The St James' Park upgrade Newcastle United 'must' complete this summer after £30m agreement

Everything is falling in place for Newcastle United ahead of the 2024-25 season - but there is still one big thing that needs to change at St James’ Park.

Newcastle have just started the biggest commercial deal in the club’s history with the partnership with Adidas officially underway. It’s a potentially transformative deal for the club worth upwards of £150million in total.

It will also see small but significant changes to St James’ Park with the Gallowgate-based club shop currently undergoing refurbishment and a temporary store set up across the road to allow the club to sell the new Adidas products in the meantime.

Inside St James’ Park will undergo slight changes too with the Castore logos on the top of the Gallowgate Stand taken down to be replaced by Adidas logos.

But turn your head 90 degrees to the left and there’s an equally pertinent change that is long overdue at St James’ Park.

To an untrained eye, the Newcastle United lettering on the East Stand looks perfectly fine. Some may simply not care. But if you know, you know.

Back in 2011, the old ‘Newcastle United’ lettering on the East Stand was changed to match the Sports Direct italic typeface that would later be crudely emblazoned across St James’ Park. While the Sports Direct signage has since been taken down, a lingering reminder of the Ashley regime remains.

Before former owner Mike Ashley became determined to make St James’ Park Sports Direct’s own personal billboard, the Newcastle United lettering on the East Stand was simple, effective and in no dire need of an update.

The current Sports Direct typeface has been on borrowed time since October 7, 2021. The club’s current owners have done so much to rid themselves of the previous regime - even going as far as agreeing an exclusive partnership with Sports Direct’s rivals JD to prevent Ashley’s company from selling 2024-25 Newcastle shirts this season.

Regaining control of the club’s retail alongside the Adidas deal was another big step forward. It may seem petty to change the lettering - but if you want to sever all ties to Mike Ashley and Sports Direct, you have to do it right.

And doing it right means Newcastle United should no longer be broadcast to the world in a Sports Direct typeface.

It’s something the club’s hierarchy previously weren’t aware of despite taking down all obvious Sports Direct hoardings inside St James’ Park. If you weren’t aware of it before, you will be now - sorry about that.

Newcastle chief executive officer Darren Eales even previously admitted: “[The East Stand lettering] is something that never had come to my attention before, and obviously that’s something that we’ll be looking at as we get feedback from supporters.”

Simple yet effective changes have taken place at St James’ Park in recent years. Moving Alan Shearer’s statue, adding some colour to the concourses and having Nine Bar return to Shearer’s Bar have been easy PR wins for the club.

The Adidas deal has been the best commercial move made by the club so far, and getting rid of that Sports Direct lettering on the East Stand would be the final flourish.