Latest news with #SteveDiamond
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Stevenson leaves Newcastle for French club Vannes
Ben Stevenson has become the latest player to leave Newcastle Falcons after agreeing a move to RC Vannes in winger has signed a two-year deal with the Breton club, who have just been relegated from the Top Stevenson, 26, made 98 appearances for Newcastle after coming through the ranks and making his debut in season, he scored 10 tries in 23 games for the Falcons despite them finishing bottom of the Premiership."Ben has been a great servant to Newcastle but has taken up an opportunity to go and play in France," said consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond, external. "We wish him all the best for his move, and thank him for his contribution during his time with us." Since the start of 2025, Newcastle have lost Adam Radwan (Leicester Tigers), Max Pepper (Bristol Bears), Ben Redshaw (Gloucester) and captain Callum Chick (Northampton Saints).They finished bottom for a third successive season, but owner Semore Kurdi is actively looking for fresh investment into the Kingston Park club.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Red Bull agree deal to buy Newcastle Falcons and keep Premiership club afloat
Red Bull has agreed a deal to buy Newcastle Falcons which includes a commitment to keep the club in the city and will ensure the Premiership remains a 10-team competition next season. Newcastle have been for sale for over a year, with owner Semore Kurdi no longer willing to fund multimillion-pound annual losses, leading to fears they could become the fourth Premiership club to go bust in the last two years after Wasps, Worcester and London Irish. Such has been the concern for Newcastle's future that the other Premiership clubs agreed in principle to provide a £4m loan to enable them to take part in the competition next season, with a nine-team top-flight not thought to be commercially viable. Red Bull is understood to have reach an agreement to take over the cash-strapped club however, and take on their £39m debts. These include £14.5m in unpaid treasury loans taken out during the Covid-19 pandemic. During negotiations with the Austrian energy drinks company the prospect of moving the club to the 26,000-capacity Darlington Arena 40 miles away was discussed, but the Guardian has been told that Red Bull's takeover plan involves Newcastle staying at Kingston Park, which has been their home for the past 35 years. Red Bull's decision to stay in Newcastle is likely to be popular with the club's longsuffering fans, who did not see them win a single match last season and only two this as Steve Diamond's side finished bottom of the Premiership on both occasions. The company's vision for the club is understood to be based on using their brands and marketing expertise to gain support from younger people in the city, with several campaigns planned to appeal to Newcastle's student population. Given the company's footballing connections Red Bull is also expected to seek a close working relationship with Newcastle United. The club's outgoing sporting director Paul Mitchell previously worked at RB Leipzig. Newcastle will be Red Bull's first rugby purchase, but the club aligns with it's purchase model of snapping up underperforming sports teams with a business plan of transforming them into global brands. The company paid Ford just $1 to buy the failing Formula One team, Jaguar Racing, in 2004 and have successfully transformed them into giants of the sport, with Red Bull Racing winning eight world drivers' championships and six constructors' titles in the last 15 years. In addition to football clubs, RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg and the New York Red Bulls, they also own 9.9% of Leeds United and are heavily involved in motor sport and winter sports. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion Attracting a new owner such as Red Bull is also a coup for Premiership Rugby, who are seeing much-needed signs of growth for the sport. Viewing figures for Premiership matches on TNT Sport are up 10% on last season before Saturday's final between Bath and Leicester, with the increase 47% when the game directly follows a Premier League match. In another significant boost TNT Sport last month agreed a new five-year deal giving it exclusive live rights for every Premiership match until 2031. Red Bull and Newcastle declined to comment on the deal.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Diamond hails 'remarkable' resilience at Newcastle
Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond is full of praise for his "remarkable" squad despite their position at the bottom of the Falcons have won only two of their 16 league games and are set to finish last for a third straight the club is operating below the salary cap and desperate for new investment as owner Semore Kurdi tries to is against this backdrop that Diamond believes his squad deserves real credit."They are a remarkable group of men," he said. "Sometimes they are not the best rugby players, but to a man, there is not a whinger in it. Not one person."Morale is remarkably good for the unremarkable season we've had." Friday's game against Gloucester marks the final one at Kingston Park for captain Callum Chick and hooker Jamie Blamire, two Newcastle stalwarts, who are heading to Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers respectively next continues a talent drain of homegrown players from the club, which included Adam Radwan's move to the Tigers in mid-season, which Diamond said were all in the best interests of those individuals, given the current have shipped 130 points in losing their two most recent games away to Bath and Saracens as the gulf between them and the Premiership's best sides has been before that they were on the wrong end of close games with Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints. "We should have won at Exeter," said Diamond. "We should have won against Northampton. End of story. "That would have put a completely different slant on our season. It would have been four wins with Gloucester at home to come." The ex-Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors boss knows his squad is not the most talented in the Premiership, but he said that the shrinkage from 13 to 10 clubs in the league has left them more isolated at the should have been a relegation play-off at the end of this campaign but Championship leaders Ealing Trailfinders do not meet the criteria for promotion, meaning Newcastle's status quo remains. "What's happened because we've gone from 13 teams to 10, we are the only whipping boys in the league," he said. "There used to be three sides who were like that, so you could always pick up five, six, seven wins. Now there is only us who sides would have down to beat on paper, home and away. "When did that last happen to Newcastle, when teams were afraid of coming up here? That is what we need to change moving forward."
