{"id":168360,"date":"2025-09-25T15:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168360\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:14:07","slug":"newcastles-red-bull-rebrand-brings-fresh-energy-to-rugbys-troubled-outpost-newcastle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168360\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle\u2019s Red Bull rebrand brings fresh energy to rugby\u2019s troubled outpost | Newcastle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t mention the F-word. Such has been the pace of the Red Bull rebrand that one Newcastle<\/a> official joked there would be spot fines for anyone who forgets it is no longer the Falcons giving them flight.<\/p>\n

Energy drinks are in, feathered friends out, but the feelgood factor now coursing through the north-east<\/a> promises more than just a dopamine hit. For both the club, who just a few months ago were exploring a loan from their league rivals to stay afloat, and the revamped Prem, there is a feeling that the Red Bull revolution can be seminal.<\/p>\n

Newcastle have finished bottom of the table for the past three seasons. In the 2023-24 campaign they lost all 18 matches. They have been operating on a shoestring budget and seen a raft of promising homegrown youngsters seek greener pastures elsewhere. But Newcastle have now come full circle, harking back to the Sir John Hall era when they could spend like no one else and won the Premiership title in 1998.<\/p>\n

The takeover has, among many things, allowed Steve Diamond to go shopping this summer. Such is the nature of rugby\u2019s transfer market that, at such short notice, he has been unable to secure an A-lister, a marquee star to put up in lights at Kingston Park. No equivalent to Robinho\u2019s arrival at Manchester City when Abu Dhabi investment arrived in 2008. But make no mistake, this season will be different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason we\u2019ve recruited the way we have, to be brutally honest, there were no world-class players available in July,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cOur recruitment drive moving forward will be different. What we\u2019ve got to do is get the building blocks in place and then we can get a team together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Diamond has used his extensive contacts book to forge a squad that will be considerably more competitive than in recent seasons. Liam Williams is the latest eye-catching arrival, joining Christian Wade as one elder statesman in the back division while 35-year-old Amanaki Mafi will bring some nous to the back-row. Tom Christie and Fergus Lee-Warner are equally shrewd additions, as is the returning hooker George McGuigan, who captains the side against Saracens on Friday night.<\/p>\n

A feelgood factor is coursing through Newcastle after the takeover. Photograph: Richard Lee\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get to November time, that second block of league games, and we\u2019ll be highly competitive,\u201d adds Diamond. \u201cIt might take a little time to gel, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll win the Prem this year but we\u2019ll be competitive and we\u2019ll be up there with the best, behind the scenes, getting our infrastructure right, academy, community departments, all that sort of stuff which is really important. But It would be great for [supporters] to get carried away because they\u2019ve had nothing to jump for for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than those coming through the revolving door, however, more than the ubiquitous branding at Kingston Park, Red Bull\u2019s investment has brought a degree of security to Newcastle that has been absent in recent years. \u201cThe main thing that has changed is intangible really, it\u2019s belief,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cIt\u2019s just people coming to work knowing that there is some security and the days of wondering what is going to happen have gone. The mental state of people is massive, people have mortgages and kids and now they can come and concentrate on their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this stage it does not feel an unfair question to ask, why Newcastle? Why did Red Bull see the worst-performing club in the league as the best to invest in? Put simply, they were for sale, at a reasonable price but more than that, the opportunity for growth in such a big catchment area is significant.<\/p>\n

Newcastle\u2019s takeover has provided much-needed security. Photograph: Nigel Roddis\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Newcastle is a sports-mad city and as Diamond points out, they have already sold more season tickets than in each of the past 20 years. The Premiership chief executive, Simon Massie-Taylor, is said to have played a key role in negotiations, having worked with Red Bull during his time at the Rugby Football Union and he simply could not countenance another club going to the wall after losing Worcester, Wasps and London Irish in recent years. It is a feather in the cap too that, as revealed by the Guardian, Red Bull declined the opportunity to invest in R360<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With such a period of turbulence so close in the rearview mirror, however, it is unsurprising that Red Bull\u2019s investment has been welcomed throughout the league. \u201cAny worldwide, well-known company that chooses to invest in the Prem has got to be welcome, because it opens the door for any other club,\u201d said Exeter\u2019s Rob Baxter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe ourselves would welcome an investor or partner in the club of certain standing so it\u2019s one of those things that makes it very exciting, that there are big companies, there is big investment available for what is hopefully a growing commercial league in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sale\u2019s Alex Sanderson, who has come to relish the role of ambassador for rugby union in the north of England, was equally optimistic. He said: \u201cAny competition, good competition, is a gift. Up north as well, it\u2019ll make that local derby a lot more intense. It\u2019s already really physical. It has been down to [Sale owners] Simon and Michelle [Orange] and Ged [Mason] to fund rugby in the north but now there\u2019s someone else to help them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcastle have finished bottom of the table for the last three seasons. Photograph: Nigel Roddis\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Massie-Taylor has pointed out that whereas Red Bull is unique as a brand with a pre-existing wide sporting portfolio, the next step is to attract financial investors into the sport. Still, Red Bull aligns with the Prem\u2019s goal to modernise<\/a>, to showcase the extreme physicality within the sport and to appeal to a younger generation.<\/p>\n

The early signs are good in that sense with Newcastle targeting university freshers for Friday night\u2019s match against Saracens while the league\u2019s broadcaster, TNT Sports, sees the potential for other companies to follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all seen the type of work that Red Bull does around the world,\u201d said Scott Young, executive vice-president of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, TNT\u2019s parent company. \u201cTheir connection with sport is very genuine and they are a very active partner when they get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is great for everybody is they have looked at the Prem, at Newcastle, and thought that is aligned to our brand and think they can be part of the megaphone that gets Newcastle\u2019s story out. I don\u2019t think it should be lost that the fact that someone like Red Bull had a look at the Prem and one of the teams and thought: \u2018That\u2019s for us\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t mention the F-word. Such has been the pace of the Red Bull rebrand that one Newcastle official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-168360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}