Newcastle United CCO Peter Silverstone has underlined the importance of the Magpies maintaining their tag of European competitors.
Despite slipping out of the top four and into the so-called lesser European competitions, both the Europa League and Europa Conference League are seen as moneyspinners for the club. A prize pot of around £20million is up for grabs in the Europa League and the Conference League yields around £13m, all of which can improve FFP hopes and enhance spending power on the pitch.
But that is without taking into account the cash on offer for gate receipts, Thursday night club shop visits, fan zone revenue and the overall prestige of a European place. Silverstone also pointed to the fact that both Chelsea and Man United head into the final straight just as eager to make what was once deemed something of a consolation prize after the Champions League.
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Silverstone told Chronicle Live: "From a commercial perspective, just keeping the club at that European level is really important. It makes a big difference in terms of marketing and sponsorship deals when you can keep talking about us as a European side.
"From a retail business perspective, the more matches you have in your stadium, the more people are coming there and the more opportunities they have to spend. You can launch new ranges around European matches.
"Our ambition remains to be in European football next season, but recognising that there’s many clubs that also have the same ambitions as that."
Newcastle will have to park their Champions League dreams for a season at least. But it's worth knowing that qualification for the Europa League not only offers another chance of a trophy, but also a place in the 2025/26 edition of the Champions League.
The CCO said: "There’s lots of different elements. It’s not just about the club, it’s about the city as a whole. We’ve had great feedback from the city from our recent pursuits in Europe, in the Champions League, bringing Paris, Dortmund and Milan here.
"It was great for the city and the tourism and trade in the area. Taking Newcastle fans outside of the city was probably even better for those cities that we visited because we had a great time."
This week the club started work fitting a temporary club shop on Strawberry Place with the Adidas stock set to arrive on June 7. When Adidas came on to the scene in 1995, Les Ferdinand was unveiled as the marquee signing that summer.
Silverstone can't quite promise a summer signing like that, but he admits that signing popular stars goes hand in hand with kit sales.
Silverstone said: "We’ve got top, top players at this football club, and that matters when you’re doing a deal like this. It goes hand in hand. If you take something like a kit deal, then we know that signings drive kit sales at times. That’s one part of it all.
"The product off the pitch – so the quality of the designs and the manufacturing – has to be right, and then on the pitch, the better things are going, the easier it is to generate growth. Obviously, we’re having an incredible season, and with three games to go, we’ve got a lot to play for. The team performing at the best level possible definitely makes a difference to every other aspect of the club."
