Falcons to be renamed to Newcastle Red Bulls as takeover nears

Times

2 days ago

Newcastle Falcons will be known as Newcastle Red Bulls next season as the energy drink giant closes in on its takeover of the struggling Gallagher Prem club and its Kingston Park stadium.
Players and staff at Newcastle have been informed that Red Bull has agreed terms with Semore Kurdi, the former chairman who has owned the club since 2011 and ploughed in about £25million. Representatives from Red Bull and Simon Massie-Taylor, the chief executive of Prem Rugby, attended an all-staff meeting at the club last week.
Red Bull is understood to have taken on Newcastle's debt, including a £14.5million Covid loan to the government, and made a commitment to invest in the club's stadium and other facilities. The RFU still has to rubber-stamp the deal, but Red Bull ownership is not expected to trigger any red flags during the so-called 'fit and proper person test' at Twickenham. If all goes to plan, the deal is expected to be finalised next week.
Newcastle will be joining a multi-dimensional sporting operation that runs two Formula 1 teams, a portfolio of football clubs and an ice hockey team, while sponsoring Leeds United and a MotoGP outfit. Red Bull also sponsors several extreme sports athletes and Ben Stokes, the England Test cricket captain.
Their presence in rugby has been limited thus far to a drinks partnership with the England team — struck in 2020 by Massie-Taylor when he was at the RFU — and individual sponsorship arrangements with Jack Nowell, Mack Hansen and Siya Kolisi.
Red Bull had been linked with buying a team in the proposed breakaway R360 franchise competition, but has instead backed Prem Rugby, an investment that will drive fresh confidence in the rebranded league after a tough period. It has transformed Newcastle overnight from the league's biggest headache club into its most exciting project.
Separately, Prem Rugby is understood to have received expressions of interest from investment firms looking to emulate CVC in buying a percentage of the league, which is owned privately by the ten competing clubs. Fresh investment would help the clubs clear the government loans.
The Times revealed last November that Newcastle had been put up for sale, with Kurdi no longer prepared to keep bankrolling the club. Newcastle had cut costs dramatically since Covid to avoid going bust, spending about half of the available salary cap on the team.
That led to a stream of their best players leaving and the team being unable to compete. In the 2023-24 season, Newcastle failed to win a single league game. Last season, they finished bottom again with more high-profile player departures, including Adam Radwan, Jamie Blamire and Callum Chick.
Kurdi was unable to attract investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which owns the city's football club. Newcastle United women play at Kingston Park, so they were also seen as potential buyers.
The Falcons had been in talks with Prem Rugby about the prospect of receiving a loan to ensure the club could meet financial commitments and operate in the league next season. Having already seen Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish go to the wall, Prem Rugby could not afford to lose another team.
Red Bull joined the conversation in April. Newcastle Falcons fit their model, as a club with potential that are in need of transformation. In 2004, Red Bull paid $1 to buy Jaguar Racing from Ford and the team is now a major player in Formula 1, winning eight drivers' championships and six constructors' titles. RB Leipzig have risen from the fifth tier of German football to be Champions League regulars.
Red Bull has made a commitment to invest in Newcastle's high-performance programme and its pathways in the North East of England. The club will benefit from its new owners' network of expertise, which includes Jürgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager who is Red Bull's new head of global soccer.
Newcastle's location as the only professional club in the northeast is attractive to Red Bull because of the large catchment area for players and supporters. The aim is to reverse the trend of top players wanting to leave the club and start to attract talent to Newcastle, as the club did when they won the league in 1998 with a team that included Rob Andrew, Jonny Wilkinson, Inga Tuigamala and Doddie Weir.
Any transformation will not happen overnight. Newcastle have a small and low-quality squad heading into the new season and the possibility of relegation still exists, which had been enough to put off other potential investors in the league.
Prem Rugby is working to separate itself from the rest of the English pyramid and operate as a franchise model, in the hope of attracting other Red Bull-style investors. New clubs could join the league if they have the right backing and infrastructure. That vision will be enhanced by Red Bull's involvement, but not accelerated. The decision sits with the RFU council, which is unlikely to approve Prem Rugby being cut off from the pyramid.
However, Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive, is working to push through governance change at Twickenham that would reduce the power of the council and put decisions like this one in the hands of executives.
R360 executives have been busy trying to sign players for the breakaway venture, including rugby league stars in New Zealand and Australia. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the cross-code international, is considering a £500,000-a-year switch.
Mike Tindall, the former England international and a co-founder of the venture, has been meeting agents during the British & Irish Lions tour. Senior England players are understood to have signed pre-contract agreements before a mooted launch next year.
Under existing rules, England players cannot be selected for their country unless they are playing in the Prem. Alan Gilpin, World Rugby's chief executive, said in Sydney this week that a new competition that led to players being barred from Test rugby would not work.