Newcastle United have appointed Jonathan Kane as the club’s new director of partnerships and ChronicleLive has taken a look at what the former Liverpool man will bring

There is quiet excitement behind the scenes at Newcastle United about a summer addition who will never kick a ball for the club: Jonathan Kane. The new arrival from Liverpool may well be the first ever director of partnerships to be unveiled with a club statement and photoshoot.

Yet that tells you just how important this role is. Kane will work closely with Peter Silverstone, Newcastle’s chief commercial officer, to drive growth and direct the search for future global partners as the Magpies attempt to boost revenues and increase spending power in the transfer market.

 

Kane already has more than 15 years’ experience of doing just that at Liverpool as Ian Ayre, the club’s former CEO, knows only too well. It was Ayre who hired Kane at Liverpool, in 2007, and the 60-year-old also even provided a reference when his one-time colleague went for the job at Newcastle.

“In these sorts of roles, you always get a lot of people who have a great CV,” Ayre told ChronicleLive. “The difference with Jonathan was he was a guy who didn’t just talk about getting deals. He got deals done.”

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While it is important to stress Liverpool have a huge commercial team – the Reds even have an additional office in London – Kane was at the ‘tip of the sphere’ in the words of Ayre as the club’s vice-president of partnership sales. That is the expertise Kane will bring to Newcastle at a time when the black-and-whites have work to do to bridge the gap off the field after leapfrogging Jurgen Klopp’s side on it last season. In fact, following years of neglect in the Ashley era, the 65 or so employees Newcastle have in their commercial department is a mere fraction of the workforce Liverpool possess – and that’s with the hires made since the takeover in October, 2021

 

The chasm between the two clubs off the field is also apparent in the balance sheet; Liverpool posted commercial revenues of £247m earlier this year, which was more than Newcastle’s overall turnover (£180m) in the club’s most recent set of accounts. Liverpool also announced eight new sponsorship deals in that time as well as record-breaking Nike kit sales. However, the growth potential of Newcastle is obvious at a time when the club have experienced a surge in viewership figures in both the UK and internationally. In fact, no other Premier League side had more games selected for broadcast than Newcastle in the first round of TV picks this season.

It is rather telling, then, that Kane was prepared to leave behind Liverpool’s commercial powerhouse to return to his native North East and help build a new one. Ayre, for one, certainly detected the ‘excitement in his voice’ when they last spoke.

 

“Newcastle have lots of fans but their ambition has to be to grow that globally in terms of fans, partners and revenue,” he said.

“Nobody knows how to open those doors both domestically and internationally better than Jonathan in this space. When it comes to finding good partnerships, engaging people and generating revenue, he’s one of the best there is.”

That is what Kane did at Liverpool from the get-go. Liverpool, like Newcastle with St James’ Park, knew that Anfield was always going to sell out so generating new revenue further afield was Kane’s core role.

Liverpool had a huge fanbase of hundreds of millions of fans and would regularly pack out stadiums on pre-season tours across the globe, but Kane helped the club truly capitalise on its reach in these far-flung destinations by engaging overseas supporters. Data would be gathered that showed Liverpool’s presence in these territories, and sponsors and partners would be brought on board as a result of that.

It was Kane, for instance, who cultivated a relationship with EA Sports in a club partnership that was ahead of its time in opening up a new market when it was first announced in 2019. EA Sports are still one of Liverpool’s official partners alongside recognisable brands such as Carlsberg, Nivea, Coca-Cola and Cadbury and principal partners AXA and Expedia.

It is one thing securing these deals, but Kane also ensured partners stayed on board, according to Luisa d’Aprano, who was the vice-president of partnership delivery at Liverpool.

“In terms of the relationship that he developed with his prospects and the partners he closed, he had really strong links with them when it came to them trusting him and believing in him,” she told ChronicleLive. “The way he did things differently was very much about the relationship as opposed to the commercial transaction. I looked after the partnerships once they were on board but, even then, he was very integral and part of that relationship.”