
Don’t mention the F-word. Such has been the pace of the Red Bull rebrand that one Newcastle official joked there would be spot fines for anyone who forgets it is no longer the Falcons giving them flight.
Energy drinks are in, feathered friends out, but the feelgood factor now coursing through the north-east promises more than just a dopamine hit. For the club, who only 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.
“We’ll get to November time, that second block of league games, and we’ll be highly competitive,” Diamond says. “It might take a little time to gel, I don’t think we’ll win the Prem this year, but we’ll be competitive and we’ll 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’ve had nothing to jump for for a while.”
Newcastle is a sports-mad city and, as Diamond points out, they have sold more season tickets than in each of the past 20 years. The Prem 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 that Red Bull declined the opportunity to invest in R360.
With such a period of turbulence so close in the rearview mirror it is unsurprising that Red Bull’s investment has been welcomed throughout the league. “Any 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,” said Exeter’s Rob Baxter.
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’s goal to modernise, to showcase the extreme physicality within the sport and to appeal to a younger generation.
The early signs are good in that sense with Newcastle targeting university freshers for the match against Saracens while the league’s broadcaster, TNT Sports, sees the potential for other companies to follow suit.
“We have all seen the type of work Red Bull does around the world,” says Scott Young, executive vice-president of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, TNT’s parent company. “Their connection with sport is very genuine and they are a very active partner when they get involved.
“What 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’s story out.
“I don’t think it should be lost that someone like Red Bull had a look at the Prem and one of the teams and thought: ‘That’s for us’.”