is helping the club move forward. Inside the STACK facility fans can enjoy street food, coffees and a range of alcoholic drinks with the fan zone offering much more than just a match day service for hungry and thirsty supporters.
Across the festive month of December, the STACK will be open every day apart from Christmas Day and a ticket New Years Eve party is already a complete sell out at the 3,000 capacity venue with live music acts lined up for fans.
United's commercial chief Peter Silverstone has already underlined the importance of the PSR rule book. In short, Newcastle can only spend what they earn with a massive emphasis on the commercial side of the business.
Chronicle Live understands that the STACK had clocked up profits of around £400,000 in the week leading up to Christmas alone with numbers over £1.5million potentially going into the coffers this month. It is understood that Newcastle chiefs also expect to smash their record breaking match day total before the season is out.
It is believed that over £190,000 for the Arsenal game back in November was injected into club funds when fans packed out the STACK for the televised affair which was won by Alexander Isak's winner.
Silverstone, speaking at a fan event at the STACK recently, said: "The changes we have made require a lot of support and investment. I have had great support from my colleagues but ultimately the ownership group who believed in what we propose to do.
"Which is ultimately chase that relentless growth that we need to capture and hopefully surpass teams close to us. That is a lot of investment in people and the amount of people who are focused on driving commercial revenue has changed considerably.
"My role as chief commercial officer is to generate revenue. Revenue comes both locally and globally now.
"I am tasked with the venue team which maximises the revenue from the venue including STACK and the brand marketing digital media team which grows our brand presence and digital marketing abilities both here in Newcastle and globally. Our growth will come globally."
Newcastle fans warned about disruption for Man City trip
United take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on February 15 with the game kicking off at 3pm. Surprisingly, the game has not been picked for TV meaning no awkward evening start times.
But fans could face travel chaos for the fixture with Trans Pennine putting on a replacement bus service due to disruptions. And LNER are also using an alternative route meaning extended journey times that weekend.
Howe uses experience when asked about setting scoring targets
The head coach has made it clear that he won't be demanding double figures from Fabian Schar when it comes to goal targets. Schar helped himself to his fourth of the season against Brentford in the Carabao Cup this week.
But Howe will not be demanding anything too ambitious from the Swiss defender. He said on Friday: "I remember one season I scored five and the next season I set a target of ten and I got one! So maybe target setting isn’t the best the idea!
"I know that the centre-halves take that side of the game seriously and that Dan Burn, obviously a huge presence for us in both boxes, wants to score more.
"The centre-backs regularly work on different aspects of their game in terms of goalscoring because set-plays are so important and we’ve done well in that respect over recent weeks.
"But I don’t know whether focusing too much on that target is a wise thing, I think that it’s more the practice and repetition, getting that right, and then they will score more goals."