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Exactly how much cash PIF have to spend revealed as £1bn-plus Newcastle United decision imminent

Adam Williams

Thu 6 February 2025 16:45, UK Updated Thu 6 February 2025 17:02, UK

Newcastle United fans who just witnessed their club emasculate Arsenal at a rocking St James’ Park must wonder how good the financial return needs to be to justify knocking it down and starting again.

Eddie Howe’s 2-0 League Cup semi-final second-leg win over Arsenal was the 52,350-seater stadium at its thunderous, ear-splitting best.

It was a reminder that as much as the data wonks want to quantify, catalogue and demystify football’s every minutiae, even the world’s richest and best can be brought to the sword – or ‘humbled’, even – when the decibels reach critical mass.

Conversely, Newcastle are at the mercy of a clinical system of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) which, whether by accident or design, mean sovereign wealth and the country’s best fans only get you so far.

October will mark four years since the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) finalised the most controversial takeover in football history, with their consortium paying £305m to prise Newcastle from Mike Ashley.

Many assumed that their petrodollars would bring glory to St James’ Park more or less overnight but, although Eddie Howe has them punching well above their weight class, PSR has anchored PIF’s ambitions.

PIF were under no illusions of the difficulty of climbing the Premier League’s greasy pole. It’s why, since day one, the Saudis have talked about expanding St James’ Park or relocating to a new stadium entirely.

Football finance experts have evangelised about the benefits of a building new stadium – and rightly so. The cement would barely have dried in NE1 before Newcastle’s bottom line would be transformed.

St James’ Park is the club’s spiritual home but, as an asset, it is a relatively inefficient driver of revenue.

For context, Chelsea earned twice as much matchday income as Newcastle over the last published financial year despite Stamford Bridge seating 12,000 fewer fans than St James’ Park

News this week suggests that Newcastle are gravitating towards a brand new stadium with a capacity of close to 70,000 overlapping the existing site next to Leazes Park at a cost of £1.2bn.

That would be quantum leap forward in terms of revenue. Tottenham, for example, have tripled both their matchday income and commercial income since they moved to their new stadium in 2019.

Exactly how PIF would finance the St James’ Park 2.0 project is not yet known, with reliable outlets quoting some internal sources as saying the owners would not invest the funds necessary.

• READ MORE: Official paperwork exposes £820m PIF deal as Newcastle United owners helping Man City and Chelsea out

PIF sitting on £23bn cash reserves ahead of St James’ Park rebuild

If the Saudi Public Investment Fund doesn’t directly finance a new 70,000-capacity stadium, it won’t be because they lack the resources.

The sovereign wealth titan controls around £750bn worth of assets globally and, as evidenced by official documentation published as recently as December last year, has excellent liquidity too.

Premier League owners by net worth

One credit report from reveals that PIF have about £23bn in cash or cash equivalents at hand, as well as a £12bn undrawn credit facility and substantial year-round dividend and interest income.

Given that infrastructure spending is exempt from PSR during the construction phase, any cash that goes towards the stadium before it opens its doors would not eat into Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell’s budget.

Exactly how much the stadium debt would eat into the additional revenue it generates would depend on the funding structure that PIF choose to purse.

Their massive liquidity is likely committed towards other projects at present and PIF would more likely use a form of Shariah-compliant third-party finance such as Murabaha to fund St James’ Park’s expansion.

• READ MORE: £76m bonanza may be just the start for Newcastle as PIF potentially days away from game-changing moment

How much could Newcastle United earn at 70,000-capacity stadium?

According to the Football Money League published by Deloitte, who have access to financial data not yet publicly available, Newcastle earned £58m through the turnstiles in 2023-24.

Even with Champions League income that season taken into account, that is an astonishing leap forward from the £38m they made in matchday income the previous season.

Assuming full capacity, that means Newcastle generate £1,108 per seat, per season at St James’ Park.

A crude pro-rata calculation based on that figure shows that the Magpies could earn at least £77.5m in matchday income at a 70,000-seat stadium.

In reality, however, the final figure could be far higher.

With such a substantial capacity increase, there would be significant space given over to the lucrative corporate hospitality sector, which some clubs earn as much from as they do through regular ticketing.

Modern stadium design’s emphasis in keeping supporters in the venue for longer, emptying their wallets through entertainment, refreshments and tech, will also be enormously lucrative.

The commercial benefits of moving into a shiny new stadium with all the brand exposure that generates for sponsors means Newcastle can expect to cash in on that front too. naming rights could also be an option.

It is not inconceivable that the North East club could surpass the £100m mark in extra revenue almost immediately after the stadium opens, with additional and exponential commercial benefits down the line.

In raw matchday income terms, that would see Newcastle enter the same peer group as Man United, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool.