Newcastle United sell St James' Park as stadium uncertainty continues

Newcastle United's latest financial results show just how much ground they have to make up on some of their Premier League rivals.

The Magpies made a profit after tax of £34.7million in the 12 months to June 30, 2025, a season in which the club won the Carabao Cup to end their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy.

Turnover climbed to a record £335.3m - thanks in part to a 44 per cent increase in commercial revenue - but Newcastle's figure is less than half of some Premier League big-hitters, such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Newcastle United generate huge profit from St James' Park sale

Despite being owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) since October 2021, Newcastle have been unable to consistently force their way into the Premier League elite, in part due to profit and sustainability rules (PSR).

One debate over how to grow the club has centred around the stadium, and there has been plenty of speculation about whether they will expand St James' Park, an iconic venue that the Magpies have called home since 1892, or build a new ground elsewhere.

But the club have used the release of their accounts to reveal that they have sold the stadium to a subsidiary company, PZ Holdings Ltd, owned by Newcastle's shareholders.

The transaction took place on June 27 last year - three days before the end of the 2024/25 accounting period - and the total purchase price was £172.1m, generating £129m in profit for the club.

The deal, which involves the 72-year lease on St James' Park being leased back to the club, was valued at fair market rate by the Premier League and ensured Newcastle made an overall pre-tax profit.

In a briefing with reporters, Newcastle's chief financial officer Simon Capper explained the decision, but would not be drawn on whether it was made to get around profit and sustainability rules and avoid a points deduction.

He said: "The motivation was very much to reorganise our property assets and get them into the correct legal boxes to allow us to go forward with our potential development, either at St James' Park or for a new stadium, and to facilitate that with financing and other similar items. There may be more similar transactions to come in the future, depending on what we end up doing.

"But the profit calculation that had to be done is then a consequence of the detail of the accounting rules that the Premier League require us to follow in doing any transaction with a company that is associated with us. So it does create a very significant accounting profit because of that."

Despite the proceeds from the stadium sale, Capper confirmed it will not dramatically boost Newcastle's summer transfer plans, adding: "Because of the consequence of the profit calculated on the sale, it gives us a significant amount of PSR headroom.

"The ability to deploy that PSR headroom is very limited because we have to comply with UEFA rules and because the PSR regime is coming to an end, so that profit does not roll forward into squad cost. In a very narrow window, yes [it gives us more scope to spend on players], but we are very constrained in how we can use that."

According to the Daily Mail, the club say it is common practice to set up a subsidiary company to act as a means of holding funds for infrastructural work, for example renovating St James' Park or building a new stadium.

Newcastle chief executive David Hopkinson was asked to provide an update on the search for a new training ground and the stadium project, and said that while work was "ongoing daily" the club "were not in a position to announce today".

The Magpies are 12th in the Premier League and are next in Premier League action when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday, April 12.