An interesting night took place on Thursday in Gosforth, as the Podcast All Stars hosted a fundraiser for the Alan Shearer foundation’s new Move a Mile campaign, with the great man himself taking centre stage.
With The Mag Podcast only two episodes deep (ears down for our number 3 on Tuesday!) we don’t quite qualify as superstars yet, but myself, Simon and Hutch were in attendance.
However, arguably the key contributor was the only man on the stage who didn’t feature on his own pod.
Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson has seen his stock fluctuate during this summer. When the new home shirt went on sale without a sponsor to a backdrop of departures and knock backs weakening the team, there was a swell of discontent that the club seemed to be going backwards at a worrying pace under his stewardship.
However, recent deals with Knox Hydrate and Sum Up to boost the club’s income across the board have been welcome alongside the big ticket item of the training ground being announced, while encouraging performances on the pitch and in the transfer market in recent weeks have lightened the mood considerably.
This maybe made it an altogether better environment for David Hopkinson to step into to address fans, but fair play to him for fronting up in a public forum regardless. Having acknowledged the tribulations of the last year (revealing Eddie Howe looked shattered from early on in 2026 and the appointment of Matthias Jaissle was telegraphed well in advance) the CEO went on to describe the remainder of the transfer window as “very fierce”, basically saying things will definitely happen in the week ahead. He revealed he was on an early flight out on Friday morning to an undisclosed destination but whether this was transfer-related or something related to developments in the growth of the club was left ambiguous.
Alan Shearer then asked the question many would have been thinking; does David Hopkinson regret his bold claim of 2030 being the target for success at Newcastle? His answer was an immediate and defiant “No”, clarifying that “I like the fact that there’s a target on my back and that Simon Jordan thinks I’m an idiot.” This tied in to a partial reveal, as he spoke of the club being in its new/revamped stadium in 5 years time, and that 2030 would see that development imminent. He was also quick to point out that he stated United would be competing for major prizes by then as opposed to dominant, so realistic challenges for the Premier League the assumed goal.
When audience questions pressed him on the stadium news, there were a couple of nuggets, with Hopkinson citing a 65,000 capacity as being ideal, relating back to his time at Real Madrid where the Bernabeu looked uninspiring when 20k below its capacity of 80+, and pointing out that a match like the WBA one earlier this week might create a similar effect. If I’d have got a question at this point I’d have asked if he’d be safeguarding this by making it easy enough to expand should these sums be wrong, but that will have to wait until he’s tempted onto The Mag Pod.
When going over the events of last season it was slightly surprising the candour with which the CEO said there were a couple of matches last season where the team “just didn’t show up” and there were some “wantaways”. I wonder how apparent these feelings were made and how much damage they did through the club during the tired campaign just gone.
Photo by Jamie Smith via The Mag
Shearer then brought up the comparison of LIV golf going under and asked if there were any concerns around NUFC. The response to this was excellent but also quite apparent to any media outlet making this comparison who has access to the smallest bit of research. Hopkinson confirmed that LIV golf was losing $100m per month whereas Newcastle has ballooned from a purchase price of £320m to being worth in excess of £2 billion. United is an asset that has value and couldn’t simply be abandoned as LIV golf was, where there was nothing in the way of assets to move on, they could just return it to the non-existence of a couple of years ago and the players all rejoin the PGA tour. He also confirmed that he speaks with the PIF every single day and said to expect a major investment this year. Whether this was referencing the considerable funding for the training ground or further commitments remains to be seen.
After the event one of the lads said he “felt like I’ve drunk the Kool Aid” as the way David Hopkinson speaks is quite uplifting and gets you onside, whereas there has been an element of the salesman in a businessman of such lofty experience where you had to wonder if some elements were being laid on thick to keep us happy. However, I was impressed with the way the man conducted himself and didn’t shy away from issues, with the delivery on the training ground a big enough win in itself to gain credit before you consider the other efforts impacting what is becoming a bit of a feelgood factor.
What I will take from this is that David Hopkinson clearly has a drive to keep his reputation intact by living up to that 2030 promise, and a track record that suggest he’s capable of delivering. As a great man once said, we should all be dreamers at heart, and 2030 isn’t that far away if you think about it.
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