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Great time to invest in rugby - Newcastle's Diamond
Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond said the the climate has improved for investment in club rugby.A new five-year TV deal has been signed to broadcast Premiership matches until the end of the 2030-31 Bristol Bears and Harlequins took league matches to the Principality Stadium and Allianz Stadium on Saturday leading to healthy attendances and potential new audiences."It is obviously a good time for businesses to invest in the league," Diamond said. "There were two games with 100,000 people watching club rugby, they've just done a new TV deal, so I think it's about time big organisations and investors looked at rugby." Newcastle, who prop up the Premiership with two wins from 16 league games, have been looking for new investment since November with owner Semore Kurdi wanting article linked, external the north-east club with interest from energy drink giant Red Bull, the company which has a strong sports portfolio in football and Formula 1 amongst others said he has heard nothing about this, but he is more optimistic about the also cited the report , externalwhich showed that a more youthful audience was being attracted to Premiership rugby as another way of bringing in much-needed new money. "I have nothing to say about Red Bull," Diamond added."But big multi-national companies would look to invest in what they see is a growing sport. "We've got 15 British and Irish Lions coming out of the Premiership. The league is looking good, we just need the right sort of investors."One of the interesting stats for me that came out was an increase in people between 18 to 34 watching rugby. "I'm pretty sure for a company like Red Bull or something similar, that is the demographic they are targeting."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sarries crush Falcons to boost play-off chances
Gallagher Premiership Saracens (33) 75 Tries: Gonzalez (3), Dan, Earl (2), Van Zyl, Itoje, George, Bracken, Willis Cons: Burke (7), Johnson (3) Newcastle (14) 28 Tries: Stuart (2), Lockwood, Stevenson Cons: Connon (4) Saracens boosted their hopes of reaching the Premiership play-offs with a thumping 75-28 win over bottom-of-the-table Newcastle at StoneX Stadium. Regularly overpowering the visitors in the first half, the home side established a comfortable cushion, scoring tries through Juan Martin Gonzalez, Theo Dan, Ben Earl, Ivan Van Zyl and Maro Itoje. Newcastle struck back with scores from Sam Stuart and Freddie Lockwood, but further efforts from Gonzalez, Jamie George, Charlie Bracken and Tom Willis put the game beyond Steve Diamond's side. The result leaves Mark McCall's men fifth in the table with two games to go, while the Falcons remain rooted to the bottom. The home side had the better of the early exchanges and it did not take them long to get on the scoreboard. Van Zyl drove up to within inches of the line from a quick-tap penalty, before Gonzalez forced his way over for the first score of the afternoon. Minutes later, Saracens were in again. Theo Dan emerging from the bottom of the pile following a five-metre line-out drive that was helped over the whitewash by the arrival of various Saracens backs. Stung by those early concessions, Newcastle quickly halved the deficit. Alex Hearle stole through a gaping hole in the home side's defence before feeding Stuart, who fought off the attempted tackle of Tobias Elliott to slide over the line. But whatever hopes the visitors' had were soon dashed, as newly announced Lion Earl ran through two Falcons defenders off the back of a scrum for Saracens' third. Having been so close to scoring earlier on, Van Zyl then got the try he deserved. Following a flowing set-piece move initiated from the Saracens half, neat interplay between Nick Tompkins, Alex Goode and Elliott put the scrum-half through to dot down in the shadow of the posts. Itoje, having been named Lions captain on Thursday, then capped a fine week with a score of his own. Following another catch and drive deep in the Falcons half, the second row drove over as the visitors' defence fragmented under the pressure. With the clock in the red at the end of the first period, the Falcons restored some semblance of pride, as Lockwood drove over from short range following a series of Saracens infringements. Things did not get any easier for the Falcons early in the second half with Gonzalez adding to his earlier effort, scything through the Falcons line and past the despairing Stuart. The Argentine then gained a third, the ball spilling invitingly out the back of a Falcons ruck allowing the back rower to stride through untouched. Not to be outdone, Stuart then bagged a second for the Falcons, darting off the back of a five-metre scrum as Saracens defenders proved slow to react to the threat. Even with such a commanding lead, Saracens' intensity never let up and resulted in a further four tries. George fought his way over following another short-range driving maul before Ben Stevenson secured a try bonus point for the Falcons after Brett Connon's break in the midfield. Bracken then claimed Saracens' ninth score of the afternoon from close range before Earl and Willis forced their way over late on as Newcastle wilted in the sunshine. The win moves Sarries up to fifth, level on 49 points with Sale Sharks who sit in fourth. Saracens: Goode, Elliott, Daly, Tompkins, Segun; Burke, Van Zyl; Mawi, Dan, Clarey, Itoje, Isiekwe, McFarland, Gonzalez, Earl. Replacements: George, Crean, Beaton, Willis, Onyeama-Christie, Bracken, Johnson, Hall. Newcastle: Obatoyinbo, Hearle, Clark, Arnold, Stevenson; Connon, Stuart; Brocklebank, Blamire, McCallum, De Chaves, Hawkins, Lockwood, Neild, Chick. Replacements: Fletcher, Rewcastle, De Bruin, Usher, Gordon, Davis, Pepper, Spencer. Referee: Jack Makepeace.
